Coconut Jasmine Rice(vegan)

Tuesday was another Kidney Jerk day, so Debra picked me up about 9:45am and off we went. After we left the Jerk's office, we went on to the library, where I had to make myself stop picking out books at 12. Last time we went, I had a very difficult time finding enough to make me happy, and this time, it broke my heart, but I had to stop. But I found a couple books that I've been wanting to read: "The DaVinci Code," by Dan Brown, and another one of the "The .....Tale," by Margaret Frazier. The DaVinci Code is a wonderful book, and much to my delight, at one point in the book, I "solved" one of the riddle clues before the heroes did, lol. The one by Margaret Frazier is one of a series of about 16 books, of which I've read about eight, I think, which is all the library has had, until they stocked this new one, "The Tale of the Reever." These "tales" are all set back in the 1300's, and the detective heroine is a nun. Incredible how she solves murder mysteries without the aid of our modern technology, but, she does! And holds me spellbound thruout the whole book to boot!

The jasmine rice recipe is a spinoff of the coconut rice recipe I posted a while back, but a little more complicated, and a whole lot better tasting. When I made this, I didn't use a recipe, but most likely someone has put it out there on the web somewhere. All I did was check to be sure I wasn't duplicating the earlier one I posted, and I wasn't. I ate the rice with the heated up Moorish Chickpea Stew I posted last week, and much to my delight...and surprise...the stew was MUCH better the second time around, and the rice turned out to be perfect with it, with the sweetness of the rice offsetting the sort of bitter taste of the stew. It was perfect, and I hope to make it again some day.

Coconut Jasmine Rice
1C rice
1(15-oz.)can of coconut milk, plus about half a can of water.
1/2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
a handful of unsweetened shredded, dried coconut, toasted until light brown in a dry skillet over medium heat, about ten minutes.
Salt if you wish, but I didn't, and didn't see any need for it.

Bring the coconut milk to boil, add the rice, stir it into the water, and after you've covered the pot, turn the heat down so the rice simmers very gently for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Check it after about ten minutes or so, to see if you think it's going to need more liquid. Mine did, so I added half the can of water to the rice and milk, recovered it, and let it alone fro the next ten minutes.

When the rice was done, I added the cinnamon and nutmeg, as well as the shredded coconut, and stirred it all together. Took the pot off the heat and stirred in the vanilla, and that was it: Coconut Jasmine Rice. And, yes, I will make it again sometime.

Until next time, Happy Eating!