Fake rice

I came across this concept after a little bit of research and a little bit of experimenting after a lad a work mentioned something.

I love fried rice. Trouble is, at approx 600 kcal per portion, it is not doing anything for the massive surplus of belly is have to lug around everywhere.

So here's what I did.

First I grated about a quarter of a cauliflower. I mixed in a small amount of turmeric exactly as I would with normal real rice.

I took a tiny bit of butter, literally less than a teaspoon of it on the end of my finger, and smeared it onto the cold wok, smearing it thinly all over the inside.

I heated the wok until the butter just started to smoke, then in went the grated cauliflower. As I'd do with real rice (except real rice would be steamed first), I kept it moving until it stopped clumping together. This took maybe 3 or 4 minutes. Then served.

It was delicious, and quite a lot like fried rice. Normally I'd add lots of things to the rice, but for this experiment I wanted to keep things as simple as possible, so as to not disguise the flavour and texture too much, so I could get a more accurate assessment.

All in all, about 500 or 600 kcal replaced with 30 or so kcal.

Tonight's tea is going to be veg curry served with fake fried rice. It will be interesting to see how it fares when rolled out to my pernickety family.

 

I didn't know people actually "liked" rice, I thought they just ate it because it was there.

 

I love rice boiled or fried , I love colly also . In the last few years it has gone out of fashion and was being planted less and less. It now has become a little more trendy , with cauliflower mash and one I have not tried shown on the cookery progs - cauliflower steak , looks good

 

If the Devil's vegetable is Cucumber then his Graminacea is Rice

 

This is fascinating stuff! Over here in the land that shall hath no name (spit if you like), the price of cauliflower is regarded as being a far more reliable gauge of the cost of living/exchange rate/state of the economy than official statistics. At least it is amongst the ex-pat community
The price varies from 'free' (apart from the seeds, feed, weedkiller, caterpillar killer etc etc) when growing your own, to 99p in Lidl, to €3+ in all the other supermarkets. And you get a free slug with every purchase . Will try the grated cauli option tomorrow! Sounds good....

 

It depends what kind of rice, and how it's prepared. Rice it's self doesn't really taste of very much. It's just to bulk things up. Or to use as a base.

When I was a kid, it was pretty bland simply because nobody seemed to have a clue what to do with it. So they boiled it to death, then plastered the white cement onto the side of the plate to accompany an equally diabolical attempt at curry.

Many Chinese takeaways also murdered it, but going to the other extreme. They'd fry it in so much fat and salt that in effect, you were eating salted fat with a few leftovers in it.

It was my mate who is Taiwanese and a chef that taught me the basics of rice preparation. Armed with the basic principles, I've gone on to experiment a bit, and now in our house rice dishes are a meal in their own right, not a side.

 

@Zigs , Most of us will have to look that one up !

 

Here you go Harold

graminacea - Wiktionary

 

And it's good to know I have a lot of it !

 

Nobody's mentioned lovely Rice Pudding, especially with nutmeg and a blob of raspberry jam

 

I love rice. well, how I make it anyway. Just ran across a nice wild rice from Wisconsin, really good. Just made some Risotto last night, yummy.