Pseudo-Thai Curried Veggie & Rice Wraps

Wraps are pretty cool because they don't make a big mess -- you don't need utensils and your plate won't get very dirty -- if you're careful and lazy, you don't even need a plate.

I made these for lunch today:

Fry finely-sliced carrots and coarsely sliced onions in oil until the carrots get even orangier (unless you are using exotic purple carrots, in which case, I don't know what to tell you) and the onions start to get translucent (I used red onions, which are actually purple, but you get my drift -- anyway, use whatever onion suits your fancy).  Add ground cilantro & cumin, and chopped fresh ginger, garlic, & chili (I won't wave the finger of shame at you if you use powdered ginger, but you don't know what you're missing!  Also, I used a jalapeño pepper, but those nifty finger or birds-eye chili peppers are good, too.  Or you could just use chili flakes.  Or powder.)
Fry for no more than a minute and then add sliced bell peppers.  Toss, stir, or fold (your choice!) everything, so the veggies are covered in oily spices.



Add coconut milk, tamarind pulp, lime juice, and soy sauce and give it a big ol' stir.  If you don't have any tamarind, just skip it.  That's a shame, because tamarind is really tangy and sour with the teeniest splash of sweet, but I understand that it is hard to get in some places (and by some, I mean predominantly white -- which brings me to another tangent -- you can get cheaper herbs and spices and a wider variety of them if you buy ones that are not marketed toward white people -- Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, you get the idea...).



Once your sauce starts to thicken, add some rice.  Stir everything together. 



I forgot the cilantro!!  Anyway, plop your veggie-rice mixture onto a warm tortilla wrap (I warm mine by putting them right over the pan for about 30 seconds and letting the steam from the food soften them up), toss on some fresh chopped cilantro (use the stems, too, they're tasty), wrap your wrap, and stuff it in your mouth.  Repeat, until you are out of wraps and/or veggie-rice mixture. 



Plate those babies up.  Daintily garnish with a big fat half of a lime.  If I am really hungry, I will secretly eat a wrap in the kitchen before bringing the wraps out, so it doesn't look like I got more wraps than everybody else.