2012-03-28 Dinner
 

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.

Bob

2012-03-28 Dinner
 

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

2012-03-28 Dinner
 

Marty 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
>
> Sunflower sprouts? Hmm. Never heard of eating them like other sprouts but
> I've got a ton of them around my bird feeder right now...

They're my favorite sprouts. They've got a slight sunflower-seed taste.


> BTW what do you mean by pineapple "shim"?

A small thin wedge.


>> 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.
>
> Without tasting any of it I'd have to agreee. It all looked good until you
> took a left with the banana rice. ;-) But hey, if you don't try it, you
> don't know, right?

The banana flavor wasn't overwhelming. I think it was more weird for me
because I *knew* what I'd put in there. Lin didn't know, and her
unbiased opinion was that it was good.

Bob

2012-03-28 Dinner
 

On Sun, 1 Apr 2012 22:16:27 -0500 in rec.food.cooking, Sqwertz
> wrote,
>On Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:41:39 -0700, Bob Terwilliger wrote:
>
>> Coconut vinegar is a mild vinegar slightly similar to rice vinegar.
>
>Yeah, I don't understand how it can be so much milder, yet still have
>5% acidity. Does that mean 5% acetic acid, or is that some other
>measurement? My coconut vinegar is the mildest of the bunch, even
>milder than my 4%'s but still says it's 5% on it.

Is it old? When you smell that vinegar smell,
that's acetic acid slowly evaporating.