Mom's Rice Salad

Your comfort food is nice and all, but mine is better. My Dominican mama made this rice salad, and a potato equivalent, a few times each year and it would always be a special treat. Sure you can eat it cold, but it's so much better luke warm or at room temperature. I always preferred the rice to the potato because I felt I got better access to all the ingredients. This salad is fun to look at too because all the ingredients mixed into the rice look sort of like confetti! Chances are you won't find this salad anywhere else. This truly unique. So please don't tell my mom I'm sharing this recipe with you!

Ingredients:

2 cups of uncooked rice
3 cups of hot water
salt to taste

1/2 cup of canned tuna
1 green pepper finely diced
1/4 red onion finely diced
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup of roughly chopped olives, capers and red pimentos
4 tablespoons of mayo
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice Raquelle-style. Set aside.

Soak the diced red onion in the red wine vinegar while you prepare the other ingredients. Let is marinate for about 5 minutes or so and drain.

Add the tuna, green pepper, olives, capers, red pimentos and red onions to the rice and mix. Season with salt and pepper. Slowly incorporate the mayo tablespoon by tablespoon until it's to the consistency that you like. I go light on the mayo but you can always add more.

Eat at room temperature. It's hearty enough to eat alone with maybe a light dessert to follow. It reheats well just make sure to only nuke it for up to 30 seconds and not to cook it because of the mayo. You can eat this cold too!

Mom's Rice Salad

Lettuce-Less Fattoush with Grilled Chicken

Emphasis on "Lettuce-Less".

I have a love-hate relationship with lettuce (with the exception of mesclun mix) and right now it's just pure hate. Lately, when I've had salads, I feel like the lettuce just serves as a filler. It's been annoying me to the point that I just want to yell at the lettuce and say "Get out of the way! I want to get to the good stuff."

In my attempt to make more international dishes, I thought I'd try making a Fattoush. Fattoush (or Fatouche) is a Lebanese salad that consists of various fresh vegetables, fresh herbs, toasted pita bread and a light dressing with sumac. I always mean to order it when I go to my local Lebanese restaurant but cave in to the temptation of the other menu items. With the glorious Spring weather we've been having, I decided it was time to make a salad!

You can go ahead and add lettuce to this recipe. Just know that I'll be secretly judging you for it.

Ingredients:

2 pickle cucumbers halved and cut into half moons
2 plum tomatoes cut into strips
1 green pepper cut into strips
1/2 small onion thinly sliced
1 bunch of radishes sliced
chopped parsley
chopped mint
1/2 lemon
extra light olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

6 chicken cutlets/4 chicken breasts
1/2 lemon
extra light olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

3 whole-wheat pitas
cooking spray

* if you have sumac, add a bit to the dressing

This makes 2 servings.
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Season your chicken cutlets (3 per person) or chicken breasts (2 per person) with salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice and drizzle olive oil over the chicken and mix until coated. On a hot grill pan, grill the chicken. Let cool and cut into strips. Set aside.

Stack your 3 whole wheat pitas and chop them into 2-inch pieces. Set aside.

Prep your vegetables and herbs and mix them in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. When it's time to serve the salad, squeeze the juice of half a lemon and drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of your olive oil and mix the salad until the vegetables are fully coated in the dressing.

Preheat your oven's broiler. Spray cooking spray onto a non-stick baking sheet. Spread your pieces of pita over the sheet and spray those pieces with cooking spray. That way you have the pieces lightly coated in oil on both sides. Add to your oven and broil for 3-4 minutes (or less depending on your oven's broiler). Flip the pieces over and broil again for 3-4 more minutes. The pita chips should be nice and crispy.

Add your salad to a plate and cover with pita chips and chicken. Garnish with a few sprigs of parsley. 

I highly recommend toasting whole-wheat pita chips (the ones I used had flax seed) as a healthy alternative to croutons!

Lettuce-Less Fattoush Salad With Grilled Chicken

Kikkoman Ponzo Lime ~ Marinated Flank Steak Sandwich

Foodbuzz and Kikkoman recently sent me a bottle of Kikkoman's new Ponzo Lime Citrus Seasoned Dressing & Sauce to try out. I was very inspired by Vietnamese style sandwiches (Bahn Mi) and wanted to try to make one by using the Ponzo, fresh lime juice (to enhance the lime flavor of the Ponzo) and lean flank steak. The result was great! This is by no means a traditional Bahn Mi but it's a good attempt. Next time I might add some thinly sliced onion.

If you can't find Daikon, just use thinly sliced radishes. However, I highly recommend trying to find Daikon. My favorite produce market, Wilson Farm, almost always carries it and I've seen it in a few other places. It's got a radish flavor which is more mild and palatable than proper radishes.

Ingredients:
A piece of flank steak (at room temperature)
1 lime
1 bottle of Kikkoman's Ponzo Lime Seasoned Dressing & Sauce
1/2 cup of thinly sliced Daikon (in half moons)
1/2 cup of thinly sliced cucumber (in half moons)
1/2 cup of thinly sliced carrots
Cilantro
Fresh baked bread
Cornstarch (optional)

Season your flank steak liberally with salt. Then squeeze a lime and smear the juice all over the steak on both sides. Let sit for a few minutes.

In a shallow dish, add 3/4 of your bottle of Kikkoman Ponzo Lime so that the flank steak is completely covered. Let sit for about 30 minutes.

Heat up your grill pan with a light coating of oil. When it's super hot, add the flank steak. Cook steak for about 10 minutes on each side. This for me gets it medium-well but cook it to your preference. Just test it with your finger. If it's soft, it's more rare. If it's a bit tough, it's medium. If it's really tough, it's well done.

Set aside steak and let it rest. In the mean time, slice your carrots, daikon and cucumber and chop some cilantro.

Cut flank steak into very thin slices. Cut with a serrated knife and at an angle, going against the grain of the meat. The thinner the better.

Slice open a few loaves of bread and toast in the oven for a few minutes. Then fill them up with steak and vegetables.

Optional Sauce: Heat up the last of the Kikkoman Ponzo Lime in a skillet and add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Whisk until cornstarch is incorporated and heat until the sauce gets thick. If it gets too thick, feel free to add a tablespoon of water to thin it out. Drizzle the sauce over the meat before adding to the sandwich.

Enjoy!


Vietnamese Sandwiches