Dinner tonight is Balinese Rice Salad, from the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special.



Dressing

1/2 c prepared mango chutney (The prepared stuffed is good, but crazy expensive. I'm hoping to find a recipe and make my own, next time.)
2 tbs cider vinegar
2 tbs canola or other vegetable oil
2 tbs unweetened pineapple or OJ
1 large garlic clove, pressed or minced (and for once, I stuck to the amount of garlic called for in the recipe)
1 tbs soy sauce
1 teas salt
pinch of cayenne (which I left out, because the "mild" chutney had a bit of a bite to it, and we're wimps)

The Rest

4 cups cooked brown rice, at room temp
1 cup fresh or unsweetened canned pineapple chunks
2 scallions, sliced on the diagonal
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal (I managed to forget to put celery on the list, despite the number of trips we've made to various stores this week)
1 red, yellow, or green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cups mung bean sprouts (1/2 pound) (we used alfafa sprouts, because that's what the market had. I've no idea how close to 2 cups we got, because I just threw some in. 2 cups of sprouts is a lot of sprouts.)
1/2 c raisins
1 c drained baby corn (15 oz can)
1/2 c toasted peanuts or cashews (I'm sure they would have been better toasted. I am ultimately lazy, however.)

How to

- Combine dressing ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth (or you can mix by hand, if you don't feel like hauling the appliances out of the box because you're still unpacking.)
- In a large serving bowl, combine everything but the corn and sprouts. Add dressing; mix. Add corn and sprouts, genetly. Serve at room tempreature or cold.

Serves 6 (hah; we are going to be eating this for days); per 12 ounce sserving, 389 calories, 8.9 g protein, 11.6 g fat, 67.6 gram carbs, 705 mg sodium.



Local green pepper and sprouts; some of the rest brought at a local business (Deep Roots.)

The verdict? I think it's just fabulous. Jeff said it was very tasty. It was sweet and sour (though more sweet than sour) and complex. More cashews would have been nice, and more raisins (half a cup of raisins just got lost in everything else, though very very tasty when I stumbled across one.) I hate to say this, because part of the reason for fixing this sort of thing is to work in eating less meat, but it would be lovely with some grilled shrimp (or tofu. Hrms. And Jeff suggests turkey.) It was tasty meatless, but also would have been good with meat for a heartier dinner. I'll make this again, but probably at a half batch (it really did make a ton, something I always manage to forget about this cookbook); it would make excellent tote-able lunch.