Vegetable Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 2 cups long grain rice
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• ¼ cup sliced or chopped carrots
• 1 small bell pepper
• ¼ cup cabbage shredded
• 1 bunch of scallion or spring onions (chop green and white part seperately)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash and drain the rice. Bring water to a boil in a big pot. Add rice and cook it. Do not overcook. Drain the rice through a strainer and keep it aside to cool down completely.
2. Heat oil in a pan or wok. add 2 tablespoon of oil. Add chopped garlic. Do not burn it. Add all the vegetables except the greens of scallion. Saute and fry them for a while. Do not overcook the vegetables.
3. Add soy sauce, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Add cooked rice and mix everything properly. Add chopped green onions. Cook on a medium flame for 2 minutes.
4. Serve hot.

Note:

1. you can add 1 tablespoon of schezwan sauce to the rice for the spiciness.

Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

• 1¼ cup all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon mixed spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup rum or apple juice
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup fruit and peel mix (orange and leamon peel, cherries, pineapple)
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup walnuts
• ¼ cup chopped dates
• Caramel
• 1 tablespoon milk

Method:

For the caramel:

1. Add ½ cup sugar to the pan. Heat it and stir it. Let the sugar melt completely. The color will change to brown. Keep the pan aside and add ¼ cup water to the melted sugar very slowly. Bring the pan back to boil and stir it for another 5 minuts. Turn off the flame and keep it aside. Let it cool down completely.
2. Soak all the nuts and fruit mix in a apple juice or rum for a week. Keep the air tight container in a refrigerator.
3. Pre-heat oven to 350℉.
4. Sift together all the dry ingredients. (flour, baking powder, baking soda, mixed spices, and s salt)
5. Cream butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until it is well mixed. Add milk and vanilla.
6. Add eggs one by one and mix everything with a hand blender.
7. Get all the soaked nuts and fruit mix in a bowl. Mix 1-1½ tablespoon all purpose flour to the chopped nuts. Toss them and blend them in a creamed mixture. This will prevent them from sticking to the pan.
8. Add caramel and mix the creamy mixture with a spatula.
9. Fold in all the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
10. Grease the round cake pan. Pour the batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
11. Remove from the oven. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Transfer it to wire rack to cool completely.

Notes:

1. The baking time is different for everybody depending upon the oven and baking pan size.
2. The fruit mix and nuts should get soaked properly. You can increase the amount of rum or apple juice accordingly.
3. Be careful while adding water to the melted sugar. It may splash and cause burning.