By: Pamela Stern
Every Tuesday Starrett Judo Club ‘s Coach Legros teaches everyone how to prepare simple nutritious meals on Zoom from his kitchen. In the recent segment Coach Legros has shown everyone how to make Basmati Rice. Legros incorporates humor into his lessons which makes them fun and entertaining while educational.
Each week Legros sends out an email with the ingredients that is needed for the lesson so that families have ample time to go to the store to get any necessary ingredients that they normally do not have at home. In addition to the ingredients list, Legros also asks participants to prepare certain items in advance for example he asks them to peel and cut or peel and dice certain items which allows the lesson to go much more smoothly.
In this week’s lesson Legros taught everyone how to make Basmati Rice and the ingredients that he used are:
*Sweet potato
* Basmati rice
* Onion
* Garlic
* Black beans
* Coconut milk
* Brussels sprouts
* Red bell pepper
* Legrospices (Celtic Salt, Turmeric, Black Pepper, and Cayenne pepper)
* Cumin
* Thyme
* Hot Pepper flakes
* Lime
* Cilantro
Legros also instructed the participants to peel and dice the sweet potato, peel and cut the onion, peel and cut the garlic, cut the Brussels Sprouts, and cut the red bell pepper. In this lesson Legros showed everyone how he cuts his sweet potatoes, then he placed them into a pan and sprinkled cinnamon on them. He marinated them with oil, which he usually does not use, and mixed the sweet potatoes in the oil and cinnamon and spread out the sweet potatoes and placed them into the oven.
Then he poured the white rice into a pot and used two cups of water in the pot and washed the rice three times and rinsed the rice. He then removed the water from the pot and turned the heat on the stove and placed the pot on the stove so the rice could dry. He also spread the rice in the pot and stirred the rice. He told everyone to put a little Celtic salt into the rice and wait for it to boil. Legros then proceeded to cut the onion into bite size pieces and he poured the onion pieces into a pan and cut the garlic, he put the heat on the stove and put a little water into the pan with the garlic and the onion. He then rinsed the Brussels sprouts and checked on the rice and checked on the sweet potatoes. He opened a can of coconut milk, and put two spoonful’s into the rice and stirred them. Then he cut the red bell pepper and explained that he uses red bell peppers because they stay on the vine longer and have more nutrients in them.
He took the seeds out of the red bell pepper and rinsed it. He also explained that one onion would keep you away from high blood pressure. He put the red bell pepper into the pan with the veggies and stirred it and also put a little water into the pan. He removed the top of the Brussels sprouts and cut them in half and then again into small pieces. He put them into the pan with the vegetables and added a little more water so that the pan will not burn. He told everyone to check on their rice and stir it and spread it around.
He then washed the lime and took the black beans and placed item into the pan with the veggies and added three spoonfuls of coconut milk into the black beans. He then grated the lime into the pot with the rice and stirred the rice with the lime. He then turned the heat off and placed the Brussels sprouts and red bell pepper into the black beans and stirred them and covered them. Legros then added into the pan with the veggies what he affectionally calls the Legrospices which are: Celtic Salt, turmeric (a lot of this) and stirred them, black pepper, and stirred it, and cayenne pepper. He reminded everyone to wash their hands after using cayenne pepper.
He then stirred it and reduced the heat. He took the sweet potatoes out of the oven. He placed the sweet potatoes into the pan with the vegetables and added red pepper flakes into the pan and stirred it. He then turned the heat off and covered the pan.
Voila! Now the Basmati Rice meal was finished. Legros put some finishing touches on his by adding avocado pieces to his plate.
Photo By: Ms. Washington
