Stirfry hot n sour soup

After my success with barley in my carrot soup, I am now obsessed with using it in most soups. But this hot and sour I tried with brown rice. I had Cooking under ten minutes book by Tarla Dalal and another interesting cookbook for a Hawkins Kadai,each of which had a stir fry soup and a stir fry salad respectively. I combined both recipes and using brown rice (Basmati brown rice) I made stirfry hot and sour soup. Serve the soup with pappadam canapes; the combination tastes very good, you can add herbs to suit your taste.



Ingredients:
Carrot - 1
Beans -5
Green bell pepper -1 (small)
Red bell pepper - 1 (small)
Spring onions - a small bunch of about 8 sprigs
Garlic -1 pod (optional)
Red chillies -2
Tamarind - 1 pea pod size
Brown Basmati rice - 2 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Clarified butter (ghee) or for a no fat version, extra virgin olive oil to stir fry the vegetables.




Wash the vegetables and cut them in thin long strips.
Soak garlic, tamarind and red chillies in little water for a while and grind in a blender to a very fine paste.
Wash the rice, drain and dry spread on a cloth for about 1/2 an hour.
Place a heavy pan on stove with some of the ghee and roast the rice for a few minutes. Then add water (about 1/2 a cup) to it and cook rice till tender. Grind in a blender to a liquid. Keep aside.
In the same pan, put more ghee and stir the garlic-chilli-tamarind paste. Stir until the raw flavour of garlic subsides.
Then add the cut vegetable strips. Stir fry until vegetables are tender.
Now add the rice paste, salt, pepper and more water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until soup thickens.
Serve piping hot with pappadam canapes.
This quantity makes 2 servings.
I am sending this soup to Shanthi Krishnakumar's Lovely Winter Recipes.