Ron's Rice with Potatos

Last night's dinner was a variation on Ron's Rice.

Recently I've taken to adding diced potatos, but the really fun part of making my rice dishes comes from these tiny beans I've found at the local Shuang Hur Supermarket.  I mean, look at these.  I added a dime to the picture for scale.

The first thing I got going was the beans, because even as small as they are (about one-third the size of adzuki beans), they took about 40 minutes to cook.  I never soak beans, because the soaking process starts some sort of chemical change that makes beans taste "green".  Soaked beans also don't cook to a uniform consistency.  I can't describe it better than that.

Before I cook the beans, I need to roast some cumin to add to the simmering water.  Beans without cumin is like (fill in the blank).

I keep around a mortar and pestel, because spices are always best, fresh roasted and ground.

Of course, you can't have rice without you know what.  I chose brown rice, because I only had a cup left and I needed to free up the container they were in.  I like to cook rice with turmeric.  Fresh turmeric is great, but I didn't have any and settled for some powder.

 

I'd bought a bag of potatos, and it had some little ones.  I like everything in the rice dish to be relatively uniform in size, so I cut them into little dice.  I do this by cutting wafers, which I then make into "match sticks" and them make the little dice from those.

I wanted the potatos to have a carmelized exterior, so I cooked them in about a quarter cup of toasted sesame oil.  I've found Kadota makes a good product.

Carrots are needed for color, if nothing else.  Carrots take to ginger.  I don't mash or grind the ginger, but I also do a tiny version of the dice thing.  I'm the same way with preparing garlic.  My rule of thumb is I wouldn't do anything to a garlic clove I wouldn't do to an onion.  I don't smash garlic before peeling it because I wouldn't smash an onion.  It's a shortcut that has poor results.

 

Garlic chives are essential for one of my rice dishes.

Just because I had some nori seaweed around the house, I added it.  Don't do that.  It didn't add anything and imparted a very dominant flavor.  It didn't ruin things, but I won't do it again.

Here's what it looks like with a few peas added.  I just thaw and warm the peas; any more cooking them is a waste.

I was really happy with the way it looked up close.   I used to live on rice, and I promised myself when I was making the big bucks I'd add some carrots and chives and beans and maybe some sunflower seeds.  The time has arrived, and that's one promise I'm happy to keep.