Thai Lemongrass Rice Salad

We all have our food phobias, preferences, and various other issues. Kurt doesn’t have very many food issues, but every once in a while he surprises me with a new one. For instance, sometime in the last year, he decided rice salads should always be avoided. I don’t know what a rice salad ever did to him, but he made the decision and stuck with it until last night. When presenting this dish, I slyly called it a Thai salad and left the rice word out of the title. That worked well enough for him to taste it before pointing out that he could see that it was a rice salad. But, one taste managed to change his mind. That’s how good this salad is. This bright, freshly-flavored, mind-changing salad is from none other than Donna Hay and is found in Off the Shelf. I wasn’t kidding about the proliferation of salads and recipes from that book this week.

So, if you were wondering what would be a great make-ahead item that you could leave in the refrigerator, that would have incredible flavor even in its chilled state, and that you could enjoy for a few meals, well you found it. Make a big bowl of this salad and enjoy. The recipe is very quick and simple, and if you have some leftover chicken it’s even faster. I used leftover grilled chicken, but any cooked and shredded chicken would work. Then, cook some rice. I went with jasmine rice, and I always follow the process I learned from Saveur years ago. That process involves swishing the rice in water, draining, and repeating until the water remains clear. Then, the rice is boiled in a saucepan for a few minutes before the heat is turned to low and the pan is covered for 20 minutes. Last, the pan is removed from the heat and left to sit, covered for 10 minutes. The ratio from that article, from so long ago I don’t remember what year, was two cups of rice boiled in two and three-quarters cups water. It always turns out great. So, with cooked chicken and cooked rice, all that was needed to be cooked for this salad was some briefly sauteed green onions, chopped red chiles, and finely chopped lemongrass. Once sauteed, those items were combined with the cooked and cooled rice, the shredded chicken, some shredded mint, cilantro leaves, and shredded kaffir lime leaves which I actually found at the grocery store even though I usually don’t. Then, a dressing including lime juice, a little sugar, and fish sauce was poured over the salad. It was tossed to combine, and the salad was left in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

I tasted the salad as I made it, and the lime and lemongrass flavors were front and center, but I wondered if it would become a little dull after being chilled. It did not. The lime leaves, lime juice, lemongrass, fish sauce, mint, and cilantro all contributed to the flavor burst that was still there after the time spent in the refrigerator. I was very happy with the salad and surprised that Kurt not only tolerated it but found it to be quite good. I don’t know that this has opened the door for other rice salads, but I do know this one will be welcomed when I make it again.

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Andhra Scrambled Eggs with Hot Chile Oil Paste

I read Mangoes and Curry Leaves when I received it a few years ago, and it’s a beautiful, informative, well-crafted book. I also have Alford and Duguid’s equally gorgeous, newer book, Beyond the Great Wall, and it’s sitting in my to-read stack. Their books are part travel memoirs, but they are mostly in-depth looks at completely authentic regional foods. Despite having enjoyed reading Mangoes and Curry Leaves, I hadn’t cooked anything from it simply because I’m a big, big chicken. I feared failing horribly at my attempts to re-create what looks so incredible in the photos, and sub-continent cuisine is not my forte. I do wish to learn though, and there’s only one way to do that. So, what we have here today is the first item I cautiously attempted, and Kurt even more cautiously tasted. He knows when there’s a good chance we’ll have a failure on our hands, and he was rightly concerned when I announced I was going to make Andhra scrambled eggs.

The introduction to this recipe explains that these eggs are like ones author Jeffrey Alford had at a tea shop in rural Andhra Pradesh which is a day’s drive north of Chennai (Madras). To make the eggs, they were whisked in a bowl with some salt while sesame oil was heated in a large skillet. Minced garlic and ginger, chopped shallots and chiles, and turmeric were added. The chiles specified here were cayenne which I can never find in local grocery stores, although I did receive a few in a CSA pick-up last summer. I used serranos instead. Those ingredients were stir-fried in the sesame oil for a couple of minutes before chopped tomato was added. After another couple of minutes the eggs were added and stirred about to mix everything together. Once just barely set, the eggs were transferred to plates and topped with chopped cilantro leaves.

I was feeling a little cocky since this was just a simple egg dish, so I went ahead and made the hot chile oil paste from the front of the book as well. This involved chopping ginger, garlic, and dried red chiles in a food processor and then placing that in a heat-proof bowl. Minced scallions were added to that bowl. Then, vegetable oil was heated in a skillet until almost smoking, it was poured over the mixture in the bowl, and it was allowed to cool. I poured this cooled mixture into a jar with an air-tight lid, and it will last in the refrigerator for up to one month. I’m looking forward to using it as a condiment on all kinds of things like grilled chicken or fish, maybe a dollop on some soup, and maybe even use some on plain scrambled eggs. For the Andhra scrambled eggs, it was an added punch to an already very flavorful dish, but we used a little anyway.

And, the result? Satisfactory all around. Kurt was pleasantly surprised with the level of success achieved here and quite enjoyed the dish. I may have worked up enough confidence to attempt some other things. I’ll have to remember to plan ahead and allow plenty of time for tracking down some ingredients like curry leaves, but I’m looking forward to learning more and experiencing more of the food described in the book.

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