Simple Turmeric Rice

Easy Turmeric Rice

This is a very simple recipe for "Yellow Rice" or "Turmeric Rice" that goes well with seafood and poultry. Most recipes will require mincing garlic and finely chopped onions, measuring out herbs and spices...I just didn't have time for mincing, chopping and sauteing. I just made a very simple rice with ground turmeric and it worked out very well. Of course, adding garlic and onion will improve the flavor, but this will be my go to recipe for turmeric rice on a rush.

3 cups medium-grain brown rice, washed well and drain (1:3.8 pounds)
One 14.5-oz. can Swanson brand 33% less-sodium chicken broth AND add water to the chicken broth to measure 4-1/2 cups (36 ounces chicken broth/water combined)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter (1.0 ounce)
1 bay leaf

In a medium-size (3-quart) pot, add all ingredients to the pot. Bring to a full boil. Give a good stir, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low heat and cook for 45 minutes. When done, remove from heat and let sit for about 10 minutes. Fluff rice, remove bay leaf and rice is ready to serve. If desired, garnish with minced Italian parsley or finely sliced chives and/or toasted pine nuts or pistachios.

Yield 6 to 8 servings

Sweet Brown Rice with Adzuki Beans

Sweet Brown Rice with Adzuki Beans

Sweet Brown Rice, also known as brown glutinous rice or brown sweet rice is a short grain rice that is very sticky when cooked because of its high glutinous content. This rice is popular among Asians in savory and dessert dishes. Sweet brown rice can be purchased from Whole Foods Market or from a health food store.

Here I have cooked up my own version of a Japanese sweet rice with adzuki beans. Dried adzuki beans (also labeled as azuki beans or aduki beans) are best purchased from an Asian food market where it is reasonably priced. Adzuki beans are low in calories and high in soluble fiber. These beans are a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc and also rich in B vitamins. According to Dr. Oz, red beans contains the highest antioxidant of all foods. Traditionally, this dish is cooked with regular sweet rice. The recipe have been modified to be cooked with sweet brown rice. This is a very simple rice dish that is very nutritious and delicious. I can eat this all on its own. You can enjoy this dish as a side dish or eaten all on its own.

1/2 cup dried adzuki beans (3.5 ounces)

4 cups water (32 ounces)

One 3-inch by 2-inch size piece of kombu (0.1 ounce) (Optional)

2 cups sweet brown rice, washed and drained (13.4 ounces)

Cooking liquid from the drained adzuki beans and additional water to measure 3 cups

1/2 teaspoon salt

Wash beans well and place in a small pot. Add the 4 cups water and place the kombu, if using, in the pot. Bring beans to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, for about 1 hour, 15 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes. I forgot how long I acutally cooked the beans so I recommend checking at 1 hour, 15 minutes and taste one. If the bean is still too firm, let it cook longer. You don't want the beans too soft either. Make sure you cook it on medium-low heat where there is very little bubbling activity in the pot (about 1 or 2 bubbling action at a time). If you cook the beans at too high of a temperature, the beans will not stay whole and the outer skins will burst open.

When the beans have cooked, drained the beans, RESERVING  the cooking liquid. Plunge the beans in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain the beans and set aside. With the reserved cooking liquid, add enough cold water to measure 3 cups of liquid. Set aside.

Place rice in a medium-size pot and add the 3 cups reserved cooking liquid/water and salt. Bring rice to a boil. Give the rice a good stir, cover pot and reduce the temperature between medium-low heat and low heat. Let the rice cook for 45 minutes, undisturbed.

When rice is cooked, gently fluff the rice using chopsticks or a fork. Rice may be a bit wet, but that's okay. Add the reserved cooked adzuki beans and gently stir the beans and rice until combined. Cover pot with the lid and let sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Now the rice is ready to serve. Place rice in a seving bowl. Sprinkle the top with some roasted black and/or white sesame seeds and tear up some roasted seaweeds. So delicious!!!

Yield 2 to 4 servings

Soybean Sprout Bibimbap

Soybean Sprout Bibimbap with Multi-Grain Rice and Ground Turkey

Adapted from Maanghi.com

Soybean Sprout Bibimbap is a Korean rice dish cooked with meat and soybean sprouts. It is served with an egg cooked over-easy. To eat, you will break up the egg into the rice; then mix the rice mixture and the egg together with a few spoonfuls of homemade seasoned sauce (yangnyeomjang).

This dish is so amazingly delicious and healthy! The soy beans from the soybean sprouts has a nice delicate crunch and the seasoned sauce mixed together with the rice is so flavorful and addicting. You may have extra seasoned sauce when all the rice is eaten up, but there are other uses for the seasoned sauce. I actually use the remaining sauce with Baked Tofu and I'm sure the seasoned sauce will also be delicious eaten with fish, soba noodles, steamed vegetables, etc. It is amazingly delicious!!

I modified Maangchi's recipe to be cooked with multi-grain rice and replaced the ground beef for ground lean turkey. Since we love this dish so much, I doubled the recipe so we can enjoy this rice for a few more dinners.

1-1/2 cups medium-grain brown rice (9.9 ounces), washed and drained

1/2 cup Thai red cargo rice (3.2 ounces) or black medium-grain rice (3.5 ounces), washed and drained
3 cups cold water (24 ounces or 1:8.0 pounds)

Two pounds soybean sprouts
12 ounces lean ground turkey or ground chicken
1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos or low-sodium soy sauce (0.4 ounce)
1 tablespoon sesame oil (0.3 ounce)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup Bragg Liquid Aminos or low-sodium soy sauce (4.5 ounces)
4 garlic cloves, minced (0.6 to 0.8 ounce)
2 stalks green onions, thinly sliced (1.0 ounce)
3 tablespoons finely chopped yellow onion (1.0 ounce)
1 small jalapeno or serrano chili pepper, thinly sliced or coarsely chopped (optional)
4 teaspoons Korean coarse hot pepper flakes (0.3 ounce)
1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey (0.5 ounce)
2 tablespoon sesame oil (0.6 ounce)
2 tablespoons roasted white sesame seeds (0.4 ounce)

6 eggs (any size)

In a 6-quart stock pot, combine the brown rice, red rice and water. (Note: You can use entirely 2 cups of brown rice (13.2 ounces) if you do not have red or black rice.) Set aside to let rice soak for about 1 hour.

While rice is soaking, remove root ends of each soybean sprout and discard any discolored rotten sprouts or remove discolored rotten soybeans, but save the healthy sprouts (do this while watching your favorite television program). Wash well in several changes of water. Transfer to a large colander and set aside.

Season the ground turkey with 1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos, 1 tablespoon sesame oil and ground black pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Bring the pot of rice to a boil on high heat (do not need to change water). When rice comes to a full boil, give rice a stir and cover pot. Reduce heat to low heat. Let rice cook undisturbed for 15 minutes.

While rice is cooking, make the seasoned sauce (yangnyeomjang): Combine 1/2 cup Bragg Liquid Aminos, garlic, green onion, yellow onion, jalapeno chili pepper (optional), Korean hot pepper flakes, agave nectar, 2 tablespoons sesame oil and sesame seeds in a small bowl. Stir well to combine. Set aside.

After the rice have been cooking for 15 minutes, increase heat to medium-low heat. Add the entire soybean sprouts on top of the rice. Spread the ground turkey mixture on top of the soybean sprouts. Immediately cover pot and continue to cook on medium-low heat for additional 25 minutes, undisturbed. After 25 minutes of cooking, remove the pot of rice from the heat. Transfer the ground turkey patty to a plate. Cover the pot of rice and let the rice rest off the heat. Break up the turkey patty to smaller bite-size pieces. Return turkey pieces back to the pot of rice and give the rice mixture a good toss to evenly incorporate the soybean sprouts, ground turkey and the rice.

NOTE: You can stop at this point if you decide to make this rice early in the day or even one day in advance. The rice mixture and seasoned sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container. When ready to eat, just reheat the rice in the microwave and poach-fry your egg.

When ready to eat, either you can fry your egg over-easy the traditional way or you can follow my instructions for Poach-Fried Eggs.

For each serving, scoop one-sixth portion of the rice mixture into a shallow bowl. Place a poached-fried egg on top. Pass the seasoned sauce to be served with the rice. To eat, break up the egg into the rice. Add 2 to 3 spoonfuls of the seasoned sauce over the rice mixture, mixed everything together and it is ready to eat. You can also tear up a few sheets of Korean roasted seaweed on top of the rice and/or sprinkle with some roasted black sesame seeds. Even more delicious!

Yield 6 servings

Soybean Sprout Bibimbap served in a shallow bowl with a
Poach-Fried Egg on top.

Before you eat, break up the egg into the rice mixture.

Add 2 to 3 spoonfuls of the homemade seasoned sauce (yangnyeomjang) to the rice mixture.

 Thoroughly mix everything together.

(The rice is hot - notice the steam on the lower left of the photo.)

Now it is ready to eat!
You can also tear up several sheets of Korean roasted seaweed and place it on top of the rice mixture. The roasted seaweed adds another depth of flavor to the bibimbap.

Grilled Chicken Breast

Grilled Chicken Breast and
Brown Rice

I purchased a package of Safeway Eating Right brand all natural boneless skinless chicken breasts with rib meat ($1.99/pound on sale which ended yesterday). This package weighed a little over 3 pounds and there were 5 chicken breasts and 2 tenderloin pieces in the package. With each chicken breast, I horizontally split them in half as if I were to butterfly the breast, except I split them completely (each breast now becomes 2 pieces). I did it this way so I can choose to eat only half of a breast for dinner. With the 2 tenderloin pieces, I left them the way it was. After removing some visible fat (which was hardly any), I had a little under 3 pounds of chicken meat (2:15.6 pounds to be exact). I marinated the chicken meat with my Homemade Adobo Seasoning. I mixed 4 tablespoons of the seasonings with 6 tablespoons of olive oil (since I split each breast to two pieces, I now have more meat to distribute the seasonings). I place the marinated meat into a Ziploc bag and place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Of course, you can marinate the chicken meat with any type of seasonings of your choice. The next night, we grilled the chicken on our gas grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side on medium-high heat. Some pieces were thinner than others, so the thinner pieces were cooked for a total of 5 minutes and the thicker pieces were cooked for a total of 6 minutes. The two tenderloin pieces were cooked for a total of 5 minutes. I served the grilled chicken with a multi-grain rice blend (recipe posted below) cooked together and Steamed Spinach.


Brown Rice

2 cups medium-grain brown rice (13.2 ounces)
3 cups water (24 ounces or 1:8.0 pounds)

Wash rice and drain well. Place brown rice into a 2-1/2- to 3-quart saucepan which comes with a lid. Add the water. Bring rice to a boil on high heat. When the water reaches boiling point, turn heat down to the temperature between medium-low and low heat. Give a quick stir and cover with the lid. Continue to cook, covered and undisturbed, for 45 minutes. Can check rice occasionally by lifting cover to give a quick peep, but do not stir. When rice is done, water will be completely absorbed. Remove from heat and let rice rest for about 10 to 15 minutes. Fluff up rice and it's ready to eat.

Leftover rice stores well in an airtight container placed in the refrigerator for about 1 week. When reheating leftover rice, scoop rice into a bowl and place a cover over the rice or you can cover with microwavable plastic wrap. Place in microwave for 2 or more minutes, depending on the amount of rice you are reheating. If rice is not reheated to the desired temperature, just place back in the microwave for more time.

Brown and Black Rice Blend (as shown in photo above): 1-1/2 cups medium-grain brown rice (9.9 ounces) and 1/2 cup black rice (3.6 ounces - aka Forbidden rice) . Cook as directed above.

Brown and Red Rice Blend: 1-1/2 cups medium-grain brown rice (9.9 ounces) and 1/2 cup Thai Red Cargo Rice (3.2 ounces). Cook as directed above.