Thai Olive Rice

Put a group of mothers together and chances are one of their favourite talking point would be their kids' eating habits. Or the lack of them. My little one is an extremely fussy eater and has nearly driven me to tears of frustration over her refusal to try different food groups.

I would fuss and fret till I learnt what most mothers are very adept at...the art of camoulflage. I no longer sweat over stuff she does not eat, I simply disguise it like I do in this thai olive fried rice.

Thai Olive Fried Rice:

Traditionally, this rice uses pork mince (find the original recipe here), however, I have substituted the mince with grated cauliflower and cabbage. Being grated, they leave no visible trace of their presence in the rice and my otherwise fussy eater eats this without any protest!!

Ingredients:

Grated Cauliflower - 3/4 cup
Grated Cabbage - 3/4 cup
Pitted black olives - 1/4 cup, cut into small bits
Garlic, finely minced - 2 tsp
Ginger, grated - 1/2 tsp
Dark soya sauce - 2 tsp
Vegetarian oyster sauce - 1 1/2 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Sambal olek or chilli flakes, optional - 1 tsp (or to taste)
Sugar - 1 tsp
Spring onion - for garnish, optional
Oil - 1 1/2 tbsp

Rice - 3/4 cup

Method:

Cook rice with a little bit of salt. Spread it on a plate to cool; mix in a bit of oil so that the grains don't stick to each other.

Heat oil in a pan - the oil has to be really hot! Fry the ginger and garlic till fragrant. Next add the grated cabbage and cauliflower and stir fry for a minute. Add the olives (reserve some for garnishing), followed by the sauces and stir fry for a further two minutes.

Next, toss in the rice and stir till the rice is evenly coated with the stir fried mince. Check for salt, the sauces have plenty of it, chances are you won't need to add any.

Garnish with the reserved olives and spring onion and serve hot with some cucumber slices.

Notes:
Cold rice does not work for this, room temperature is what is needed when making fried rice.
Heat is the key to this rice - work quickly on a very high flame for best results.

This goes out to:
AFAM: Olives guest hosted by Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes , event started by Maheshwari,
Vaishali's It's a Vegan World: Thai guest hosted by Priya of Akshayapaatram and
Cooking for Kids: Rice, event started by Sharmi guest hosted by Trupti.


As an aside, anyone wants to guess what the following picture is all about? All about it in my next post :)