Soya Rice and Memories of Pennsylvania

Rice plays and important part in our meals, at times I don’t feel like eating plain cooked rice .For variations I have always tried making rice with different ingredients or the ingredients that are currently in my pantry .We like eating Soya chunks and what could be a better way than to include them in our cooked rice .Here is a simple recipe for soya rice, rice being cooked with Soya sauce and Soya chunks . I would think that its greatly influenced by Chinese Cuisine as I have used soya sauce for this rice preparation, Although the spices being used other than Soya sauce are Indian , So its sort of Fusion of Indo- Chinese Cuisine and I am sending this to DK at Culinary Bazaar for the on-going AWED-Chinese .




Soya Rice

Ingredients
4 cups of cooked rice ( I used seddu Chaal (Boiled rice) for this purpose, I guess basmati or Sona masoori rice can be used also , just soak them in water for half an hour before cooking it . )
1 onion chopped finely
1 tsp of ginger
4 tsp of soya sauce
½ tsp of red Pepper powder (add more for hotness)
1tsp of salt
Nutrela Soya Chunks 1 -2 cup (prepared according to Package direction or soak them in warm water for 10- 15 mints, drain and its ready to eat )
1 carrots chopped 1 inch long pieces
some cashews
2-3 eggs , depending upon people you are serving (optional)
3-4 tbs of refined oil or canola oil for frying
Method
Heat up oil, add Bay leaf, chopped onions, carrots and cashews and fry at med for 3 -4 mints.
Now add Soya chunks, Soya sauce, red pepper powder and salt .Fry at high for 5mints continuously stiring till the ingredients gets a coated evenly with the spices and sauce.
Lower the flame and and add cooked rice, fry them at med now for 2-3 mints and coat the rice with the prepared gravy .Take out in a bowl.
In a separate vessel fry the eggs. Serve them over cooked rice.
This is surely a great way to eat rice . Good for Toddlers and adult as well .

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We lived in Lancaster PA , one of the oldest city in US , about 71 miles from Philadelphia, easily connected via Amtrak and its very economic also visit here for more city attraction Main City attractions . And this county is famous for their Amish people and their enriched culture.

Amish People are nature loving simple and God –fearing people, mainly doing farming for their livelihood. They are the descendants of Germans, who settled in here when they first came in 1709 .They still use their old, Horse pulled carts or Buggy. And seeing them in the city sometimes was a pleasure. You can feel the tip-tap of horse legs, while they breeze past off your slow moving car .This make me think sometimes less complicated things give you immense pleasure and look at the relationship they develop with their horse , can we strike the same response with the metal build car or truck or for that matter anything metal , Perhaps no. Such is one drawback of modernization also. But, people at Amish County are still living with their preserved nature and life for them is hard work to get their Bread and Butter, for them there is no short-cuts .These people belong to hard working community, living life as simple as it can be . More Info here .

Susquehanna river More info here, is a longest river along the East coast of US.The banks are good for morning walks and the old bridge over it says a lot about it’s importance .This Bridge Connects the York county and Lancaster county,while Driving you may come across a subtle downtown of York county as well and the country side as well.

Children will love the Strasburg Railroad on Route 741, the engine still runs on steam, kind of the engines you saw in the Film “ Parineeta” and you can hear the familiar whistle of the engine while traveling in it also. A joy for children and adults as well. This joyride was a delight for us and we remembered our childhood days when we would go to our Grandmother’s place by trains, which were used to run on steam as well.

The Park City Mall in Lancaster is a huge shopping mall with all the branded houses and the food court is well serviced and from Chinese to Italian cuisine, there are wide range of meals one can choose. The Pretzel Corner is a huge hit with mass. We specifically would love the Garlic and cinnamon sugar-coated Pretzels. We would hang out a whole lot of time there, sometimes window shopping even.

And if you do visit Lancaster with family and kids, don’t forget to go to Dutch wonderland, a place where kids will have a wonderful time and adults will relive their childhood again.

Now to my Pennsylvania Memories, these are my cherished pictures, I am going to share with you, hope you enjoy seeing it as much I enjoyed, while taking them.

Cattle grazing in a near by Amish Home .

A typical Amish Home with all its natural surrounding, look at the gorgeous windmill.

Such a beautiful landscape, greenery, natures Beauty at its peek.

This used to be the view from our apartment house which was luckily on first floor .

On a sweet note dear Uma at Teluguruchi has Passed me with this award of friendship, thanks a lot Uma .

and I would like to pass it on to Sagari at Indian Home Food , Sandeepa at Bong cook book , Pooja at Creative Pooja , Sra at when my soup came alive and Sia at Monsoon spice .

Happy Cooking Friends .