If there is one thing this competition has taught me , its broadening my horizons and making me use ingredients I would never normally cook with. Pilchards in sauce is not something I have ever cooked before but here we go, hope you like what I have produced with the ingredients given to us this week .
Vote for this recipe and win prizes on the PnP Food Bloggers Challenge here . Week 4 and our ingredients are:
Our challenge was to use all the ingredients above plus we could add two fresh ingredients. We could add any spices and the dish had to be cooked on the stovetop. Pantry List of ingredients to use every week include olive oil, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, flours of any kind, baking powder,bicarbonate of soda, yeast, butter, milk, eggs, sugar and any kind of stock.
The spicy rice salad is deliciously fresh and crunchy, with no dressing because the spices do the trick for me. As I am only allowed to add 2 fresh ingredients, I chose the ones I thought would work the best for me under the circumstances, but the options are limitless for a healthy rice salad. I obviously added lemon to go with the fish, and my love of tomatoes decided the second one. I chose red cabbage over the green, because salads are all about colour, and I couldn’t resist the beautiful red over the green cabbages . Toss in some feta and you have a great salad .
I really wanted some mayonnaise with the fish, so made my own with ingredients from our pantry list. If you haven’t tried home made mayonnaise you should give it a go, its not as hard as you would imagine, just a few tricks to remember. The secret to getting mayonnaise to thicken is by establishing the initial emulsion before pouring the oil in. Once your initial emulsion of egg yolk, vinegar, lemon juice, and salt is formed, (and mustard if you like) the oil can be whisked into the egg yolks in a slow, steady stream. The slower the oil is added, the more stable your mayonnaise will become. Mayonnaise made with olive oil won’t come together as quickly as that which is made with vegetable or canola oil, but it will eventually turn into mayonnaise. I like to make it with part vegetable/part olive oil for a more subtle flavor.
- For the rice salad
- 2 cups brown rice
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 2 cups thinly sliced green beans
- Feta cheese
- cherry tomatoes
- 2vegetable stock cube or 2 tsps vegetable stock powder
- 1½tsp cumin
- 1 tsp powdered coriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 Tblsp olive oil
- For the Pilchards
- 1 tin Pilchards in Hot Chili Sauce
- ½ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- salt and pepper
- For the Mayonnaise
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ½ tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ¼ cup olive oil
- For the Salad
- Cook the rice in 4 cups of water seasoned with the vegetable stock, cumin, coriander and turmeric.
- While the rice is cooking, cut the red cabbage into fine shreads. Slice the beans into thin strips. Toss the two together with the cherry tomatoes which have been sliced in half. Toss in some crumbled feta cheese.
- Once the rice has been cooked allow to cool before tossing the rice with the vegetables. This rice salad is served room temperature and is fresh and healthy.
- Serve the pilchards on the side with home made mayonnaise
- and lemon wedges.
- For the Pilchards:
- Drain the pilchards and reserve the sauce.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp cumin I, salt and pepper, into half a cup of flour and roll the pilchards in the flour mixture. Shake off excess flour. The sauce from the pilchards will make the flour stick to the fish and create a crunchy batter when fried. Pan fry in a small amount of vegetable oil or deep freeze if you prefer. Drain on absorbent paper .
- For the Mayonnaise
- Combine egg yolk, lemon juice , vinegar and ½ tsp salt in the small bowl of a blender. Whisk until blended and bright yellow, about 30 seconds. In a slow steady stream, using a tablespoon to pour in, add the vegetable oil while the blender is switched on. This must be done very slowly and it should take about 4 minutes to add this. The mixture becomes lighter and thicker. Then add the olive oil also in a slow steady stream Mix for about 8 minutes until it is thick. This can be made 2 days ahead of time. Keep refrigerated.
