1st home-made mediterranean meal

shopping at four season organic market, not planning to buy much, but ended up bringing home a huge bag of yummilicious stuffs! i've always like pilaf, and always marvelled at how it's been cooked on cooking shows, in gianormous woks, with tonnes of seafood ingredients, so i decided to try my hand at it after finding a pack of bulgur wheat , the instructions sounded really easy - just soak in hot water for 20mins, and poof! you'll have a warm-more nutritious-than-rice staple (i mean, c'mon you don't have to cook rice or potatoes or pasta, etc, u just need to soak!!n its nutritional value far surpasses the rest, how good is that??!!)

as i was going for 3D2N to bali, i decided to cook enough for the whole village, so that the husb won't eat too much order-ins & the kiddo's  not too much outside food, and also for myself when i come back, so i cooked the pilaf in a pan (which's too small because the bulgur wheat expanded after being cooked!!)

- heat pan, sautee finely chopped onions & garlic in oil for few mins

- add in spices like cinnamon, paprika, chilli powder, basil or oregano, for few mins

- add in beans (kidney beans, chick peas, whatever beans you like, you can add in dried apricots, prunes also, i added stewed tomatoes) & coat the beans with the spices

- throw in bulgur wheat & roast on pan for few mins (supposedly to make it more fragrant)

- add in water to cover bulgur wheat at least over 1/2 inch (but you need to gauge, i think i roasted the wheat too long, i kept adding water because they took very long to be cooked & softened)

- sautee chopped onions in oil

- add in chicken pieces, till cooked, add in stewed tomatoes, various spices, red & yellow capsicum reduce heat & let simmer for 20mins (depending how big your chicken pieces are & how 'nua' you want your meat)

- add in beef brisket, salmon, prawns for 5mins before turning off the fire.

verdict, pilaf is dry but the texture is like brown rice or multigrain rice (nutritious stuffs taste drier?!), eat with the very gravyish stew, yums! - rach