Tag: side dish
Corn and Cucumber Salad
Corn and Cucumber Salad
If you’ve ever had Thai papaya salad, this recipe has the same concept in preparation and ingredients. Papaya is ultimately being replaced by sweet corn and cucumber. The dressing is a complexity of sweet, sour, and spicy flavors with the pungency and saltiness of the fish sauce. The addition of a salted duck egg gives a salty creaminess to the mix, kinda similar to adding feta cheese to a salad.
Servings: 2
Equipment
- mortar and pestle
Ingredients
- 1 ear corn
- 1 cup cucumber julienned
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1 salted duck egg peeled and chopped
Dressing
- 3 birds eye chilies
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 1/2 tbsp palm sugar chopped
- 2 tbsp dried shrimp
- 1/3 cup long beans cut into 2” pieces
- 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 lime juiced
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Boil the ear of corn for 6 minutes. Remove pot from stove and run under cold water until corn is completely cooled.
- In a mortar, pound the chilies and garlic to a paste.
- Add the palm sugar and pound until dissolved.
- Add in the dried shrimp and the long beans. Gently pound the long beans enough for them to be slightly opened.
- Stir in the lime juice and fish sauce.
- In a bowl, combine the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and the corn cut off the ear.
- Mix in the salted duck egg. Pour in the dressing, making sure everything is evenly coated.
Saffron Pulao
Saffron Pulao
This recipe is exactly why I make large amounts of steamed rice. The leftovers are always turned into something else; whether it’s fried rice, rice stuffed omelettes, or this saffron pulao. Pulao is kind of the Indian version of fried rice, but with completely different ingredients. The saffron gives the basmati rice a nice color and aroma while the rest of the ingredients have a balance of sweet and savory that permeates throughout the pulao. What is also great about this rice is that it takes less than 10 minutes to cook.
Ingredients
- 2 cups basmati rice cooked and cooled
- 1/2 tsp saffron
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 6 green cardamom pods
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 1/4 cup cashews
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Soak the saffron in 1 tbsp of warm water for 5 minutes.
- Mix it in with the cooked basmati rice. Set aside.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Sauté the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, and bay leaves for 1 minute.
- Add in the golden raisins and cashews. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Stir in the rice. Sauté for 5 minutes.
Casamiento (Honduran Red Beans and Rice)
Casamiento (Honduran Red Beans and Rice)
Red beans and rice is a popular side dish served in just about every home in Honduras. What’s different about this bean and rice dish is that the red beans aren’t kidney beans. They are a particular type of red bean called silk beans. You can usually find them in the Latin section of the grocery store labeled as Salvadoran or Central American beans. They are smaller than a kidney bean, darker, and smoother in texture.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1/2 medium onion diced
- 1 1/2 cups bean broth
- 2 cups basmati rice cooked
- 1 1/2 cups dry red beans cooked; bean broth saved
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onions and green pepper for 8 minutes.
- Stir in the rice. Fry for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the bean broth and beans. Season with salt. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes until all of the liquid has been absorbed.
