Skip to main content

Rice and easy does it .. Jamies four grain salad


As mentioned in a previous post, I made this salad to go with my jerk pork. I think we all agreed that it was pretty good. Jamie at his best a pretty simple recipe with a couple of interesting tweaks.
In this case I thought there were two clever little jamie-isms 

1. Cooking the whole garlic with the rice to make the base for the dressing

2. The addition of the toasted oats and spices.

go to this link for Jamie's recipe or read it below ... sorry for the slightly weird formatting

Ingredients
1 small bunch mint, leaves picked, stalks chopped
1 small bunch parsley, leaves picked, stalks chopped
200 g mixed wild rice
100 g red rice
100 g pearl barley or farro
1 bulb garlic
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
olive oil
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
75 g rolled porridge oats

Method

With a whole load of extra grains, textures and flavours in it, this is so much more than just another boring old rice salad. This dish can easily be prepared ahead of time and then just topped with the warm oats at the last minute.

Pick the leaves off the mint and parsley and put them to one side. Pour all the rice and barley into a deep saucepan with the bulb of garlic and the herb stalks and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes. If using farro cook for 30 minutes before adding the rice, as it needs around 50 minutes in total. Check the grains are soft to the bite then cook for 1 minute more. Drain through a sieve, saving the cooking water. 
Keep the grains in the sieve and place it over the saucepan containing the cooking water. Cover with a lid and place back on the heat so the grains steam for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and tip the grains into a bowl to cool down. 
Pick out and discard the herb stalks, then pick out the garlic bulb and squeeze all the cloves so the garlic inside goes into a bowl. Lightly mash the garlic with the back of a fork. Chop the herb leaves and stir these into the garlic. Season well with salt, pepper, plenty of extra virgin olive oil and the lemon juice. Stir this dressing through the cooled grains. Give it a taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to. 
Heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan and add the fennel and cumin seeds and the oats. Stir and fry for a few minutes until the seeds start smelling fantastic and the oats are lightly toasted. 
Spoon the grain mixture into a serving dish, stirring through half of the spiced, toasted oats and sprinkling the rest over the top. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, scatter some chopped parsley over the top and serve.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Crack potatoes courtesy of Ottolenghi. Harissa and confit garlic roast potatoes

Another recipe from Ottolenghi's Simple, another recommendation from Will Saunders.   I know its the middle of summer but who doesn't love a roastie? These little tinkers are so good that they are like crack, class A calories. The clever bit is the addition of semolina and caraway seeds which adds a new level of crunchiness to add to the delicious warm heat of Harissa. Heres the recipe These make a lovely, spicy change from the traditional Sunday roasties. They’re especially good with spiced roast meat. Serves six to eight. 2 large heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled 130g goose or duck fat 4 sprigs fresh rosemary  6 sprigs fresh thyme  2kg maris piper potatoes, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks 40g ground semolina 2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted and lightly crushed 2 tbsp rose harissa Flaky sea salt Heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the garlic, fat and herbs in a small ovenproof pan or saucepan for which you have a lid. Cover and roast for 40 minut

Nigel Slaters deceptively brilliant monkfish

Lisa discovered this recipe in her favourite Nigel book. It is one of those fish, 'but not as we know it Jim' recipes. Not just because Monkfish is the fish that can best impersonate meat but also because of the marinade ingredients that are more often featured with lamb. It's not difficult to do but the flavour is a revelation, which makes it a perfect recipe in my book. This can be cooked on a grill pan or a barbecue. Ingredients 3 bushy sprigs rosemary, leaves finely chopped 4 anchovy fillets 2 large cloves garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 large lemon, juice only 3 tbsp olive oil 800g/1½lb monkfish fillet Method Pull the leaves from the rosemary stalks and chop them finely, then tip them into a bowl large enough to take the fish. Rinse the anchovy fillets and smash them to a rough pulp with the flat edge of your chopping knife. Peel the garlic, crush it flat, then smash it to a purée in the same way. Stir together the herb, anchovy and garlic, adding a grind

Sea Bass on mushroom potatoes with salsa Verde

I felt the overwhelming need to cook something new on Saturday night. I didn't want the tired and tested I wanted to explore new culinary waters. However combined with this desire was an equal and opposing force, driven by being absolutely knackered, that meant it had to be simple too. I returned to one of Jamie's early books, to a recipe that IO had meant to do on countless occasions but never quite got round to. I have done several versions of Sea Bass on a bed of potatoes, some that I have written about on this blog. The one question I would have is about the thickness of the potatoes and the length of time they need to be cooked through ... in my oven I reckon they need about 10 minutes more than the recipe suggests. I would suggest a bit of a trial run if you are going to do it for a dinner party ... however once you have given it a whirl I think this makes for a very easy recipe for a crowd. Here's the recipe. Roasted slashed fillet of sea bass stuffed with herbs, bak