No pictures, no pictures

Correct title. There are no pictures of the meal I made tonight. Why? I was just that hungry. [BUT I won't leave you with nothing to look at, this a food blog, I know you come for the pictures.]

Reality: If I don't shop for particular ingredients that I deem necessary for a dish, I often go Iron Chef in the kitchen.
Translation: I do substitutions and or make MY version of the meal. Works out pretty well. Most of the time.

Tonight's dish:

Carrot Rice
recipe and photo by Allrecipes.com 

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon margarine
1 onion, sliced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
3/4 cup grated carrots
salt to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
chopped fresh cilantro

Cooking:
1. Combine rice and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid, and allow to steam until tender, about 20 minutes.

2. While rice is cooking, grind peanuts in a blender and set aside. Heat the margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned golden brown about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in ginger, carrots, and salt to taste. Reduce heat to low and cover to steam 5 minutes. Stir in cayenne pepper and peanuts. When rice is done, add it to skillet and stir gently to combine with other ingredients. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Tine's Notes: I used brown rice and I used a rice cooker. Sue me. I left out the peanuts, used butter and left out the cayenne pepper. My customers are a little picky. I used the tsp of grated ginger and added extra ground ginger. It is flavorful and slightly sweet. I actually loved the way it turned out.

This was served with Steak Dianne. What is that? Basically, steak with a butter sauce. You know how to cook a steak right? [See blog title banner for a picture of a steak.] I thought using a butter sauce would be somewhat acceptable since I didn't season the steak before I cooked it. [Note: I didn't have Worcestershire sauce on hand so I used a splash of a Bloody Mary mix I had which also covered the need for extra salt or pepper. Improvisation skills!]

Sauce:
4 tablespoons butter melted
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
chives, minced
salt and pepper