Book 120 | Martha Stewart Living: Annual Recipes 2003 | Pomegranate Pilaf

by the editors of Martha Stewart Living

What a colorful (the photo doesn't do the colors justice) and festive side-dish to grace any holiday table; or spruce up a weeknight meal, for this was a cinch to make!

To make this lovely pilaf, red onion is sautéed in a small amount of butter until softened. Rice is added and stirred until the grains have been covered in butter, at which time chicken broth is added and brought to a boil, the pan is covered, and the heat is set to low, and the rice is cooked for about twenty minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Once the rice is cooked, and has been fluffed with a fork, apricots, almonds, pomegranate arils, thyme, salt, and pepper are added and combined; and voilà! You have one beautiful pilaf.


 

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Wok Wednesdays | Stir-Fried Ginger Tomato Beef | Fried Sweet Rice with Sausages and Mushrooms

WW wokking through Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge
by Grace Young

This week we have a two for one. Fried Sweet Rice with Sausages and Mushrooms which was due at the beginning of last month, and this month's recipe of Stir-Fried Ginger Tomato Beef.

We'll start with the latter.

Oh. My. Goodness. The ginger tomato beef is fabulous!

I only wish that I had made plain white rice to go with it. I did not read the narrative at the top of the recipe page beforehand, that reads this stir-fry is saucier than most stir-fries (you can't tell by the picture in the book) - so regular rice would have been a good great idea. There was too much going on in the rice I made. I hadn't planned on serving these dishes together, it just happened that way.

Mise in place.

Bowl 1: Flank steak, ginger, soy sauce, dry sherry, cornstarch, sugar, salt, pepper, sesame oil

Bowl 2: Canned whole tomatoes

Bowl 3: Sugar

Bowl 4: Dark soy sauce, dry sherry, sesame oil

Bowl 5: Scallions

As is the norm with stir-fries, there isn't much work to get a delicious meal on the table. For this dish, the most time consuming part of the recipe was slicing the beef - and that took maybe a minute to do.  The beef is combined with soy sauce, sherry, ginger, cornstarch, sugar, salt, pepper, and sesame oil. This marinates while you prep the rest of your ingredients.

The beef is added to a hot wok and left undisturbed for about a minute, to give it a chance to sear; then it is quickly stir-fried and removed from the wok to be added in later.  The tomatoes and sugar are added next, breaking the tomatoes into smaller pieces with the spatula. The soy sauce mixture (dark soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil) is added to the wok along with the beef and scallions, and stir-fried till the beef is heated and cooked through.

Bam! Done. Delish.

My sister was here for dinner, and she was going on and on, about how good this was. "Is this in my book? Our book? You know the one." Yes. Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge. Page 80. I'm sure she'll be making this in a day or two. It was that good.

And now on to the Fried Sweet Rice with Sausages and Mushrooms:

As I mentioned above, our group made this stir-fry back in the beginning of November. Including myself. Twice. Epic fail. Twice. Determination set in.

As the saying goes, third time's the charm.

 Mise en place.

Bowl 1: Shiitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage, garlic

Bowl 2: Rice

Bowl 3: Scallions

Bowl 4: Soy sauce

Bowl 5: Salt, white pepper

The recipe calls for sweet or sushi rice. In my first two attempts at this recipe, I used premium sweet rice. This type, or at least this brand, is extremely glutinous, as evident in the picture below. It was impossible to get the rice grains to separate. I ended up with a sticky mass of mush. This wasn't very pleasant to eat, but, boy did it taste good. I had to get this recipe right.

The glutinous monster.

I thought my first attempt went awry for I had rushed the cooling process. The secret to perfectly fried rice is using cooked cold rice - preferably made the day before. I did not let my rice cool completely (almost - but not quite) before chilling.

So on my second attempt, I brought my rice to work with me, to make sure it had sufficient time to cool completely before being placed in the refrigerator. Still I had issues with the rice being too sticky.

I finally succeeded - though I am not jumping through hoops as I expected. If I had originally used the sushi rice for this stir-fry, I would have written that this was a great tasting dish.

However, Grace mentions in the book, fried rice made with sweet rice, gives an extra richness and bite that is addictively delicious. Addictively, is an understatement.

I'm going to have to experiment with different brands of sweet rice. I really, really, liked the sweet rice; the flavor is far superior to the sushi rice, which to me, tastes like your everyday white rice.  

We are asked not to post the recipes here on our blog. If you would like the recipe, you will find it on page 80 (beef recipe) & 260 (rice) of  Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, which you can purchase at your local bookstore or find it at your local library. I highly recommend purchasing the book - you won't be disappointed.  

 

These two recipes just so happen to be available online (though do get the book for more of Grace's fabulous recipes.):

 

Ginger tomato beef can be found here at SFGate and the fried rice over at NPR.

Wok Wednesdays is an online cooking group. If you would like information about joining us, click here, or visit us on Facebook. Would love for you to wok along with us!

WW: Chinese Indian Vegetarian Fried Rice

Wok Wednesdays wokking thru Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge
by Grace Young

This is one of the easiest stir-fries so far that we have made. It uses few ingredients which means short prep time and easy cleanup. It takes even less time if you use leftover rice.

It is known (after reading SFTTSE) that for great fried rice, you use day-old, cold rice so your finished dish does not come out gummy and clumped together. However, this recipe goes against that advice. It uses fresh, hot, basmati rice (I made it ahead and used cold). Basmati rice is drier and less sticky than your typical long-grained rice, so it can be used immediately.

This is not your typical fried rice, at least not what I am used to having. It has no pork (hence vegetarian in the title), peas, or egg. The recipe calls for green onion, carrot, and green beans. I also added some edamame for protein since I was serving this as our main meal and not as a side dish. You toss the rice and vegetables with a mixture of soy sauce, ketchup and chili garlic sauce - this adds a bit of a punch.

At first bite, I thought - eh, it's OK. However this grew on me before I finished the bowl and it is actually quite tasty.  Hubby said a couple of times while he was chowing down, "this has some heat to it" and it does. He was also very proud of himself for finishing the whole bowl using chopsticks - something he has been trying hard to accomplish. Good job hon!

Really, the only Indian influence in this dish is the basmati rice and maybe the heat level.

Next time, and I will make fried rice again for it is one of Andy's favorite Chinese dishes - I will not use the edamame or the green beans. I did not care for them - I'll add peas and maybe even some egg.

Success meter (1-3): 3

The reason behind the poor quality photos above, aside from the fact that it is raining here in our first few days of summer - which equates to poor lighting - is my camera stopped working due to lens failure. Had to use Andy's phone camera. This happened three months ago on a hike, I've been lucky it lasted this long!

One of the rules of the Wok Wednesdays group is we are asked not to post the recipes here on our blog. If you would like the recipe, you will find it on page 265 in Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, which you can purchase at your local bookstore or find it at your local library. I highly recommend purchasing the book - you won't be disappointed. 

 

Wok Wednesdays is an online cooking group. If you would like to join us or just want more information, click here or visit us on Facebook.

Book Ninety-Three: On Rice

by Rick Rodgers

Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew

I have made a few recipes from this book, and one recipe in particular I have made multiple times - and I was going to make it again for this post!

I had a few extra minutes so I sat and browsed through this book again; as I was flipping through the pages this recipe caught my eye and I thought it sounded tasty, and it would be something new. Boy am I glad I went with this one. It's good - and good for you!

I went to my local market and the Swiss chard looked pitiful - so off I went to Whole Foods (aka whole paycheck - my grandmother always said, "you get what you pay for" - that is always in the back of my mind and oh so true in this instance.) Not only did the chard look absolutely wonderful, but they also had the rainbow chard, which I always think is so beautiful - so that's what I went with.

I had a hard time resisting the urge to add more broth at the end - this is supposed to be a stew, not a soup. Still, next time, I may add just a little more...

The stew had such wonderful flavor. I'm wondering if it was the freshly dried bay leaf I used; I'll have to make this again with a regular store-bought bay leaf to see if there is much of a difference.

Take my word for it - this is good.
 
Success meter (1-3): 3 

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WW: Hoisin Explosion Chicken

Wok Wednesdays wokking thru Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge
by Grace Young



The one thing I like about the recipes in this book and stir-frying in general, is being able to get a meal on the table in no time. So when it is time to whip up a WW recipe I wait till the last minute before prepping.

Oops - not so with this one!

Don't get me wrong - this is still an easy recipe to throw together, it just has a couple of extra steps that I was not expecting. Yes, I did read the recipe - the other day. I just forgot the extra steps of chilling the prepped chicken (meat mixed with cornstarch, egg white, rice wine, salt and water) for thirty minutes and the need to "blanch" the chicken in boiling oiled-water beforehand; a technique called velveting.

Normally when a recipe calls for chicken breast, I sub chicken thighs for they are generally more moist. The last two dinners I made calling for breast meat, I used breast meat, and was sorry; the chicken turned out extremely dry. However, my positive experience with Grace's recipes made me stick with using breast meat once again.

The chicken turned out amazingly tender and silky smooth; well worth the extra step and time.

Hoisin sauce is described as salty, sweet and spicy. However, the brands that I have used have not come across all that spicy to me, so I was confused by the title Hoisin Explosion Chicken. Explosion to me translates to POW! a hit of spiciness so hot you run for a big glass of water hoping to squelch the heat.

While prepping my ingredients (mise en place), the recipe called for one-half teaspoon of red pepper flakes - this is where the POW! comes from.

Another successful recipe - you can't go wrong with this book.

Success meter: (1-3): 3

I made one small change and that is I used red bell pepper in place of green.

The blanched chicken.

 

Those are purple carrots - not burnt. :)

Wouldn't this be beautiful served on a black plate..

You will not find the recipe here on my blog or within the Wok Wednesdays community. We encourage our readers to purchase this book at their local independent bookstore or on-line to support the publishing industry and to help keep books alive! I know I prefer to flip through the pages of a book rather than read them electronically; nothing compares to the feel and smell of a printed book.

Make sure to visit my co-wokkers to see their results on this stir-fry.

Look for the LYL link on the Wok Wednesdays page.

Visit Wok Wednesdays on Facebook!

Black Rice Salad with Mango and Peanuts

Recipe from Bon Appétit magazine

                   Black Rice Salad with Mango and Peanuts

This month's (June 2012) Bon Appétit magazine has six salads made with grains. I want to make them all! I won't be putting this issue on the shelf anytime soon.

I was happy to find the rice that was called for in this recipe at my higher-end grocery store. I thought I was going to have to order it on-line from amazon - I swear amazon has everything under sun. Yes, they even have the Lotus Foods Forbidden Rice called for in the recipe.

Photo courtesy of lotusfoods.com

I LOVE mango! That is what drew me to this recipe along with the beautiful photo showing the bright colors of the mango, oranges, and cilantro against the black rice.



Photo courtesy of bonappetit.com

For the dressing, the recipe asks for one tablespoon fish sauce (optional) which I did use since I have a huge bottle that I just bought for the cooking group Wok Wednesdays that I recently joined. If you do not have fish sauce I personally would not buy a bottle for one tablespoon. The dressing will be great (I love citrus dressings) without it. If you are like how I used to be and had to make a recipe exactly as written and you do buy a bottle of fish sauce (it is inexpensive) you may want to join the cooking group Wok Wednesdays where we are cooking through Grace Young's book Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge to use up that bottle of fish sauce. I also would omit the peanuts; with each bite that had a peanut, I felt the flavor of this salad dropped down a notch, though the hubby liked the addition of the peanuts. Other than the nuts I loved this salad. When I make this again I will add more mango and orange for I can never get enough fruit.

Success meter (1-3): 3