My friend Santoash gave me this recipe. It’s very simple and very tasty. It’s also a one-pot-wonder dish, and very versatile in how it can take on extra veggies that are laying about in the ‘friedge.

Ingredients:

• chili (as many as you want. this is a not a spicy dish so two or three for a cup of rice should be enough), chopped
• 1 inch of ginger (small piece), peeled and chopped
• 1 T vegetable oil (or canola)
• Onion (1 medium sized) – chopped into small pieces
• Green onions (4 or 5 stems) – chopped into one inch long pieces
• 3-4 small carrots, 1-2 big carrots (as many as you want) – cut into really thin and small
• 1/2 C green peas
• + any veggies that would like in your fried rice.
• 1/4 C cashews (I just threw in a handful)
• 6-8 T of coconut milk (little less than half a cup)
• 1.5C – 2C water
• one cup of rice
• bay leaf or several curry leaves
• 3 cloves

Directions

1. grind chili pepers + ginger in a blender (or a mixie) into a coarse mixture. [I minced it and it came out fine. If you just go with a small chop, the peppers and ginger take on a much stronger flavor.]
2. Put oil in a pan or pressure cooker (if you have one). Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add and fry the bay leaf / curry leaf and cloves – 1 min
4. Add the cashews and fry until golden – 1 min
5. put the chopped onions in the pan and fry it until it becomes transparent – 3 to 5 min
6. put the ground mixture of chili + ginger, then fry until scent dies down – 2 min
7. Put the veggies in one by one, in descending order of how long it will take to cook.
8. Add the green onions, and fry for a couple of minutes.
9. Add coconut milk with little bit of water to the mixture and add salt to it.
10. Once the coconut milk starts boiling, you can add the rice followed by one and a half cup of water (little less water than what you usually use to boil rice). Too much water makes the rice stick together instead of letting it be loose.
11. If you have pressure cooker, close the lid and wait for one whistle. If you don’t have one, you can just close the lid on the pan wait till the rice gets cooked, about 15 minutes. Watch the pot to make sure it does not over dry and rice stick to the bottom of the pan.
12. After 1 whistle, add in the peas, otherwise they get mushy
13. Add salt to taste.