This is one of those recipes that I never get tired of. I’ve been making it for years and still find it to be one of the best rice dishes around. It is simple to make, has excellent flavor and texture, and it’s very versatile. For those of you who loathe cilantro, don’t leave yet. This rice is equally delicious without the cilantro.
The original recipe comes from Rick Bayless, master of Mexican cuisine. Rick sprinkles chopped parsley over the cooked rice rather than mixing it into the rice. Though we serve the rice with Mexican meals, you could change things around and add chopped fresh dill, or chives, and serve the rice with roasted chicken or grilled fish. Sometimes I don’t add any herbs to it at all.
With just a few ingredients and one pot, you will have delicious rice in 30 minutes.
Author: Kiyo Miller adapted from Rick Bayless' Recipe
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1½ tablespoons canola oil
1½ cups medium grain white rice
⅓ heaping cup chopped onion
1 medium - large garlic clove
1 14 ounce can chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons (or more) finely chopped cilantro
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Set a large oven-proof pot (with cover, 3½ - 5½ quart) over medium heat. Whatever pot you choose, try to use one with a wide bottom. I use my 5½ quart stainless steel Cuisinart multi-purpose pot but a smaller one would work as well.
Heat oil for a minute or two. Add rice and onions to pot. Stir frequently for about 5 minutes. Add pressed garlic and stir for 30 seconds or so until fragrant, then mix in broth and salt. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. As soon as the rice reaches a full boil, remove from the heat, cover, and transfer to the oven. Bake 25 minutes. Let rice stand undisturbed for 15 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork, stir in cilantro.
It’s true. Every now and then I eat Spam. Phew! Now that I got that out-of-the-way, let’s move on to my latest Spam preparation: The beloved Spam musubi. Found at local convenience stores, airports, and mom and pop stores, Spam musubi is a tasty snack that travels well in your bag, backpack, and even fits snugly in your pocket. It’s an island favorite.
I have a good laugh every time I see the little man on the Spam can announcing “Glorious Spam!”
If you live near a Nijiya Japanese market, I recommend buying this nori. It is not expensive and it’s a good nori for Spam musubi as well as maki sushi rolls.
There’s a large variety of furikake at the markets. Salmon, shiso, wasabi, and more. I favor the simple combination of nori flakes with black and white roasted sesame seeds. It’s perfect for Spam musubi.
Slice the Spam into eight pieces. Fry the Spam for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned.
Add your soy sauce mixture and turn the Spam over and over in the sauce to coat well. This will take just a minute.
Perfectly cooked Spam and seasoned Spam.
Making Spam musubi is quick and easy. Cook the rice, pan fry the Spam, put it all together, press, eat.
I bookmarked this recipe from Serious Eats years ago and finally got around to making it. Not all Spam musubis are alike. This one is a winner.
Recipe updated 7/28/23 to make 8 Spam musubi (originally 6)
Quick and easy snack that packs and travels well. Adapted from Kathy Chan's recipe/Serious Eats blog.
Author: Kiyo Miller
Cuisine: Hawaiian-Style
Ingredients
3 cups short grain or medium grain white rice, cooked according to package directions
1 can original or 25% less sodium Spam
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons less sodium soy sauce (Kikkoman recommended)
4 pieces sushi nori, cut in half lengthwise to make 8 pieces
furikake
Preparation
Slice Spam into 8 equal sized pieces (slice across the longest portion of Spam)
Mix together brown sugar and soy sauce, set aside.
Fry Spam on medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side, or until lightly browned. Turn heat down to medium-low, add brown sugar and soy sauce mixture and turn Spam over a few times to coat well. If the pan seems too hot, take it off the burner for a few seconds. You want the soy sauce mixture to caramelize a bit and coat the Spam nicely (watch closely so that it doesn't burn). Remove Spam to a plate to cool.
Lay a piece of nori on a clean work surface. Place musubi shaper on top of the nori (in the center). Scoop enough rice into the musubi shaper to make a thin layer. Press the rice firmly with the musubi compressor. Sprinkle furikake over the rice, add a piece of Spam, more furikake, and lastly, more rice. Press firmly using the musubi compressor. You want the musubi to hold together when you eat it. To remove Spam musubi, hold the shaper and lift it up as you continue to press down on the musubi. Gently remove the compressor (if the rice sticks a bit loosen it with a butter knife). Wrap the nori around the musubi tightly. You may need to trim a bit of the nori if it's too long.
Serve right away or wrap and pack for a mid-morning or afternoon snack.
I bumped into a friend of ours, Lisa Tamaki, with whom I have a shared interest in cooking as well as home canning. She told me about a new salad recipe she thought I would enjoy. The dressing has nutritional yeast in it, one of my favorite foods. Lisa’s enthusiasm about the “Glory Bowl Salad” (named for a top ski bowl in Canada) made me eager to try it out right away. Thank you, thank you!
The original recipe comes from Shelley Adams who once owned Whitewater Ski Resort in Canada. This salad is one of her most requested recipes. Rachel also posted Sami’s version of this delicious salad. I followed her suggestion of seasoning the tofu with sesame oil and soy sauce before baking and it adds a wonderful flavor to the tofu. You can use almost any vegetables you want to in this salad. I opted for colorful red cabbage, crunchy snap peas, cucumbers, carrots and edamame. Don’t skip the toasted almonds. They are super in this salad. The dressing has a fantastic umami flavor due to the generous amount of nutritional yeast and soy sauce, so good you’ll be looking for things to pour it on once your salad is long gone.
I use my TofuXpress often. It presses out the water quickly. No more wasting paper towels!
It’s best to serve the baked tofu once cooled, however, you may bake it in advance and refrigerate it until ready to use. The texture won’t be quite the same (it softens once refrigerated) but it will still taste delicious. Just bring it to room temperature before serving.
Glory Bowl Salad
Adapted from Whitewater Cooks & The Conscious Dietician blog
Two generous salad bowl servings and 1 cup dressing
Ingredients
Salad Bowl:
1 cup short or medium grain brown rice
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds (bake in toaster oven at 300° for about 5 minutes – watch so they do not burn)
1 package (14 ounce) extra firm tofu (Wildwood recommended) water pressed out
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 ounces sliced cucumber
1 ounce shredded carrot
1/3 cup cooked edamame
3 ounces snap peas
1 ounce shredded red cabbage
roasted black sesame seeds – optional
Dressing:
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini paste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup canola oil
freshly ground black pepper
Cook brown rice according to package directions. Set aside.
Toast slivered almonds for a few minutes to crisp up.
Press out water from tofu using the TofuXpress or a clean dish towel or paper towels (weighted down). Cut tofu into rectangles about 1/2 inch thick. Combine sesame oil and soy sauce in a small bowl. Brush mixture over tofu slices, or toss to coat well. Place tofu on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes (I use my toaster oven).
Using an immersion blender combine nutritional yeast, water, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, garlic, tahini paste, extra virgin olive oil, and canola oil. Or whisk by hand until all of the ingredients are well incorporated. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper.
Assemble your salad by placing the rice on the bottom of your bowl, adding the vegetables and tofu over the rice. Drizzle a generous amount of the dressing over the salad. Sprinkle toasted almonds and roasted sesame seeds over the top and serve with extra dressing.
Freekeh, an unusual grain with a novel name! The first time it caught my attention was in Berkeley at the Pasta Store. I like cooking with many different types of grains. They make interesting side dishes, and in this case, a great salad. The name Freekeh is a process which means “to rub” in Arabic. The wheat is harvested when young and green then roasted, dried and rubbed. It has a subtle smokey flavor and a pleasant, chewy texture. It’s delicious.
Freekeh looks a bit like bulgur once it is cooked. In fact, if you can’t find freekeh, you could substitute bulgur but freekeh has a chewier texture and more interesting flavor.
I included Madagascar pink rice in my salad. I love the color and texture it added to the salad. This beautiful rice cooks in just 20 minutes.
Fresh herbs are scattered over the salad just before serving.
I am a big fan of any dressing that contains tahini and lemon juice!
This salad is so good I made it three times in a one week period. I packed it up for my work lunch and tossed the beans, freekeh, rice and walnuts with the dressing just before I sat down to eat.
Haricots Verts and Freekeh with Minty Tahini Dressing
Adapted from Bon Appetit
Serves 2
Ingredients
1/4 cup cracked or uncracked freekeh, rinsed
1 cup Madagascar pink rice (optional)
6 ounces haricots verts, trimmed
1 very small garlic clove, finely grated (I used my microplane zester)
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts (I baked them in the toaster oven for 5 minutes)
a few sprigs of dill, cilantro, flat leaf parsley
crushed red pepper flakes
Preparation
Cook freekeh in a medium saucepan of salted simmering water until al dente, 12 – 15 minutes (uncracked freekeh will take longer to cook, 30 minutes or so). Drain and rinse under cold water; set aside. You will not use all the freekeh for the salad.
Cook Madagascar pink rice if using, following directions on package. (I make 1 cup of rice at a time and serve leftover rice with mock chicken tofu the following day).
Cook haricots verts in a medium pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes (very thin haricots verts may take just 2 minutes to cook). Drain and transfer to a large bowl of ice water; let cool. Drain and pat dry.
Whisk garlic, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, oil, tahini, mint, maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon water in a medium bowl; season with salt. Taste, add more lemon juice if desired.
In a large bowl, stir together 1/4 cup each, cooked freekeh and pink rice if using (use more freekeh if you skip the pink rice). Add green beans and toss with enough dressing to coat everything nicely. Season with salt. Divide on to two plates, top with toasted walnuts, small sprigs of dill, tender leaves of cilantro and parsley. Sprinkle crushed red pepper flakes over the salad and serve.
Most of us are aware that eggs have been described as the perfect food. Some years back, their reputation suffered a bit but they are now recognized as a healthy part of our diet. However one views the egg, we can all agree that eggs are perfectly delicious. There’s nothing better than sopping up runny egg yolks with toast, breakfast potatoes or rice. As I was thumbing through the June 2014 edition of Bon Appetit, this recipe immediately caught my attention: Sorrel Rice Bowls with Poached Eggs.
Sorrel is a delightful leafy green with a bright, lemony flavor. It grows well in warm climates like Kihei. I was excited to try this recipe since we have a beautiful sorrel plant in our garden.
Isn’t this sorrel sauce gorgeous? The sorrel leaves are blended with olive oil, a tablespoon of water, and seasoned with salt and pepper. That’s it. I couldn’t wait to add it to the rice.
When I first read through the recipe, I thought it was a tad wacky. After all, who would come up with sorrel rice with preserved lemons topped with poached eggs and served with pickled radishes on the side? Ingenious! It works.
Though I’ve often thought about making preserved lemons, it’s been on the back burner. The recipe calls for half of a preserved lemon, which I didn’t have. After a quick web search, I found an acceptable substitute and it worked out quite well. Fresh lemons are thinly sliced and warmed on low heat with olive oil, a bit of sugar and salt. The peel, which is what you aim to use in the recipe, becomes tender, and it’s flavor mellows while gently cooking.
This is the quintessential meal. Flavorful whole grain brown rice, fresh poached eggs with a sprinkling of feta, and crunchy radishes on the side. The recipe is meant to serve four, with one poached egg per serving, but I always regret not having two eggs. So if you’re like me, go ahead and double the eggs in the recipe below.
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling over eggs (such as Maldon)
freshly ground pepper
Preparation
Cook the rice in your rice cooker for the specified time. If you don’t have a rice cooker, the recipe says to cook the rice in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 45 – 50 minutes. Drain the rice, return to pot, cover, and let sit 10 minutes then spread out on a baking sheet and let cool completely.
Place sliced lemon in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Drizzle olive oil (1 – 2 tablespoons) and sprinkle sugar and kosher salt over the lemon. Cook until lemon is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oil and finely chop the lemon peel into small pieces, discarding flesh and seeds. You want to use the softened lemon peel for this recipe.
Puree the sorrel, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 tablespoon water with an immersion blender or small food processor. Season with kosher salt and pepper.
Toss radish with 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a small bowl; season with kosher salt.
Toss the rice, diced lemon peel (as much as you prefer), remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1/4 cup sorrel purée in a medium bowl. Season with kosher salt and pepper mixing in more sorrel purée, if desired.
Meanwhile, heat 3″ water with 1/4 cup white vinegar in a 3 quart saucepan over high heat (for 4 eggs). Watch closely. When the water barely reaches a boil and you see small bubbles in the bottom of the pan, gently slide eggs into the water one by one and immediately turn the heat down to medium (crack eggs into small separate bowls). Set the timer for 4 minutes. The water should not be boiling and the eggs should simmer gently. Adjust the heat as needed. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Reheat the rice in the microwave to warm briefly before serving. Stir in two teaspoons dill. Spoon rice into individual bowls or plates and place eggs on rice. Season eggs with flaky sea salt and pepper. Sprinkle feta (optional) and remaining 1 teaspoon dill over rice bowl.
Until quite recently I had never heard of Yotam Ottolenghi, a cookbook author, chef, and owner of four restaurants in the UK. I happened to be looking at recipes on The Guardian’s web site and there I found Yotam’s weekly column and was intrigued by the many vibrant herbs and spices he used in his recipes. Some of these ingredients cannot be found on Maui, such as barberries. Leave it to amazon.com to supply even the most obscure ingredients.
My friend Shanna at Curls & Carrots surprised me with a gift of Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi’s Jerusalem A Cookbook. I came home from work one day to find a package sitting on my doorstep. I can’t think of a better gift than a cookbook filled with interesting, flavorful, recipes and gorgeous photos. Thank you Shanna.
Sweet-tart Iranian barberries.
I substituted Italian parsley for the chervil which I can never find here on Maui. I would love to grow chervil however I hear it thrives best in cool climates (not Kihei, Maui).
Saffron water is poured over a portion of the cooked rice and will later be gently mixed in with the white rice, herbs, barberries and pistachios.
Saffron rice is the perfect side dish for roasted chicken and a garden salad.
Saffron Rice with Barberries, Pistachio & Herbs
Adapted from Jerusalem A Cookbook
Serves 6
Ingredients
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)
2 cups white basmati rice, rinsed under cold water and drained well
2 1/3 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in 3 tablespoons boiling water for 30 minutes
1/4 cup dried barberries, soaked for a few minutes in boiling water with a pinch of sugar
1 ounce dill, coarsely chopped
2/3 ounce chervil, or Italian parsley coarsely chopped
1/3 ounce tarragon, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup slivered or crushed pistachios, lightly toasted (salted or unsalted)
salt and freshly ground white pepper
Preparation
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and stir in the rice, making sure the grains are well coated in butter. Add the boiling water, 1 teaspoon salt and some white pepper. Mix well, cover with a tightly fitting lid, and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes. Don’t be tempted to uncover the pan, the rice needs to steam properly.
Remove the rice pan from the heat. All the water will have even absorbed by the rice. Pour saffron water over one side of the rice, covering about one-quarter of the surface and leaving the majority of it white. Cover the pan immediately with a tea towel and reseal tightly with the lid. Set aside for 5 – 10 minutes.
Use a large spoon to remove the white part of the rice into a large mixing bowl and fluff it up with a fork. Drain the barberries and stir them in, followed by the herbs and most of the pistachios, leaving a few to garnish. Mix well. Fluff the saffron rice with a fork and gently fold it into the white rice. Don’t over mix, you don’t want the white grains to be stained by the yellow. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Transfer the rice to a shallow serving bowl and scatter the remaining pistachios on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.
*I found the pistachios can soften once mixed into the rice. Add the pistachios just before serving the rice.
This is one of those recipes that I never get tired of. I’ve been making it for years and still find it to be one of the best rice dishes around. It is simple to make, has excellent flavor and texture, and it’s very versatile. For those of you who loathe cilantro, don’t leave yet. This rice is equally delicious without the cilantro.
The original recipe comes from Rick Bayless, master of Mexican cuisine. Rick sprinkles chopped parsley over the cooked rice rather than mixing it into the rice. Though we serve the rice with Mexican meals, you could change things around and add chopped fresh dill, or chives, and serve the rice with roasted chicken or grilled fish. Sometimes I don’t add any herbs to it at all.
With just a few ingredients and one pot, you will have delicious rice in 30 minutes.
