Recipe: Maria's "chinese" rice

a colourful list of ingredients

There is nothing better than chatting about recipes in a spacious balcony by the sea, over pumpkin-seed breadsticks with cheese and olives... (get the picture?)

This past summer, I was at my friend Maria's balcony, reminiscing about all things and nothing.  Inevitably, the discussion came to the subject of recipes. Maria, being a bigger foodie than I am, immediately offered me (thanks dear!) this recipe which, she humbly informed me, was asked in all the potluck dinners she went - if ever there was an indicator of a success recipe, I bet this one is!

With the first chance I got, I gathered all the ingredients and prepared myself for the challenge.  Like most Asian-inspired recipes, there are a lot of ingredients which need to be ready before one actually starts the cooking.  In this case, the number is still manageable, so it didn't actually bother me to do some serious chopping: having a super-sharp knife helped as well!

...results in a colourful and extremely tasty rice dish!

Maria's "chinese" rice

(adapted every so slightly...)

100g butter

cut in approx. 0.5cm cubes:

1 red bell pepper

100g green beans

30g celery

4 rashes bacon

1 chicken breast

2 medium carrots

1 large onion

100g corn

salt/pepper/soy sauce

150g rice 

Print recipe

Have all cubed ingredients ready.  Over medium heat, boil rice in water in a 1:2 ratio, NO salt.  At the same time, again over medium heat, melt the butter in a wok.  Introduce remaining ingredients in the following order:  carrots, onion, green beans, bacon, chicken, bell pepper, celery, corn.  Leave each ingredient to cook for at least 5 minutes before adding the next.  (Half-way through the rice will be ready).  Finish by adding the cooked rice, salt/pepper to taste and soy sauce (I like it a lot, so I put about 3tbsp.  The original recipe adds a stock cube and worchester sauce, in case you prefer these).

The end result is so colourful and so incredibly tasty that I'm adding to my staples!  My adaptation is a little less than half of the original recipe, and should feed about 4 people.  Unless you're watching all episodes of Top of the Lake in one go, and you get glued on the story while "tasting" half of the finished recipe.  Big mistake...

This post is my entry into Weekend Cooking, a weekly event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. For more information, see the welcome post.