Spiced Lemon Rice

From a recipe of Jill Dupleix in Winter+ Food, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 2007.

I needed rice to go with the Chinese broccoli dish so decided on making this one.

An onion was chopped and gently fried until it was soft. Now ½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds were added and the frying continued until they began popping. The onion mix was taken off the heat.

I washed 150g basmati rice and added it to the rice cooker with 300ml water. The onions now went in with a large pinch of salt, a little freshly ground black pepper, ½ cinnamon stick, 3 cardamon pods crushed, a clove, a little ground cumin, ½ teaspoon coriander and ½ teaspoon turmeric powder. A tablespoon lemon juice was added and the cooker turned on. When the rice was cooked it was fluffed up with a fork and served.

An easy to make rice and wonderfully spicy.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔ 

Panzanelle with Toasted Almonds

From a recipe by Jill Dupleix in Good Living Summer + Food, a pullout from The Sydney Morning Herald, October 2007.

Tomatoes are plentiful at the moment and tasty so ideal for salads. This salad comes from a pullout, one of which I saved from some time ago.

For the salad I cut five cherry tomatoes in half and dropped them into a bowl. I then cut two tomatoes into pieces and added them. I sliced a small Lebanese cucumber to add also. Then went in a few roasted blanched almonds, some Sicilian green olives, a little sliced red onion and a few torn basil leaves from the garden.

I sprinkled on a little salt and let it stand while I took a couple of slices of sourdough bread that I brushed with olive oil and toasted under the grill until it had crisped. I sliced this into crouton-like cubes. These were thrown into the salad and a simple dressing made from red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper poured over and gently tossed through.

It’s pleasing to have a salad that doesn’t always depend upon greens as a main ingredient. This had only the slightest amount from the torn basil. It was light and refreshing and so good on a hot day.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔