Rice Cooker Italian Tomato Rice

A light and complete rice cooker meal that is lean and lightly flavoured. Very suitable as a dinner meal as you won't burp with a strong herb breath after meal.

It all started from the homegrown basil plant I have. I have grown some basil plants from seeds about 2 months ago. And now they have reached a good height to be harvested. I do not have a good number of recipe that involved fresh basil, so I just add it to my Italian tomato rice recipe 😁

Servings: 4 adult portions

Appliances: 

1. rice cooker with "steaming" function an advantage.

2. Oven toaster

Ingredients

2 1/2 cup long grain rice

100g luncheon meat

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 bulb onion, chopped

1 tsp chopped red chilli

1 rib celery

2 red tomatoes

8 button mushrooms

Condiments

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp raw sugar

1/4 tsp black pepper powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried basil

1 bay leaf

1 cube chicken stock 

Sugar and salt to taste

Some fresh basil leaves, finely chopped 

2 eggs for omelette

Directions

1. Rinse and soak rice for about 1/2 to 1 hour. Set aside.

1 hour later 

2. Cut luncheon meat into cubes and place in a heat resistant ware.

Heat in an oven toaster for about 20 minutes set at 230 degree Celsius, or till slightly brown. Set aside.

3. Cut celery, tomato and button mushrooms into cubes.

4. Mix all the condiments, except the chicken stock cube, in a bowl and set aside.

Cut the chicken stock cube into fine crumb. Set aside.

5. Pour about 1 tbsp of olive oil into the inner pot of a rice cooker.

Start the "steam" function of the rice cooker to heat up the oil.

6. Add in the chopped garlic and stir-fry till golden and fragrant. Add in the chopped onion and stir-fry till soften.

7. Pour in the chopped red chilli, diced celery, and diced tomato. Stir-fry till the tomato has softened.

Turn off the "Steam" function.

8. Use the remnant heat of the rice cooker to cook the rest of the ingredients.

Add in the button mushrooms,

the condiment mixture from (4),

the soaked rice from (1),

about 200ml of water, 

the chicken stock,

salt and sugar to taste.

9. Start the "rice cooking" function.

10. While waiting for the rice to cook, prepare the omelette. Cut into strips and set aside.

11. When the rice cooking function ends, allow the rice to "keep warm" for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, use a scoop to loosen the rice slightly and wait for about 10 minutes before serving. This is to dry up the rice at the bottom of the rice cooker.

12. Before serving, pour in the toasted luncheon meat cubes from (2), omelette strips from (10), and chopped fresh basil.

Mix well and serve warm 😄