Bull wrote:

>> Salad: English cucumber slices, mandoline-shaved radish, thinly-sliced
>> onion, clementine "flowers", sunflower sprouts, pineapple "shims", lemon
>> juice, salt, powdered chile de árbol, and white pepper
>>
>> Chicken breast strips: brined and pan-cooked
>> Sauce for chicken (served on the side): coconut vinegar, shallot,
>> garlic, cinnamon, kaffir lime leaves, Red Savina chile, carrot, water,
>> mangoes, and heavy cream
>>
>> Rice: brown rice, onion, safflower oil, banana, nutmeg, pink pepper,
>> salt, smoked serrano chile powder, lemon juice, and water
>>
>> I had ginger beer to drink; Lin had a cranberry highball.
>>
>> I wasn't crazy about the rice by itself, but everything went together
>> wonderfully.
>>
>
> The salad sounds good and it's different. You definitely covered the
> the slice and dice. Never tried coconut vinegar. Was the sauce really
> good or OK. I would have never come up with most of those ingredients
> or thought to stir them all in to one sauce. Considering the salad and
> the sauce you made, I would think a plain and simple short grain brown
> rice would have worked better than another concoction of multiple
> additional flavors. Since it wasn't that good on it's on, I'm guessing
> you smothered it up with the sauce? Glad it went together. From reading
> the recipe I wouldn't have any idea if it could work or not. I'm more
> of a minimalist cook but enjoy a good proven mixture.

Coconut vinegar is a mild vinegar slightly similar to rice vinegar.

I liked the sauce a lot. It's similar to an Indonesian sambal I've
cooked many times, but the sambal usually contains coconut milk rather
than heavy cream. I chose to use the heavy cream because it tempered the
chile better.

The rice was inspired by a recipe I saw for polenta with bananas: I
figured that if polenta could go with bananas, then so could rice,
especially in this "tropical" dinner. Although I didn't care for the
rice on its own, Lin did like it. The banana flavor wasn't pronounced
enough to stand out, and it did go well with both the chicken and the
salad. I somewhat regretted using the pink pepper, since I couldn't
taste it at all. I could have added more, but I'm not sure it would have
made things better.

Bob