Vegetable Cheese Risotto

Risotto is an Italian method of cooking rice using different soup base (meat, fish etc.) and adding either wine or cheese into the mix.

My recent venture to make Chahan ended up into a type of Risotto by using the juices from the vegetables I added, although the rice was already cooked using water as a base. The Philippine fried rice is essentially refrying rice that was cooked either the night before or a few hours earlier, turning into what we call 'Bahaw' (cold, leftover rice).

For this experiment, the portions depends on the volume of rice you have to fry. For every bowl you would need 2 whole tomatoes, 1 large bulb of onion, 1/4 bar of cheese and 3 to 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.

First, fry the garlic till golden brown, then add the sliced onion. As the onion caramelizes, add the rice then toss vigurouly,letting the juices of the garlic and the onion into the rice. Then add the diced tomatoes, including the juices that accumulated during the slicing process. Add a dash of pepper and a few pinches of salt to taste. Also add a few dashes of McCormick Italian Seasoning. Then add the grated cheese from the 1/4 bar that you had. Mix until the cheese is melted and seems to coat every grain of rice, making them clumpy and almost gooey. I also added shredded scrambled eggs for extra texture.

You should end up with a salty,cheesy but refreshing mix of rice and vegetables. You can add in other Chahan essentials (like pieces of pork, etc.) in the tradition of the mixed fried rice.