Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice!

As you might have been able to tell, this post is about Rice! Grains day included a lot of rice recipes and I ended up making a Rice Pilaf and A brown Rice Salad. 

Of the two, the Rice Pilaf was my favorite for sure. What we did was heated about a tablespoon of butter and an ounce of olive oil in a heavy pan, added some carrots, celery, and onions (a traditional mirepoix) along with a clove of minced garlic and a bay leaf. We threw in about 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and sweat the mirepoix until it was tender. Then we added 2 cups of long grain rice then let that sweat a little until it was nicely coated. We added salt, 3 cups of chicken stock and brought it to a boil.

 Finally we set the stove to low, covered it with a tight lid, and let it steam for about 15minutes before turning off the lid and letting it sit there for another 10 minutes. Then we served! It was really soft and flavorful and I could eat bowls of this and be happy. 

The brown rice salad was a little less successful.. It's a cold salad so we cooked 1 1/2 cups of brown rice to start and my partner and I may have burned it a little... whoops... I'm sure it would've been a little better if we didn't do that...

Anyways, we mixed a vinaigrette of 1 diced shallot, 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1/3 tsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, and a dash of fresh ground pepper all together. Then We slowly whisked 2 tbsp extra olive oil into it to emulsify the dressing. 

The actual salad was a combination of the cooked brown rice, 1 diced pear, 1/4 cup of toasted walnut pieces, 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese, and 1/3 cup of the dressing to start as well as salt and pepper of course. It was actually a lot better than I was expected and I liked it, I probably would've enjoyed it more if the rice wasn't burned.. Next time!