Eating Bangkok - Thai Red Curried Rice!

Last week was another hard-hitting week at work with continuous meetings and intense discussions for our project planning. By the time my week was over, I felt like taking rest for two more weeks! But as this week progressed, I started gaining my vigor again in a couple of days, and I'm feeling energetic right now! I think I know why. Our camping trip is coming up this weekend! Camping is our all-time summer favorite. We have been doing this for several years now, and everytime I love it. I often ask myself why do I love camping? Is it because I can sleep under the stars? Or is it the party at the campground with friends? Or may be its the food? I still exactly don't know what makes me enjoy camping so much. My camping trip starts from the day I start planning for the trip - what to carry, what to cook, where to hike etc. Last weekend, we got together with our friends and decided on everything, and today I started my shopping and packing too. Hope to have a great time this year too. I already shared my last year's camping experience here, and hopefully I'll have something to share this time too!

Alright, about the recipe.. One of my food resolutions is to learn how to cook Thai food! As much as I love Indian food, I love Thai food as well. I got hooked up to Thai food only in the last few years. As predicted, I've never tasted Thai cuisine until I came to the US. But after coming here, as part of our regular culinary explorations, I happened to try Thai cuisine and started loving it right away. That familiar flavor of coconut milk and the vibrant peanuts flavor often relate to my home made Indian food and make me dribble :) When I started this blog last year, I even had a small poll going on in my blog asking everyone to vote for their favorite cuisine next to Indian. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that majority of the vote was for Thai cuisine! That was so exhilarating!

Whenever I go to Thai restaurants I invariably order either the red or yellow chicken curry and the Thai style fried rice. But recently I've started indulging into the taste of Thai Yellow/Red Curried rice. This is an all-in-one dish thats loaded with flavors and offers an incredibly good curried taste, plus a healthy mix of vegetables! The first time I made this dish, I made it for lunch for myself. It was a rainy day and I felt like making something light yet flavorful. I already had a can of Thai red curry paste in my pantry that I usually use to make Thai curries, and wanted to try the Thai curried rice for myself. This recipe is just my own way of making it after guessing on the ingredients mentally everytime I enjoy it at restaurant :) But I was so pleased with the end-result that it ended up being one of the staple rice dishes that we often enjoy at home.

This rice dish goes to Nag's Ravishing Rice event, started by Meeta.

Ingredients:

• Uncooked Basmati rice - 1 cup
• Thai Red curry paste - 2 tbsp
• Onions - 1 small (sliced)
• Baby corns - 6 to 8
• Red Bell Pepper - 1 small
• Cabbage - 1/2 cup (chopped to 1 inch long strips)
• Carrots - sliced round - 10 pieces
• Fresh Basil leaves - 5
• Low fat coconut milk - 1 can

Procedure:

• Chop the vegetables as mentioned above.
• Heat oil (preferably olive oil) in a pan, and add the sliced onions. Fry for a min or two.
• Add the vegetables and stir fry for a few mins. Then add the basil leaves, saute for a min.
• Then add the Red curry paste and fry in medium heat until you feel a nice aroma (this may take about 5 mins).
• Add this mixture to the uncooked rice along with salt and 2 cups of low fat coconut milk and cook in an electric rice cooker together. You may also use pressure cooker, but make sure the rice doesn't get overcooked.

Goes well with any curry, but we enjoy the rice just as it is.