Tuesday, December 27, 2011

50's-60's Malaysian Rice

There was something about the 50's and early 60's in Australian Kitchen - with more and more canned products becoing available, there was the hint of exotic with the immigrants arriving.  We came up with our own way of serving 'Asian Food', using products that the Asian community would not dream of using.

Today's recipe is from that era.  I was given a cook book for Christmas, and tonight I tried the first recipe from it.  The book has over 400 CWA recipes, divided into the normal sections.

I found this to be relatively quick and easy.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup of rice
  • 1 x 425g can tuna (I always use tuna in brine), drained
  • 1/2 cup margarine (could probably reduce this somewhat)
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 teaspoons curry powder
  • 2 tablespoons chutney
  • 1 x 440g can of crushed pineapple
Method :

Boil or steam rice until cooked. Drain.  Add tuna and stir to combine.

Melt the margarine in a saucepan, add the flour (I added the curry powder here too) and stir.  This will resemble glumpy breadcrumbs - stir to cook the starch, then add the milk and stir until mixture thickens.
(I use a whisk to make my roux and it always works out creamy)  Add the remaining ingredients and mix again to combine.
I did partially drain my pineapple, but did leave about half the juice.

I heated the mix in a casserole dish and baked in a moderate oven (160c) for about 20 minutes.  I could have let it go to brown a bit more, but the boys were HUNGRY !!!!

OK - so it doesnt look like much - in fact, it looks like orange gloop.

Verdict:
13yo - It was good
18yo - Pretty good (and a thumbs up) [you KNOW that 18yo's do not expend much energy on vocabulary - so two words and a gesture is prime!]
Hubby - After going back for 3rds - You can cook this again - this is really nice - I like this one.  I think it would also work using ham instead of tuna.  If you could make enough of it, it would be really nice at a party...........  should I eat that last bit, or save it for tomorrow's lunch?