Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Rice

So... Food for Thought is four years old today (well, a day late, but never mind)! Check out the very first post (and very likely, only) post on stir-fried tofu. ;) The blog started out as a joke almost, cataloging all the dinners my hosuemates (Hadi and Justin, if you still remember them...) we had as undergrads in Bristol University. There were some good ones, there were some bad ones but all in all, the most popular recipe here has to be the buttermilk chicken, I think. I don't blame you. That one's a beauty. Throughout the years, this blog has been mostly about easy recipes but (mostly) delicious food. "Student" recipes, if you like. That's not a surprise because when I first came to the UK, when I first started this blog, I have to admit that I knew nothing being in the kitchen and cooking. I had an aversion to it that I obviously had to overcome if I wanted to eat all my Brunei favourites here - stuff like cucur ayam and chicken pie come to mind. I also started trying my hand at baking up some cookies and whatnot and happily report that I've obtained what is (for me) probably the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Very awesome.

Over the four years, we've graduated and the other two are now happily working. But I've been continuing on with my studies and so... am still around in the UK. As a direct result of this though, the number of posts have been dwindling, as some of you might have noticed. It's partly because I've been getting busier and busier, but also partly because it's really no fun cooking for one person. Most days, I have the same chicken for dinner, as my parents might have noticed, haha. Lately though, I've ... realised just well, just how many people read this blog. From what started out as a joke, it's now been... well, a point of recognition for some people, to put it one. That makes me feel... happy, proud almost. And so, I've been trying to update just a little bit more often these days. So... anyway, I'd like to thank all current, past and future readers for coming here and visiting this little blog of mine. It's been a source of fun, stress at times when I had to think up of names for H+J's imaginative dishes but always always something that made me appreciate food more. So much so that... well, food is almost constantly on my mind these days, haha, as some people seem to have noticed. Anyway, thank you for sticking with me all this time, and hope you (and me!) will stick around for years to come.

Now, let's get on to what you came here for, shall we? On with the food, an adaptation of a delicious looking recipe that I got from another food blog. Here we go.
What you need:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped (I used garlic powder)
2 chicken frankfurters, sliced
1 roasted red pepper, sliced
5 leaves fresh basil, torn
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup (the one you use for measuring out rice) long-grained rice - I used Thai fragrant rice
1 1/2 cups (80mL) of chicken stock
30g feta, crumbled

What you do:

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add in the shallots and garlic (if using) and stir-fry until softened and fragrant. Add in the frankfurters and fry until heated. Add in the red peppers and basil and season well with salt and pepper.
2. Add in the rice and fry until slightly translucent. At this point, you could do one of two things. You can either add in the chicken stock and simmer with the pot covered until it's cooked OR you can just dump the whole thing in a rice cooker and leave it alone to cook, which I did.
3. Whichever way you did, once the rice is cooked, remove from the heat, mix in the feta and serve immediately.

I've never had feta cheese before, though I've always been tempted to try since I love cheese. The closest I ever got to it was in Justin's Greek Salad but at that time, I wasn't really all that adventurous with my food just yet. I even bought a pack of it when I was studying in London last time but it languished unopened in the Brunei Hall student kitchen, I never quite knew what to do with it, but this recipe seemed perfect. I love cheese and I love love love roasted red peppers.

You could get them very easily in jars, of course. Apparently, even in Brunei though I've never come across it myself. However, although red peppers are expensive here, ready-made roasted red peppers are even more so. So I chose the cheaper (and better!) option. It's so easy to roast your own pepper. Just cut it in half and stick it into an oven and leave it in there until the skin turns black. At this point, you can remove the skin very easily and there you have it! Your very own roasted red peppers. I was making this last night in my (contraband, shhh!) toaster oven and it made my room smell amazing. Roasting peppers smell really good!

I was kind of worried as to whether this would work in the rice-cooker, but to my relief, it did! It might be slightly more.. stickier and moister if you used the saucepan method, but I don't like my rice all that sticky so that was fine with me. It already looked really good what with the red pepper-tinted rice and the sausage slices and the dark green basil... add in the feta and it was just awesome.

I didn't know what feta tasted like... I assumed... salty, right? To me... it tastes just like cheese, hehe. I can't quite describe it, but I really like feta now. I should start using it in more recipes! It's apparently made out of a combination of mostly sheep's milk with maybe a bit of goat's milk. Interesting, never had those kinds of cheeses before. I have quite a bit left, so look out for those, okay? =)

Anyway, this was a nice and easy dinner, almost nothing had to be done besides chopping up the veggies and frying them. That's the kind of recipe I definitely like... easy and delicious! Anyway, see you next time~

Quote of the day: If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people