My husband has been out of station for two weeks now and cooking for me has now become just a matter of survival! No ostentatious preparations, no grandiose about it.....And trust me the biggest challenge for me now a days is to keep recycling and reusing...huh....All dried wilted vegetables are a very tiresome sight! However, this Stir Fried Mushroom Fried Rice was a saviour of sorts in reviving my interest in cooking....and reviving the belief of ending up with something palatable with reused food :).....
Ingredients
The first and very readily available left over is cooked rice from the previous night...or may I say it may be a longer period :) About a cup and a half
Frozen mutter....oh you can use these beautiful sweet green pearls as much as you wish....but I believe in being moderately rich...so around half a cup
Mushrooms! How can they be forgotten...no the thing with these are....! they may be of any variety..but the most readily available and often looked down upon and neglected ones are the dear old Button Mushrooms, however any exotic variety is welcome, provided their stems and flesh are easy to cook. A cup of them sliced length wise, however randomly chopped is also OK. One thing to remember is to dip the mushrooms in water and clean them just a minute or two before you put them to cook.
And now comes the turn of various options that you may or may not use : Carrots / Beet root /French Beans / Spring onions
Now about the spices...hmm....now here believe me you can experiment with as many culinary fancies as you may have:
Salt according to taste...you cant actually play with it much
Oil / Butter / Ghee....amount may vary drastically as per your health concerns, but should be enough so that the rice does not stick to the pan, and the peas and mushrooms do not get charred....
1 to 2 cloves of Garlic ...I will rather put it as a must! However you may omit if you don't like garlic
Pepper powder according to taste / Mirchi powder
1 tea spoon (tsp) each :Jeera Powder / Dhaniya Powder (for an Indian Touch),
1/2 tsp each Dried Thyme / Oragano (for an Italian touch),
Just a few drops of Soya sauce and chilli sauce for Chinese touch :)
So here you can play with the options!
Grated cheese...cheddar (Kind of inevitable for this recipe :)) Still omissible for health concerns
Corriander / Parsley / Chives for Garnish
You can play around with the ideas...My version had the usual jeera / dhaniya powder, topped with a tsp of garam masala powder
Cook It
Heat oil in pan. Add the crushed / chopped garlic. Add the mushrooms. Add a pinch of salt at this stage. If you are using other vegetables as mentioned above, they too have to be added along the mushrooms. As the mushrooms start oozing out water, and become slightly brown, add the rice. Nicely toss the rice. Add salt again. Now add the peas. If you add peas directly in the oil, they become dry, so for the peas not to loose colour, add them in the rice. Now one by one add in the spices. Whichever variety you want to make. However, make sure you toss the rice and vegetables well with the spices.So that the raw smell of spices do not stay. Toss properly at least for 5-6 mins.If rice is too dry, as well as to properly cook the vegetables just a splash of 2-3 table spoons (tbsp) of water will do the wonders. Toss till the water dries up. And now finish with drizzling the grated cheese . And garnish with corriander / parsley / chives.
Done! Enjoy it as such! Or with some accompaniment of a curry or something! You will surely feel good to see the inventory in the fridge moving :)!
