Guest Post: Renee's Thai Basil Fried Rice

This guest post is brought to you from Renee, my fellow foodie, co-worker, and sorority sister. Thankfully we have similar taste in food. That means a lot of lunchtime leftovers are shared in our office. When we're not bringing in our culinary creations, we can often be found at the local Thai restaurant. Renee decided to try making her favorite Thai dish and this is her recap. You can follow Renee for interesting food, pop-culture, and other tweets at http://twitter.com/renh77 or check out her blog at www.icantlookback.wordpress.com. Without further delay, here she is:

I often get a craving for the amazing Thai Basil Fried Rice from our favorite local take-out joint The Green Pea Pod in Watertown, MA. I am trying to curb these cravings as my new budget means cutting down on take-out. Luckily, one of my favorite ingredients to pick up from my weekly pilgrimage to Russo & Sons is the amazing Thai Basil. I use it in everything! So, improvising I went, and came up with a very simple Thai Basil Fried Rice of my own! It was a great substitute if I do say so myself!

Renee's Thai Basil Fried Rice
3/4 lb chicken breast tenders
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
2 large cloves of thinly sliced garlic (or 4 small cloves)
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 small red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 small green bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 small vidalia onion, sliced
1/2 cup chopped Thai basil leaves
3 tablespoons soy sauce (or to taste)
Sriracha (Thai hot sauce)
Water
Olive Oil

In a large pan, heat oil and half of the garlic
Add chicken, sprinkle one side of chicken with seasoning salt
Brown chicken and remove from pan
Add remainder of garlic, when it starts to sizzle add onions
When onions become clear, add both types of peppers
Cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until peppers are your desired firmness
Reduce heat to medium
Add basil leaves and continue to brown for 2 minutes

Add soy sauce to veggies
Stir continuously until mixture JUST begins to boil
Add Sriracha to your desired heat (NOTE: It is VERY spicy. Know what you are getting into before you dump some in!)

Optional- Chop your cooked chicken into bite size pieces
Add the cooked chicken to the vegetable mixture
Simmer for 2 minutes
Add the cooked brown rice to the mixture
Let simmer, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes
If mixture starts sticking to the bottom of your pan, add 1/8 cup of water at a time

Serve with a cold beverage and enjoy!

SGDMSHJAX8DH

Cooking American Food: Wild Rice Salad

American food was the assignment. The party theme was all-American food and music. My first instinct was to pick up one of my state-themed cookbooks (Missouri, Montana, and Ohio) and pick out an all-American side dish. But when you start reading the recipes, you realize that almost all of the recipes were inspired by non-American cuisine and include many use non-native ingredients. In community cookbooks like these, the recipes included have been passed down through families and most originated in another part of the world.

I closed up the books and starting thinking about what foods are native to this part of the world and what I could put together in a summery side dish to please a big crowd. Since the party was on a weeknight the salad had to be travel friendly (an hour to work and an hour to the party with no refrigeration). And since I didn't know all of the guests I ruled out my favorite herb, cilantro and nuts in case of allergies.

After some thinking I came up with two ingredients - wild rice and cranberries. Wild rice is native to North America - it grows in the Great Lakes region. Cranberries are a product of Massachusetts, so they were an easy choice to throw in.

I perused the cookbook library and really couldn't find a good recipe for what I was looking to make. So I used my American can-do attitude and made up my own recipe!

My weekly trip to the farmers' market yielded a vibrant green bunch of flat-leaf parsley and purple scallions. A quick trip to the grocery store provided the rest of the ingredients - wild rice and celery. Thanks to some delicious free samples, provided to me by Oh!Nuts, I had a bag of dried cranberries in the pantry. The dressing for the salad was made out of ingredients from the fridge and the pantry. As a bonus - this is a very healthy dish! The only fat comes from the oil in the dressing and all the ingredients bring something nutritious to the mix.

The salad was pretty quick to make - while the rice is cooking you can finish all of the other components. It held up well during travel and was a big hit! I lightly dressed the salad the the before the party and put out extra dressing for guests if they wanted more flavor. I will be making this again soon! The wild rice is a great base for a variety ingredients - much like quinoa, barley, or kasha. Perfect for summer lunches and potlucks!

For a recap of all the American inspired dishes and songs, visit the gracious party host's blog Doves and Figs. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product - you'll have to visit Doves and Figs to see the completed salad. Great company, food, drinks, and song!

Summer Wild Rice Salad
Serves 10+ as a side dish

Rice Salad
2 8-ounce bags Quick-cooking Wild Rice (Lundberg Family Farms brand)
1.5 cups celery stalks, washed and diced
1.5 cups dried cranberries
1 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
3-4 scallions, purple (or white) and green parts chopped

Dressing
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Zest from 1 orange
Juice from one orange
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Cook rice according to the package instructions
Remove from the pot when finished and let cool completely
Toss veggies, herbs, and cranberries with the rice (I think using your hands mixes it best)

In a food processor, combine vinegar, honey, mustard, orange zest and juice
Blend, streaming in olive oil until well mixed and frothy

Pour about half the dressing over the rice mixture and toss well
Refrigerate overnight, or until ready to serve
Toss with additional dressing if desired
Garnish with fresh parsley leaves and enjoy!

Summary:
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes (rice)
Pot for rice, spoons, cutting board, knife, measuring cups, food processor, serving bowl and utensils

Daring Kitchen: Homemade Nut Butter and Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing

This year I’ve been a lot of different nut butters to add some nutrition and variety to my breakfast routine. I was excited to see this month’s challenge – DIY nut butter – because buying it at the store can get pretty expensive!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Now I’m no stranger to using nuts in recipes, but I never considered starting with nut butter (even though I probably have without knowing it).

It’s been hot here in New England and with no air conditioning in the house I chose the recipe that involved the least amount of cooking – Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing. We’ve made a version of this before with peanut sauce, so homemade cashew butter dressing sounding like a tasty twist.

We opted for a meat-free version. I was going to include tofu, but it wasn’t on my list which meant it didn’t end up in my grocery cart. Oops! A quick look in the pantry produced a box of Thai rice vermicelli which was perfect for the recipe. To brighten up the flavor of the dish even more, I added some freshly harvested lime basil from my garden. The plants are producing leaves like crazy and the flavor is really delicious.

This was a great meal for a hot night and the leftovers were a perfect lunch the next day. Next time I run out of nut butter, maybe I’ll whip up my own instead of running to the store!

Recipe notes:
I used roasted, unsalted whole cashews and added a little canola oil to smooth out the butter
I rinsed the noodles in cold water and served everything cold

Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing
Yield: 4 servings
Adapted from recipe provided in challenge

Cashew Butter:
1 cup cashews

Cashew Dressing:
½ inch slice of fresh ginger, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, more or less to taste, chopped
½ cup cashew butter
¼ cup soy sauce
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons vinegar
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon water

Noodle Salad:
1 box rice vermicelli
1 large red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh lime basil
Lime wedges (optional)

Directions:
Make cashew butter:
Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. I added about a half tablespoon of canola oil to help smooth out the cashew butter.

Prepare cashew dressing:
Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor with the cashew butter. Process until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker -- to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 1 ½ cups dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.

Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.

Slice basil into thin ribbons. Combine noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, and basil in a large bowl.

Plate individual servings of noodles and toss each with about 2 tablespoons of dressing. Top with the vegetables and basil and serve with a lime wedge.