What's for dinner: Five quick and easy meals made with rice

One of the most handy of kitchen staples, with rice as your main event, you can have dinner from pot to plate in under 30 minutes

Rice is an easy route to a quick and healthy dinner.

Hake with ginger and rice

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

This is a super simple, humble recipe for a quick dinner or lunch using good quality Irish hake and our favourite leftover ingredient — rice

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 20 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 400g leftover rice

• Bunch of spring onions, white parts sliced thinly, green ends discarded

• 1 thumb of ginger, peeled and grated

• 2-3 fillets of skinless hake,

• cut into large chunks

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

• 50g butter

• 3 tbsp light vegetable oil

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper

• Small handful of coriander, chopped

Method

1. Place the fish chunks on a board and drizzle two tablespoons of oil over it. Rub the grated ginger all over the chunks and then season all over with sea salt and black pepper.

2. Make sure the chunks are well coated in oil, ginger and seasoning.

3. Leave for a couple of minutes.

4. In a large frying pan over medium high, heat the remaining oil and then add the marinated fish chunks. Cook the fish for a couple of minutes on one side and then cook for a further two minutes until the fish is cooked through. Remove from the pan to a warm plate.

5. Add the butter to the pan, letting it melt before adding the leftover rice. Heat the rice for a minute or two and then add the spring onions.

6. Stir everything around the pan until the rice starts to stick. Stir the sugar and vinegar together until the sugar dissolves and then pour this over the rice.

7. Stir through and then remove from the pan. Serve in bowls with the fish on top, garnished with freshly- chopped coriander.

Hangover rice

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

This is a ‘dirty’ rice dish we came up with when very hungover one afternoon. It is a sort of raid-the-fridge type recipe that turned out to be an absolute winner

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 15 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• Small bunch of spring onions, thinly sliced

• 8 spicy sausages, skins removed

• 1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into thin strips

• 1 stick of celery, finely diced

• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

• 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped

• 400g leftover rice

• 2 organic eggs

• Vegetable oil

• Sea salt and black pepper

• 100ml good chicken stock

Method

1. Place a large casserole or frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the sausage meat to the pan along with a little oil. Fry for a minute or two allowing the fat in the sausage meat to melt out. Add the onion to the pan and cook until starting to soften (around two minutes) and then add the celery, green pepper, green chilli and garlic. Cook for 5-6 minutes.

2. Add the rice to the pan and stir into the fat and other ingredients until everything is well combined and the rice is starting to stick to the pan. Add the chicken stock and keep stirring everything around the pan until the stock all but evaporates.

3. Remove from the heat and leave aside. In a separate frying pan, fry two eggs in a little vegetable oil so that they are nice and crispy on the bottom with lovely runny yolks. Season the yolks with sea salt and black pepper. Divide the rice between two bowls and top with fried eggs. Scatter slices of spring onions over the dishes and serve.
   
   Picture: Bríd O'Donovan