Indonesian Rice

Chris and I recently found this recipe when we were looking for something that is just different. I love the colors in this dish. The original recipe does not include meat. We added meat so that we could have it as a main dish instead of a side dish. 

Indonesian Rice

Ingredients

1 tbsp. butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 tsp. curry powder

1 cup rice

2 cups chicken broth + 1 cup water

1/4 cup honey

Salted peanuts

Currants

Minced scallions

Cut up pork or chicken pieces (optional)

Instructions

Melt butter in a large skillet. Add the onion and curry powder. Cook and stir until onion is softened. Add the rice, stir for 5 minutes and add the chicken broth and honey. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Sprinkle with peanuts, currants and chopped scallions. Makes 6 servings.

Chris’ Coconut, Butter Chicken Curry

Chris’ Coconut, Butter Chicken Curry

This is a combination of two different curry recipes that I have modified and tweaked repeatedly until I have a dish that is so good all I want to do is eat it all day.  Happily, I do have more self control than that!   In some cases there may be better ingredients (like pureed tomatoes instead of canned ones that you puree yourself), but in Korea you learn to make do with what you can find.  It should take about 40-60 minutes to cook.

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken, cut into small pieces

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp curry powder

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1-2 large sweet potatoes, diced into small pieces (1/2” or smaller)

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger root (I chop the whole thing up and freeze what I don’t use)

4 small hot peppers, sliced into small pieces (optional) (I use the Korean Kkwari gochu which are very hot)

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp curry powder

Pepper (to taste)

1 tsp salt (or more/less to taste)

2 tbsp butter

14.5 oz canned tomatoes (pureed in a blender)

½ can tomato paste (8 oz I think)

1 large can pineapple

2 14oz cans coconut milk

1 cup cream

In a medium bowl, place chicken pieces, lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil and 2 tsp curry powder.  Mix well and let marinate.

In a heavy skillet or wok, cook onion, garlic, sweet potatoes and ginger in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter until fragrant, about 4 minutes.  Add curry powder, pepper, salt, tomato puree, tomato paste, butter, and pineapple with juice and simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in marinated chicken and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 11-15 minutes until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Stir in the coconut milk and cream.  Cook on low heat until well heated, but do not bring to a boil.  Serve over hot cooked rice.

Skillet Beef Oriental

This is one of our favorite recepies. Chris' mom use to make if for him when he was a child. We enjoyed making it in college because it was quick, cheap and easy to clean up. One day I asked my mother-in-law why this recipie was called Beef Oriental when there was nothing oriental about it. She said that it was not the original recipe, she modified it to save money. I tried the original recipe. We liked it but still think the simple recipe is better. I will post both.


Simple Beef Oriental


1 lb ground beef
2 envelopes/cans of cream of mushroom soup
2 envelopes/cans of Milk
3 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cups of cooked rice*


*I often would forget to make the rice until the beef oriental was finished. To solve the problem I printed out the recipie and wrote "MAKE THE RICE FIRST" in large letters at the top of the page. It worked.


Cook ground beef, celery, and onion until done. Drain. Pour the soup envelopes over the meat mixture. Add milk to each envelope and then pour it over the soup. This is an easy way to measure with out using an extra dish and it gets all of the soup mix out of the envelope. Mix and simmer for 15 minutes.


Turn off the burner. Add the rice to the mixture. Stir and serve.

Skillet Fried Rice

I love fried rice. This is one of those dishes where you open up your refrigerator and pantry and see what you can throw into the pan. It is great if you have left over white rice.

2 cups of cooked white rice

2 Tbs of butter

2 eggs

The following items are optional:

1 can of corn

1 can of spam, ham, cubed chicken or bacon

Mushrooms of your choice

1/4 cup of white or green onions

Any left over vegatables you might have

Sea salt or salt

1. Heat the butter in a large skillet on medium heat
2. Add the rice and fry
3. Add all other ingreadents except the egg and cook until soft
4. Beat the eggs in a bowl
5. When all other items are cooked create a well in the middle of your skilllet and scramble the eggs.
6. When the eggs are cooked mix them with the rest of the mixture. 
7. For flavoring you can add a little soy sauce or season salt. 

You can make this for any meal or use it as a side dish