1. A wok

2. Very little oil, that has been heated to very high temperature.

However, if you don’t cook Chinese food too often at home, you can use a big kadhai or pan for cooking. The cooking vessel has to be very hot when you throw in the vegetables/noodles/rice and it should be big enough to allow you to toss them easily. A small pan may cause you to spill the ingredients or over cook them. The veggies should retain some crunchiness and the rice/noodles should be separate, not clumped together.

Makes: 6 cups

Serves: 3

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• ¾ cup uncooked rice
• 150g silken tofu or 6 eggs [can skip]
• 1 large onion, chopped finely
• ½ cup carrots, julienned
• ½ cup French beans, julienned
• ½ cup cabbage, julienned
• ½ cup fresh corn [from cob] or sweet corn kernels
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1½ tbsp readymade red chilli sauce
• 1 tsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp vinegar
• Salt as per taste
• 1½ tbsp oil

Preparation method

1. Cook the rice in boiling water. Cook till about 80% cooked. Drain and cool.
2. If using eggs, hard-boil them, remove the shells, slice each into half, and scoop out. The yolks are not to be used in this recipe. Chop the egg whites into tiny cubes.
3. If using tofu, cut into tiny cubes.
4. Pressure-cook the corn for 5 – 6 whistles. Drain and set aside.
5. Heat oil and sauté garlic. Add onions; sauté for 1 minute.
6. Add French beans and salt; sauté for 2 minutes.
7. Add carrots; sauté for another 2 minutes.
8. Add cabbage; sauté for 2 minutes.
9. Add corn and tofu/eggs.
10. Mix the salt, soya sauce and chilli sauce in a bowl and pour it over the rice. Mix it gently and toss the rice in the pan. Cook it for a few minutes.
11. Then turn off the flame and add the vinegar. Cover and let it stay for a few minutes before serving.

The post How to cook restaurant-like Chinese fried rice appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

That’s right, though they are sold alongside vegetables; mushrooms are actually the edible fruits of fungi.  Mushrooms have been hugely popular in cuisines around the world since ancient times. Hence, with its buzzing stir, they are a recent addition in the Indian cuisine as well. With it gaining popularity among the Indian masses, mushroom cultivation is now seen as a lucrative option. The climate in India favours its growth, and it is a crop that can be grown all through the year since it is grown indoors.

Health quotient

Mushrooms, like all vegetables and fruits have their fair share of healthy nutrients. Although the nutrient content varies widely in the different varieties, they are mostly a good source of protein, fibre, B vitamins, potassium, and selenium and to some extent copper. Second to cod liver oil, mushrooms are the only source to contain vitamin D in edible form. They are also a gift for the health conscious as they are naturally low in calories, fat and sodium. Of late, extensive research is being conducted to validate the anti-cancer and immune-boosting properties of mushrooms. But more concrete findings are required  before elevating mushrooms to the ‘superfood’ group.

Mushrooms have manifested in multiple folklores as being poisonous. However, experts confer that mushrooms purchased from markets are mostly safe. In fact, they are safe to consume by pregnant women as well as kids. Out of the 14,000 documented varieties of mushrooms around 2,000 species of mushrooms are edible. Out of these, only the white button mushroom [the most commonly used ones], the oyster mushroom [oyster or fan shaped], the paddy straw mushroom [dark brown in colour and also known as Chinese mushroom], milky mushroom and more recently the Shiitake mushroom are grown in India. These are now hugely popular and are revered as a ‘gourmet’ food.

The cause for concern is for those who enjoy mushroom hunting. Mushroom hunting is a popular hobby in the west among mushroom lovers, wherein people go into forests to pick up wild mushrooms, typically for eating. Mistaking a poisonous mushroom for a benign one could naturally become fatal if consumed. Hence, without much knowledge of identifying mushrooms, an enthusiast must not divulge in hunting. So if you aren’t the one to forage into a forest to pick up your own mushrooms, then you aren’t likely to get poisoned from them.

Buying and storing

Mushrooms are very delicate and require extra care while buying, storing and cooking. Here are some points to keep in mind:

• When buying, choose those that are white with no or few brown spots.
• Take them out of the plastic wrapping, put them into paper bags and store in the refrigerator. Use them within a day or two of purchase.
• Before cooking, remove any visible mud and then wash them well in water. Do not soak them as they tend to absorb water.
• When cooking them with other vegetables, add them at the end as they cook very quickly.
• When adding to gravies or curries, add it when the dish is almost done. Add the sliced mushrooms, mix and switch off the stove. Cover and keep aside and the mushroom will cook in the heat of the dish.

Mushrooms are versatile, have an umami or savoury taste. They can be cooked light and delicate or robust and earthy. I tend to incorporate them into dishes like pulav, noodles, bhurjis, stir-fry and fried rice or even everyday vegetables just to make it more appealing to the kids. A certain motif of urban legend has been prevalent since ancient Egyptian times—mushrooms confer immortality or restore life. I cannot second that but I can ascertain that it is a healthy and scrumptious underestimated superfood. And for those who haven’t tried mushrooms I hail, “Try them!”

The post Go mushy over mushrooms appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.