Wild Rice, Quinoa and Cherry Salad

When we were planning what we would take down to Wai Ora at the beginning of of December for our wedding anniversary, I got it in my head that a wild rice & cherry salad might be good. I couldn't find a recipe, so I made one up. Not hard when it's a salad.

I cooked equal quantities of wild rice and three coloured quinoa (or just white or red or brown).

Or just use rice if you prefer.

Make sure the rice is well cooked- this lot was just a tad under down.

I stoned cherries and halved them

Added dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, chopped pistachio nuts, chopped onion weed bulbs or spring onions. I also added a good amount of finely chopped mint, parsley and coriander.

Salt and ground black pepper.

The nuts could also be pinenuts, walnuts or hazelnuts.

The dressing makes all the difference:

4 tbsps olive oil

2 tbsp tamarind puree- either ready made or soak the caked tamarind version in water to soften, then push through a sieve.

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp lime juice

2 cloves of garlic or onion weed bulbs crushed

1/2 tsp fennel seeds lightly toasted & crushed- mortar & pestle or a spice grinder.

A pinch of chilli flakes

The salad went nicely with salmon that we cooked with a pomegranate molasses glaze on the little barbecue. 

Variation

Here we are at the beginning of February and some of the cherries from this season have hung on in the fridge. So I cooked some little Beluga lentils until tender and added them to the wild rice instead of quinoa. 

The other additions are: red shiso, variegated apple mint, wee unsprayed begonia flowers, nasturtium leaves, purple kumara and a dressing made with slow baked Black Doris plums, honey, yoghurt, salt & pepper, 1/2 tsp Garam marsala, olive oil & thick natural yoghurt.

Slow baking fruit is amazing! It concentrates the flavours and makes the fruit even more delicious and digestible. A sprinkling of good sugar and in to the oven at 150C for 1/2 an hour. 

Katie X

Sushi Salad

 It's kind of weird that there are still food ideas out there that we've never heard of or imagined before. Down the road at the Colab Cafe they've been making sushi salad. What a brilliant idea! We love sushi but sometimes it's very ricey. So we've been experimenting with the flavours and textures in salad form- and have found it to be a brilliantly useful food. The basic salad lasts really well in the fridge and is very portable.

I'm not very good with plain white rice and since we always have a choice- last night I cooked a mix of red rice, brown basmati and wild rice. I like to put the rice in a pot during the day, pour water of it to a round 5 cms over the rice and let sit until later when I add a tsp of sea salt and simmer with the lid on for around 40 minutes and until the water is has been absorbed. 

Cool. Add ground black pepper.

So what else do you want to add to your sushi salad?

What do you have on hand and what do you love the most in sushi?

I've recently learnt that the light Asian pickle thing makes all the difference to raw veges so while the rice is cooling cut up a couple of carrots in to match sticks, peppers too if you like and then heat a 1/4 of cider vinegar to boiling point, add 1 tsp of salt and of sugar and pour over the cut up veges in a bowl. Give them a good toss together.  

Carrot sticks, any colour of capsicum, courgettes, cucumber, asparagus, snow peas and edamame are all great. The courgettes, asparagus and snow peas I slice finely and cook briefly before blanching. Drain well. Other things that work well are Yomogi- Japanese mugwort, mint, rocket, cress, coriander, nasturtium leaves and flowers. 

Then we added home made preserved ginger. It's so easy- learn how to make it just here.

And then a dressing: 

1/3 c of apple cider vinegar (or white rice wine vinegar if you prefer) add a dsp of honey or sugar and a little sea salt, lastly a dsp of soy sauce. Shake or mix together and pour over the salad. Mix it altogether- I use my hands.

That's the salad part. Next add things like nori cut in strips or pickled seaweed like Neptune's Necklace. Avocado makes a nice contrast to the other textures and flavours. We bought a small pierce of lovely salmon and cut it finely to make sashimi (remove any bones as you go) sprinkle with sea salt. Toasted sesame seeds white or black are a lovely too. The rest- make up as you go along. Wasabi if you like it.

So delicious and very satisfying.

Katie X