Chinese Salad (Easy)

A refreshing, slightly sweet(due to the raisins), just the right amount of salty, crunchy, cold, rice salad that can be prepared ahead of time as a great compliment to most any meat dish. Tonight we are having ours on the side with pulled pork. You have a combination of veggies, raisins, cashews, and rice all in one. This dish is best served cold and best prepared 1 hour to many hours in advance.  I prefer to make this salad in the morning so that it has all day to allow the flavors to combine. The soy sauce/garlic/olive oil dressing tossed with it adds just the right amount of flavor to bring it all together. This salad is great for a potluck because there is nothing in it that will spoil without the constant need of refrigeration. This recipe makes a large amount, so large that I would have to say 10-12 servings, possibly more than that.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• Juice of ½ lemon, (I microwave my lemon for 20 seconds first, you get more juice out of it)
• 2 cups cooked, cooled rice (Cook rice first so it has time to cool while preparing other items)
• 2 cups fresh spinach, washed and dried
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 14 oz can bean sprouts, drained
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• ¼ cup green onions, chopped
• 1 cup cashews

DRESSING:

• ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely diced

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sprinkle mushrooms with lemon juice and place in large salad bowl. Add other ingredients and set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine oil dressing ingredients. Pour over vegetable salad. Toss. Marinate for 1 hour before serving.(I prepare mine in the morning the day I will be serving it. It can even be prepared the night before for the next day.)

All the ingredients needed to make the salad minus the dressing ingredients. I use a rice cooker to prepare my rice. It comes out perfectly every time!

While the rice is cooking, start cutting up and preparing the other ingredients. The mushrooms are the first to be sliced up and placed in the bottom of the bowl and then half of a lemon of juice is squeezed all over them.

Add the fresh spinach leaves, diced up celery and green pepper, sliced green onions, drained bean sprouts, raisins, and cashews. Mix to combine ingredients.

Cooked rice.

I removed the cooked rice from the rice cooker and that allowed it to cool much faster at room temperature.

Dressing ingredients. I recommend using a low-sodium soy sauce.

The dressing: I grabbed a small container with a lid  for shaking it up and mixed the soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic together.

By now the rice should be cooled enough to room temperature to combine with the other veggies.

Do not pour the dressing over your salad yet. First mix your rice in with a wooden spoon to evenly distribute the rice throughout the other ingredients; then pour the dressing on and mix.

Dressing has now been added and mixed in evenly. Time to refrigerate for an hour or more to allow the flavors to blend.

There you have it! A yummy cold rice salad, ready to eat!

Coconut Ginger Jasmine Rice (Easy)

This is a very light tasting rice and oh so easy to make! Definitely add the shredded coconut to this rice once cooked because the coconut milk is so light tasting, I tasted it before adding the shredded coconut, and I was disappointed. I was so glad once I added the shredded coconut to the already cooked rice that the rice had a light taste of coconut to it. The fresh ginger also is very subtle in taste to me. I am not found of ginger, I find it is very strong tasting but the one tablespoon added in then cooked with the rice really is not strong after all. Cilantro, why cilantro? Not really sure but it adds a nice touch of color to the dish and to be honest I could barely taste it at all as well. All the ingredients combined make a light, sweet tasting rice and it was a nice compliment to a fish dish I made called Crispy Honey Lime Tilapia. http://tastytalkwithamy.blogspot.com/2011/08/crispy-honey-lime-tilapia-easy.html



http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/sidedishes/coconut-ginger-jasmine-rice/

Ingredients

• 2 cups Jasmine Rice
• 2 cups Water
• 1 cup Lite Coconut Milk
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger, Minced
• ¼ cups Grated Sweetened Coconut
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro, Chopped

Directions:

1. In a medium stock pot add the jasmine rice. Cover in cold water and wash the rice by moving your fingers through the rice and draining until the water runs pure without any milkiness. (This may take about three rinses.)
2. Place rinsed rice back into the pot and combine the 2 cups water, coconut milk, salt, and ginger; bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer, cover tightly with a lid and continue simmering for 10 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.
3. Remove from heat and let stand about 5 minutes.
4. Fluff rice lightly with a fork and combine cooked rice with grated coconut and cilantro. Mix gently and serve warm.

2 cups cooked Coconut Ginger Jasmine Rice

Coconut Ginger Jasmine Rice served with Crispy Honey Lime Tilapia alongside carrots with butter and brown sugar.

California Rolls (Easy/Moderate)

This is what I call edible art!

I was first introduced to California rolls by my husband back when we were living in Silverdale, Washington and I loved them and could not get enough of them. We would frequent this one Japanese restaurant that just loved to call our son little Buddha. He was a big, round baby boy and they just loved seeing him when we would eat there, that was about 14 years ago. It never occurred to me to try and make these myself until probably 5-7 years ago. We bought a sushi cookbook, a bamboo mat for rolling up the rolls, and a bamboo wooden spoon and then began the process of making California rolls at home. When you make a California roll you want to eat it within the half hour you make it because the rice inside expands and the seaweed wraps will split. 


Makes approximately 12-14 rolls, 3-4 rolls per person

Ingredients:

Seaweed sheets (pack of 20)
4 cups cooked white rice (I prefer jasmine rice and cook as directed or in a rice cooker)
Rice vinegar
sugar
salt
1 cucumber sliced into toothpick-style strips
2 avocados, sliced thinly but somewhat thickly
2-3 medium-sized carrots, (I like to pulse mine in the food processor, makes them easier to bite into)
Crab meat, real or imitation, small package, sliced thin or shredded, whichever you prefer
Wasabi
Soy Sauce

 Directions:

1. Cook the rice as directed on bag or in a rice cooker, I prefer the rice cooker, perfect rice every time, they are also inexpensive and double as a vegetable steamer.
2. Once the rice is done cooking, if you did not use a rice cooker, then transfer to a large enough bowl to be able to stir in, and if you did use a rice cooker then just leave in the cooker and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons worth of sugar on top and a couple dashes of salt, immediately follow with about a 1/4 cup of rice vinegar and stir immediately while rice is still steaming hot, once sugar, salt, and rice vinegar are mixed in, cover immediately either with your rice cooker lid or plastic wrap over the bowl and let sit for 5 minutes while the rice vinegar and sugar do their job, making the rice sticky. The heat from just cooking the rice mixed with the sugar and rice vinegar all work together to make the rice sticky. It should have a sweet, yet slightly salty taste when you try it. The bamboo wooden spoon is for the ease of spreading the rice on the seaweed.
3. Take your bamboo mat (pictured below) and place it inside a gallon-sized Ziploc, this keeps your bamboo mat from getting all dirty, then when you are finished, clean up is easy.
4. Place a piece of seaweed on the mat, then layer a thin amount of sticky rice over the sheet of seaweed, add at the one end, the beginning of the seaweed wrap a slice of avocado, some crab meat, a cucumber stick, some shredded carrots, and roll up carefully by hand at first and do not to tear the seaweed and then to make sure you rolled it tightly enough, take your bamboo mat and roll the roll in it to pinch it tightly and keep it together. Continue this process for the remaining rolls. 
5. Take a small bowl and squirt some prepared Wasabi, about a dime-sized amount, I like a bit more because I like the sting Wasabi causes right between my eyes when I take my first bite. Wasabi is strong and is made from horseradish, that is why I say dime-sized for you beginners, you can increase it if you like after you first taste it. Add enough soy sauce to your bowl for dipping, stir well, and dip your California roll in the mixture quickly. You do not want it swimming in the soy sauce/Wasabi mixture, it will be too salty and too strong. You can do a partial dip or a full on dip. You can slice your seaweed roll into bite-sized pieces or leave it whole and hold it in your hand each time you dip and bite it, almost like eating a hot dog. 

Bamboo mat and Bamboo wooden spoon

Seaweed sheets

Rice vinegar

Wasabi and soy sauce

See how I place my bamboo mat in a Ziploc and also I cut a small hole in the bottom corner to allow trapped air to escape for ease of rolling up the seaweed.

My rice sitting in the cooker getting sticky.

The veggies and crab meat for the inside.

Sliced up avocados, cucumbers, crab meat and pulsed in the food processor carrots.

Sticky rice ready to be spread with bamboo spoon for ease.

Sheet of seaweed waiting for sticky rice to be spread on top.

Sticky rice thinly laid over seaweed.

The toppings added somewhat at the beginning of the roll for ease in rolling and the pretty look.

I first roll it up by hand

I then roll it up in the bamboo mat.

This is where you pinch the roll once rolled in the mat tightly to keep it sealed.

Rolled and pinched and sealed, ready to be eaten or sliced into bite-sized slices.

California roll

Dime-sized amount of wasabi and soy sauce mixed with it for dipping.

Stir it up to mix it well.

YUM!

Green Rice (Easy)

Green rice

What! Green rice! No way, but yes way! Would you believe this rice is made green by pureeing fresh spinach and cilantro together in the blender and adding chicken broth to liquefy it! Talk about sneaking vegetables into your kids food without them even knowing it! You do not even know it is spinach, I don't taste it and this rice is such a favorite in my house that I have to double it, I really mean have to! I have to give credit to Rachael Ray for this recipe, it sure is good and so easy to prepare! It really is!

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2516


Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 jalapeño peppers, seeds and ribs removed and finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups rice
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock, divided
• 3/4 pound baby spinach
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (I double this recipe and I use one entire bunch of fresh cilantro)

Preparation:

Place a medium pot over medium-high heat with one turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Toss the jalapeños into the pan and cook until tender, 3-4 minutes. Add in the rice and cook about a minute (you're toasting it, so it's ready when it starts to smell nutty). Add in 2 1/2 cups stock and bring up to a bubble. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer the rice until tender, about 20 minutes.
Make the "green" part of the rice by pureeing together the baby spinach, cilantro and remaining stock (about 1/2 cup) in a food processor (ask a grown-up helper for assistance with the food processor, if you need it). Dump the mixture into a dish and reserve it until the rice is finished cooking. When the rice has finished cooking, stir in the green sauce and transfer the rice to a serving bowl or platter.

This is one of many "Yum-o!" recipes – it's good and good for you. To find out more about Yum-o!, Rachael's nonprofit organization, go to www.yum-o.org.

2 large jalapenos diced up first soften in some olive oil then add 1 1/2 cups of jasmine rice, once creating the nutty aroma, I then added the 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Brought to a boil, then simmered for 20 minutes covered.

Prepared green sauce for the rice to be made green. Fresh spinach leaves and cilantro and chicken broth.