Cheap Healthy Food: Rice with Coconut Milk

Really, try the bare-bones recipe... (4.00 / 7)

I measured almost everything except the fish sauce and the maple syrup...and may have gone overboard on the maple syrup, b/c it tasted too sweet when still hot, but it tasted perfect when cold.

So, I dunno.  Anyway, what's "a shot" of fish sauce or maple syrup?  I was cooking, not being a chemist! ;-D

But really: as cooks, we should not be afraid to play with our food.  (And someday I'll do a diary about Spectacular Cooking FAILS...with first-hand anecdotes.)

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

---

by: Youffraita @ Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 09:02:09 AM UTC

I use cocunut milk in a lot of things. (4.00 / 8)

because my daughter is vegan. I cooked some basmati rice on Fri with coconut milk then added some curry leaves which I found cheap at a Indian grocery.  

---

by: LeeN @ Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 12:11:59 PM UTC

Sounds tasty! (4.00 / 6)

I'm an "ALWAYS" unless you count bread and/or pizza dough. Then I believe it behooves the prudent cook to measure precisely. The rest of the time, (when I'm allowed to cook,) I make it up as I go along, often to the accompaniment of cringing in the background by The Palate(tm).

The Palate(tm) is a "SOMETIMES" but for different reasons. She doesn't appear to dislike any foods, though I had to convince her that rutabaga and beets were vegetables, but she's highly inclined to "rework" a recipe (usually from Cook's Magazine,) that according to the instructions would require two days to make. She brings down the prep time to a couple of hours or less.

But with over 150 cookbooks, (she collects them,) it's always interesting, and always delicious.

Yankee Frugality: use it up, wear it out, make it last, or do without.

---

by: Anonymous Bosch @ Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 15:18:14 PM UTC

Yes, I love cookbooks too (4.00 / 6)

and often will "compare & contrast" recipes for the same dish to create my own version of it.

The Palate(tm) sounds like a great cook!

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

---

by: Youffraita @ Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 17:34:51 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, She is! (4.00 / 5)

My only reprieve from Michellinmanism is eating only her meal a day, dinner.

Rare is the dinner out that compares with her talents. We go out so someone else clears the plates and does the dishes. ;-)

Yankee Frugality: use it up, wear it out, make it last, or do without.

---

by: Anonymous Bosch @ Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 19:30:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I have a good vegetarian version (4.00 / 3)

of this dish, but I can't find the tiny vegetarian Thai cookbook it came from. Basically, you sauteed a little chopped ginger (and garlic, I think) in oil, added some ground cumin, coriander and turmeric, stirred in rinsed and drained uncooked rice, then added a mixture of water and coconut milk. Bring to boil, lower heat, cover and simmer like you would cook ordinary rice.

I used to bring this coconut rice to vegetarian potlucks, and it was a hit.

---

by: desmoinesdem @ Sun Jun 14, 2009 at 14:09:18 PM UTC