Burnt Garlic Schezwan Rice

Why do I like this dish? Because it has two of my favourite ingredients in it, garlic and schezwan sauce. I simply love the aroma of fried garlic. I prefer putting garlic in most of my food. And that too loads of them. I might not use that much dinger or onion but I sure go through kilos of garlic every month. And when you are making this dish you have to roast the garlic to almost browning poit. You can imagine the incredible smell it gives off while frying.

I have used homemade schezwan sauce. It is pretty simple to make and you can decide on the level of spiciness. However market bought sauce works as well.

Ingredients

For the rice

1 ½ cups long grained basmati rice

6 cups water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ghee

Wash the rice well and soak in water for half an hour. Heat the water along with salt and ghee. Once the water comes to a boil then add the basmati rice. Cook till the rice is almost done. Drain and sprinkle cold water on the rice to stop the cooking process. Keep aside.

Homemade Schezwan sauce

I have basically used Tarla Dalal's recipe. However I did not have certain ingredients listed there and so I have improvised using things in my pantry.

Make a paste of

10 dry red chillies

5 garlic pods

Other ingredients

3 garlic pods, chopped fine

1 “ ginger, chopped fine

I onion, chopped fine

2 red chillies, chopped fine

1 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

½ tsp pepper powder

1 tsp vinegar

Salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp ajinomoto

1 tbsp cornflour+1/4 cup water

Boil the red chillies and garlic together for 10 minutes. Cool and blend into a thick paste.

Heat some oil. Saute the ginger, garlic and green chillies till soft and mushy. Now add the red chili paste, Kashmiri red chilli powder, pepper powder, vinegar, salt, sugar and ajinomoto. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. Add cornflour and water paste to thicken the sauce. Cook till sauce reaches the desired consistency.

For the Schezwan rice

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped French beans

1 cup chopped baby corns

½ cup peas, blanched

10 garlic pods, chopped

1 tsp vinegar

3 tbsp schezwan sauce

Salt to taste

½ tsp pepper powder

¼ cup oil

Heat the oil in a large pan. Lower the flame and add the chopped garlic. Fry on low heat till the garlic starts browning. Remove and keep aside. Now in the same oil add all the chopped vegetables. Add a sprinkling of salt, cover and cook for 5 minutes. The vegetables should remain crunchy. Add the browned garlic and mix. Add the scehzwan sauce and mix well. Now add the boiled rice, vinegar, pepper powder  and salt to taste. Mix well and keep on flame for a few minutes. You can garnish with chopped spring onions.