Fried Rice with Ginger Garlic Sauce

This fried rice is so tasty, I cannot believe I never tried it before. Sigh.

When I went veggie shopping this weekend, I was extremely disappointed to see that my regular vegetable vendor has closed shop. Nothing excites me as fresh veggies, and he kept really fresh veggies. I’m still in denial. I’m sure it was a one off thing, may be a birthday or something (I’m sooo hoping it’s a onetime thing). So grudgingly I had to find a few new places to shop. To brighten my day, I picked some all colored peppers aka red, yellow and green capsicum. I even picked up zucchini and broccoli in the first shop. The next shop had more of my weekly local vegetables. I picked up some French beans and carrots. I add French beans and carrots to so many dishes – dalia, uppit, sambar, mix veg sabzi etc.

Ok, so I bought all these vegetables, but I just realized today, that I’m out of town the whole of next week and hubby dearest is not going to bother about my precious exotic vegetables lying in the fridge and by the time I come back they will be all shriveled. I had to cook them today, when they are still fresh and smiling

And I did have some wonderful fragrant Basmati rice with me. So I decided to make fried rice. Only this time, I’ve added a twist. This is my own recipe and I simply love it. Henceforth, this is how I will always make fried rice.

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So grab your sharpest knife and get to work. It’s quite a bit of chopping, I accept. I julienned the peppers, French beans and carrots. I broke the broccoli into small florets. I cut the zucchini into thin semicircle slices

The recipe below makes yummy fried rice for 2.

Fried Rice with Ginger Garlic Sauce

Vegetable Fried Rice tossed with a ginger garlic sauce

Recipe Type:  Main Course
Cuisine:          Indian Chinese
Prep Time:     30 minutes
Cook time:     60 minutes
Yield:              2 Servings

Ingredients:

½ each Red, yellow, green Capsicum / Pepper
½ Zucchini
10-12 small florets Broccoli
1 Carrot
10-12 French beans
1 Onion
8-10 cloves Garlic (Garlic cloves in India are very small, 3 of them may make 1 garlic clove abroad)
1.5” piece Ginger
1-2 Green Chillies
1 cup Basmati rice
4 tsp Soy sauce
2 tsp Sesame oil/ Olive oil
2 tsp Rice vinegar or any white vinegar
½ tsp Sugar
1 Maggi magic cube or ½ tsp Ajinomoto (Optional)
6 tsp Oil
Salt
Water

Method:

• Wash thoroughly and soak the rice for half hour. Drain the water and cook it with 1.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles or until done. Alternatively, follow the instructions for cooking the rice mentioned on the packet.
• Once the rice is cooked, fluff it and keep aside.
• In a blender/ mixer, grind together the garlic, ginger, green chillies, soy sauce, olive/sesame oil, vinegar, magic cube and sugar. It doesn't have to be a fine sauce, it can be coarse.
• Julienne the capsicums, French beans and carrots. Slice the zucchini into semicircles. Break/cut the broccoli into small florets and slice the onion.
• We will cook each of these vegetables separately as they have different cooking times.
• Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok/kadhai. Add the French beans and carrot and fry until they are cooked but still crunchy.
• Remove them and keep aside.
• Add 1 tsp of oil into the kadhai and now add the peppers. Saute them until they are partially cooked, we want them crunchy.
• Remove them and keep along with the beans.
• Add 1 tsp of oil and now add the broccoli and zucchini and cook until they are done.
• Remove and keep with other veggies.
• Heat the remaining oil in the kadhai and add the onions. Once the onions are cooked, add all the other vegetables and the sauce.
• Add the rice and mix well.
• Add salt if required.