Black Rice Salad with Sugar Snaps, Avocado, and Lime

Spring has (nearly) sprung woo hoo! Something about longer days and the jauntier slant of sunshine trickling through the windows has me in the mood for crisp green herbs and bright sunny flavors. Enter this yummy black rice salad with sugar snap peas, creamy avocado, lime, and spicy serranos.

This is party food at its best. It's perfect at room temperature, looks great on a buffet, and is just out of the ordinary but plump with plenty of familiar ingredients so as not to scare off less adventurous guests. An ice cold beer, ginger beer, or better yet, a Dark and Stormy - heavy on the lime, will only enhance the experience. Trust me.

Given the dash of heat from serranos, this isn't one for the kiddos...at least, not my kiddos. But as I always say, deconstruct! Black rice was a hit with my usually rice-resistant crew who were happy to suck on lime wedges while putting away plenty of snap peas and avocado slices too - just not all mixed together.

Black Rice with Sugar Snaps, Avocado, and Lime
adapted from Fine Cooking

10.5 ounces (about 1 & 1/2 cups) Chinese Black Rice (I found it at Whole Foods)
3 tbsp sunflower or canola oil
1/2 cup minced red onion
2 serrano chile pepper, with seeds, minced (or less, to taste)
1 tbsp fresh lime zest
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
kosher salt
4 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and sliced on the diagonal
2 small, firm-ripe avocados (dice one, slice the other)
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
lime wedges for garnish

Put the rice in a large bowl and rinse in cold water 3 times until the water is barely cloudy. Drain the rice and transfer to a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 2 & 3/4 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, turn heat to low and cook until the rice is tender, but not mushy, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover, and let sit at room temperature for an hour or 2, until the rice is cool.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook a few minutes until translucent. Add the serrano and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine the lime zest, juice, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Whisk together.

Use a damp wooden spoon to turn the rice out into the large bowl containing the dressing mixture. Add the shallot mixture. Toss gently to coat the rice. Let the rice and dressing sit for at least 10 minutes to let the flavors meld.

Just before serving, stir in the snap peas, the diced avocado, and half the mint. Season with salt to taste. Top with remaining sliced avocado and mint. Serve with lime wedges.

Simple Sesame Noodles with Ginger Poached Chicken

Rotini, penne, bucatini, ditalini, elbow macaroni, linguini, fusili, shells, orecchiette, angel hair...The KC kids like pasta especially when it's buttered and buried under a snowbank of Parmesan cheese shaved from a hunk, not shaken from a can.

After 6 and a half years of sauce therapy, Looly is now almost as likely to choose spaghetti with meatballs and marinara as she is to opt for plain (that is, buttered and Parmesan-topped) pasta. Bean and Roo remain steadfast in their loyalty to butter. Progress is not fast.

Asian noodles would be such a welcome change of pace if only I could get the troops on board. Pad Thai and Peanut Noodles don't bode well for the nut-allergic, so we generally avoid Asian restaurants but that doesn't mean we can't rock scallions and soy sauce at home with our noodles.

Perhaps somewhat embarrassingly, my past attempts at any remotely Asian-style noodles, while decidedly edible to me, have been met with unsettling facial contortions and breathy grunts by the KC kids. They complain they're too spicy, too salty, too fishy, too saucy, too sticky, but mostly...there's just not enough Parmesan.

After a lot (and I do mean a lot) of trial and error, we have a winner! It turns out the key to my children's stomachs is simplicity. I really love big, bold, Asian-y flavors and have a tendency toward the more is better philosophy but in terms of impressing the munchkins, restraint is key.

Simple Sesame Noodles
adapted from The Hakka Cookbook

1 pound udon noodles, soba noodles or whole wheat spaghetti
3 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp thinly sliced scallions
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
lime wedges
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
Thai red chili paste (optional)

Cook the noodles according to the package instructions, drain and rinse. Combine the oils, soy sauce, green onions, and lime juice in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Add noodles and toss to coat. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro. Serve with red chili paste for some extra oomph, if desired, and ginger-poached chicken (recipe follows).

Ginger-Poached Chicken
adapted from The Hakka Cookbook

6 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
6 quarter-size slices of fresh ginger (unpeeled is fine)
3 cloves garlic
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks
1 tsp salt

Combine the stock, ginger, and garlic in a large pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Carefully, add the chicken pieces, cover, and remove from heat. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and serve over Simple Sesame Noodles (recipe above). Stir the salt into the broth and serve alongside the noodles and chicken.

Bonus: If you happen to be having a wintery, runny nose, tickly throat kind of day like me, I highly recommend you stir a solid tablespoon of Thai red chili paste into your own bowl of broth. Your sinuses will thank you.