Coconut Rice MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 30 minutes Coconut rice is a near-universal staple, for two reasons: In many rice-growing areas coconuts grow wild, so the combination is a natural. Even the simplest version, which follows, is incredibly delicious. A few other...
Brown Rice Pilaf with Two Mushrooms MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 1 hour, largely unattended You can substitute brown rice for white in any pilaf, simply by using parcooked brown rice as described in the sidebar on Brown Rice. But cooking the raw brown rice in oil...
Brown Rice MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 45 minutes Brown rice can substitute for white rice in a vast number of recipes, as you'll see in this chapter, so it would be a mistake to think of it as some weird health-food phenomenon. Nutritionally, of course, it's far...
Biryani MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 30 minutes One of the great pilaf-style dishes of India, almost always made with basmati rice. Indian vegetarians would use paneer (firm, fresh, homemade cheese), but tofu is much more convenient. It can also be made with no...
Vegetable Lasagne MAKES: 6 to 8 servings TIME: 1 hour, with prepared pasta sheets and sauce At its simplest lasagne is a baked layered dish of pasta, sauce, and cheese; adding some cooked vegetables, like spinach, zucchini, or mushrooms, is a no-brainer. Make your...
Tofu-Stuffed Wontons MAKES: 4 to 6 servings TIME: 30 minutes, with premade wrappers These are wonderful wontons, with crisp exteriors and soft insides. The best wrappers are super-thin, and some of the store-bought kinds may need a little more rolling. If you're...
Stir-Fried Wide Rice Noodles with Pickled Vegetables MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 30 minutes Pickled or fermented cabbage is often combined with Asian noodles but requires some forethought. So here I mimic the flavor by pickling the vegetables with a little vinegar in the...
Steamed Dumplings, Asian Style MAKES: 4 to 6 24 dumplings; 4 to 6 servings TIME: 40 minutes This is a simplified, streamlined stuffing, but you can get as elaborate as you like; there are few limits to the vegetables you can use in dumplings. The only secret is to...
Spinach-Ricotta Ravioli MAKES: 30 to 60 ravioli TIME: About 1 hour, with prepared pasta sheets A standby stuffed pasta; this stuffing is great in cannelloni too (see the variation). Serve it with Fast Tomato Sauce, Traditional Pesto, or the sauce from Fettuccine...
Spaetzle MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 30 minutes Hailing from Alsace, spaetzle is a cross between a dumpling and pasta; it's made from a pancakelike batter that's dropped into boiling water and cooked. From this point it can be seasoned and served, sauted, tossed with...
Soba Noodles with Dipping Sauce MAKES: 4 to 6 servings TIME: 20 minutes Lightning-fast, cool, and refreshing, this is a standard summertime soup in Japan, where summers are plenty hot. Soba noodles, with their marked and pleasant buckwheat flavor, are available at...
Rice Cakes with Sweet Soy Sauce MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 30 minutes These sauted or stir-fried rice cakes are sweet, salty, spicy, and addicting. I love them spicy with lots of Chile-Sesame Paste, Korean Style, or any other hot sauce. 1 pound rice cakes, sliced 3...