Dinner last night

[sam_t]

Plain white rice with garlic hoisin greens.

I used basmati because I only tend to keep two sorts of rice around - basmati and arborio. Any more sorts and they start falling out of the cupboard onto me. Half a mugful of rice, soaked for about ten minutes while I changed out of my cycling clothes, then rinsed, swished and drained three times. One mugful of boiling water over the rice on a highish heat. Stirred once when it came to the boil, let bubble until the steam had made chimneys in the rice and the sound of the water on the bottom of the pan had just changed - you can tell when the water's just about gone because it stops bubbling and starts sounding like it's almost frying. At that point, I swooped in: the lid clanged on and the saucepan went on the lowest possible heat for five minutes. Then I turned it off and got back to the greens.

One small head of spring greens, washed in a bowl of cold water and torn to pieces. Large bits of stalk and any yellowing leaf edges to the compost bin and the rest swished round. I took the darker shreds first, a handful or so with the water still dripping from them, and stirred them round in a non-stick frying pan (I couldn't be bothered to get the wok out of the back of the cupboard) on a medium heat. When they started to wilt, I added another handful; when they started to stick I added a drop of water. When they were all just about soft and the water had gone, I put them into a bowl to wait. Garlic next: two fat cloves, green centres removed, sliced finely and fried in a tablespoon or so of sunflower oil until just beginning to colour. I stirred the spring greens into the garlic oil, moving the pieces of garlic up over the leaves so they didn't colour too much more. Finally, a teaspoon of hoisin sauce (I'd rather have had oyster sauce but I haven't got any) and a tablespoon of water, allowed to bubble while I put the rice into my bowl, then spooned out over the rice.

Extremely simple, delicious, and exactly what I wanted. Recorded because for once I managed to cook all of the components for the perfect amount of time.

Comments

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I've cooked spring greens, but I've cooked pak choi and chard and various similar things. Out of curiosity, why did you do them that way instead of bunging them straight into the oil? And what heat did you use for frying the garlic in the oil? I sometimes find it tricky with stir-fries not to burn the garlic when the heat is high enough for stir-frying.

You sound like you boil your rice for longer than I do. The method I use is to put the rice in a sieve and run it under the tap for a bit, then put it in the pan with boiling water and bring to the boil. Once it's been bubbling for a minute or two, I give it a stir and put it on a low heat covered, until it's cooked. I don't bother to pre-soak the rice unless it's brown rice, where that does make a good difference, although you need to soak it for quite a while. The proportions I generally use are just over 1 1/2 the volume of rice, say 300ml rice to 500 ml water. I used to use 1 1/2 exactly, but I now have pans with steam vents in the lids, so they need a little more water to compensate. The two rices I always keep in are basmati and Thai. Thai rice, as well as being a nice rice that's useful for all far Eastern cooking, has the virtue of reheating really well. Do you cook a lot of risotti?

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I steamed the greens because I was using a small nonstick frying pan rather than a wok, and that was the easiest way to get them cooked evenly without burning - it's harder to stir them in oil in a small space. I think you'd need a bit of water anyway, as they'd take longer than pak choi or chard. Likewise it's also easier to get the garlic to cook to the right colour (medium heat) as you can see it and make sure it hasn't got stuck on the bottom. I don't have too much of a problem with garlic burning when I cook stir-fries properly in the wok - if I've got a good surface and I keep the food moving well, it generally works out. I think (based on sharing a kitchen with a bunch of international students a few times) that a lot of stir-fried recipes need/tolerate more colour to the garlic than, say, Italian recipes in any case.

The rice doesn't take that long - less than 10 minutes on a high heat and five on a low heat, by which time it's steaming rather than boiling. I'm not claiming it's better than any other method, just that it seems to work for me. I don't cook risotto that often but sometimes it's just what I fancy, and I like having some rice around in case.