Stir-crazy cooking: Nothing like mom's spicy tomato rice for comfort

Whether nursing a cold or dealing with the doldrums of COVID-19 isolation, nothing elevates my mood more than mom's home cooking.

But with my 74-year-old mother confined to my sister's home in Canada, I'm forced to settle for my adaptation of a favorite childhood comfort food - spicy tomato rice.

Rice dishes, such as biryani and khichdi, are staples of Indian food culture that can be customized to satisfy each person's tastes.

They marry a delectable blend of spices with basic ingredients found in most households.

A multitude of variations can be found on Pinterest and food blogs for veggie lovers as well as meat-eaters. But my go-to recipes are the most straightforward iterations.

For this dish, you will need tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a few herbs and spices.

My mom's traditional tomato rice is flavored with one key ingredient - her signature curry powder that she grinds at home. It contains dry-roasted and ground gram lentils, black lentils, coriander seeds, whole dried red chilies, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and black pepper with salt and asafoetida added.

In its absence, I've often substituted the recipe with curry powder or garam masala powder.

Curry powder usually is a mixture of turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground ginger, and pepper.

Garam masala powder most commonly incorporates a blend of toasted and ground cumin, coriander, green and black cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns, fennel, mace, and dried chilies.

Both of these are readily available at Indian grocers, such as Patel Brothers in Hanover Park, Niles, Naperville and Schaumburg, most major grocery stores and Amazon.

Or, if ambitious, you can attempt to roast and grind the spices yourself.

I've tweaked my mom's recipe by using olive oil, adding garlic, which I love, and tomato paste for greater flavor. You can add your twist to this delicious and quick meal.

Spicy Tomato Rice

1 large onion diced

4 medium tomatoes diced

2 green chilies chopped

6 curry leaves

2 cloves garlic

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons curry powder or garam masala powder

2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)

Pinch of asafoetida (optional)

Pinch of turmeric

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Handful cilantro

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon ghee or butter

2 cups basmati rice pre-soaked for 20-30 minutes

Instant Pot directions:

Sauté mustard seeds and cumin seeds in oil. Once mustard seeds pop add diced onions, green chilies, garlic, turmeric, and asafoetida and continue sautéing until golden. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste and masala or curry powder and continue sautéing.

Once the oil separates add salt and the presoaked rice with four cups water or how much ever you normally put in for the rice. Set Instant Pot to Rice setting and close.

Once the rice is cooked and pressure is released, stir in the ghee. Add cilantro to garnish and serve.

Serves 4-6