0 Bento #203 - Hello Kitty Onigiri & Thai Chicken Peanut Salad

My version of Thai peanut chicken salad was soooo good!  I made enough for lunches for all three of us.  I picked up some Amylu Caramelized Onion Chicken Burgers for the first time, and they are delicious!  They are all-natural, gluten-free and excellent.  I cubed a couple of patties and sauteed them in a bit of canola oil, along with some ginger-garlic paste, fish sauce, toasted sesame oil and a small handful of halved roasted peanuts.  In about 7 minutes I had a savory-sweet salad topping that everyone loved.  I had initially planned to do lettuce wraps, but I realized that all my lettuce was small-leaf variety.  This would be awesome on Boston/Bibb/Butter lettuce.

I also made a Hello Kitty onigiri of plain, cooked rice.  She is decorated with a few decorative sprinkles to liven up her appearance.  I also froze a container of vanilla yogurt, in lieu of the ice cream they allow the kids to have on Fridays.

Bento #203 - Thai chicken peanut salad over fresh artisan lettuce, rice onigiri, and frozen vanilla yogurt.  Snack - organic baby carrots, dip, multi-vitamins, and fresh raspberries.

4 Andouille & Cilantro Paella

I tried my hand at the new paella pan earlier this week.  It turned out amazing, I was so pleased with it.  I'm posting from my family's house in Maryland right now, and I made this dish again tonight for everyone!  Delish!

What you'll need:

1/2 pound tomatoes

5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1.5 cups short or medium-grain or Arborio rice
10 threads saffron
2 tsp rosemary
1.5 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package andouille sausage, about 6 links (I like Amylu brand chicken sausage) cut on the extreme bias
1 cup chopped mixed bell pepper
1 medium diced yellow onion
2 large bunches of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
13 inch paella pan or large walled skillet

Traditionally this dish is done outdoors on a grill, but I'm going to show you how to do it indoors using your stovetop and oven.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and also set the broth to simmer in a pot, keeping it hot until you need to use it.

Begin by halving the tomatoes, and squeezing the seeds out over a sieve on a bowl to catch the juice.

Next, grate the tomato halves on the large grater side of a box grater.  The skins are actually quite tough and will protect your fingers. 

You should have quite a nice amount of juice and pulp when you're finished.

In a bowl combine the rice, rosemary, salt, paprika and saffron threads.  They are so small and delicate, but the saffron is absolutely essential to this dish! (Like my waterlogged fingers from grating those tomatoes?)

Chop up the veg - peppers, onions and garlic. Heat up the paella pan with the oil and start browning the sausage.  After about 2-3 minutes, move the sausage around to the sides of the pan.

Add the peppers, onion and garlic to the center of the pan and sautee until things start softening and the onions start looking translucent.

Roughly chop the cilantro (it smells so good!)

Add the rice mixture and sautee with the veg for 1 minute, stirring constantly, then add the tomato pulp and juice and cook down for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the cilantro and mix through the rice and veggies.

Now, add two cups of the hot chicken broth, and make sure all of the rice is submerged, so add extra broth if needed.  From this point on, do not stir the rice.  Control the heat so that the broth is bubbling at all times, for 9 minutes.

After the first 9 minutes it should look a little drier,

so add another 2 cups of broth.

Now put the whole pan in the 450 degree oven for another 9 minutes.  When you take it out, taste-test the rice.  It will probably still be a little too crunchy.  In the areas that look dry, add more broth a little at a time.  you want all areas to still be bubbling lightly.  Put the pan back in the oven for about another 9 minutes (this varies depending on how done the rice tastes.)

When the rice tastes tender, and most of the broth has been absorbed, it's done!  Traditionally the dish has an almost burned crust on the bottom that a lot of people like, so if you like that, finish it on the stove top for a few minutes.  Finish with the rest of the fresh chopped cilantro and enjoy!!