Vegetable spicy rice and fried bread

Spicy rice in the middle of six slices of fried bread

The winning recipe of the competition for Leicestershire residents, submitted by Jay from Wigston. This is a great recipe which will help to use up leftover rice from the night before!

If you’re not careful, you can get food poisoning from eating reheated rice. It’s not the reheating that causes the problem, but the way the rice has been stored before it’s reheated. The longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that harmful bacteria will grow on the rice, producing toxins which make the rice unsafe to eat (Source: WRAP). The toxins aren’t broken down by heat and cant be seen, smelled or tasted, so simply reheating will not make the rice safe to eat. Cooling cooked rice quickly is key to keeping it edible and safe.

Top Tip: Cool any leftover / surplus rice as quickly as possible (within an hour) after cooking it, and place it in an airtight container, food bag or under wrap and into the fridge. Cooling the rice down quickly reduces the chance of harmful bacteria growing on the rice.  To cool it quickly, drain the leftover rice in a colander, rinse with cold water and put into a large shallow container. Once cold, cover and keep it in the fridge for no longer than one day before reheating it thoroughly. Make sure when reheating that the rice is piping hot. Do not reheat rice more than once. To find out more about how to safely reheat rice, have a look at the Food Standard Agency’s webpage.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of leftover rice
  • 3 leftover boiled potatoes, diced
  • Half a cup of frozen peas
  • Half a cup of sweet corn
  • 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 small carrots, diced
  • 4 slices of leftover bread
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 3 teaspoons of cooking oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Red chilli powder to taste
  • 2 teaspoons of tandoori masala (or other curry paste leftover)
     

Method 

  1. Heat a pan. Put in 3 teaspoons of cooking oil add half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, let it sizzle. 
  2. Grate in a clove of garlic. In a bowl put the potatoes, a handful of peas, a half cup of sweet corn, the tomatoes and the carrots. Add in spices salt to taste, red chilli powder to taste, 2 teaspoons of tandoori masala and mix well.  
  3. Add the potato mix to the pan and cook for 5 minutes on a low heat.  
  4. Add the leftover rice. Mix and cover for 5 minutes. The vegetable spicy rice will now be done.  
  5. For the leftover bread, cut diagonals to make 4 triangles. Deep fry the bread until crispy and golden brown. 
  6. To serve, fill a bowl with vegetable spicy rice. Put a serving plate on top of the bowl and flip over so when you lift the bowl off the rice will hold the shape. Put four triangles of fried bread on the plate. 
  7. The leftover vegetable spicy rice and leftover bread is now ready to eat. Enjoy.