Warm Asian-Style Rice Salad

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I made a new rice dish to serve with miso chicken tonight. I decided to grill despite the rain, so, if you happened down our stretch of highway this evening, I would be the fool you saw manning the grill beneath that huge red golf umbrella. Miso chicken is delicious, but I'm always puzzled by what to serve with it. Summer is no problem. I make a Japanese potato salad that's a perfect compliment to the chicken. Winter is more problematic. Plain, unflavored rice simply will not do and my winter palate refuses to embrace mayonnaise based salads. So, I decided to combine hot rice with mirin wine and broccoli slaw and see what happened. In Japan, sweet rice would be used to make a dish like this. Despite its name, this rice isn't sweet and it doesn't contain gluten. It is, instead, a very sticky, short-grain rice that's used to make sushi or sweet rice desserts. As you can see, I used basmati rice to make mine. It works well, but would be difficult to eat with chopsticks because the grains do not clump. I made enough rice to feed four, but the ingredients here can easily be doubled. I used mirin, a rice wine, because I think it's less sweet than sake and is more to our taste. The rice must be hot when the mirin and vegetables are folded into it. This is a really, really easy to make and it's quite good. Here's the recipe.

Warm Asian-Style Rice Salad...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
2 cups hot cooked rice
6 tablespoons mirin cooking wine
1-1/2 cups broccoli or cabbage slaw
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Fold mirin and broccoli slaw into hot rice. Mix well. Cover pot and let sit for 15 minutes, or until mirin is absorbed. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss. Transfer to rice bowls. Yield: 4 servings.

Coleslaw with Creamy Buttermilk Dressing

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...When thinking about a salad to accompany a picnic or barbecue, coleslaw is arguably everyone's first choice. It's inexpensive to make and easy to assemble. This version uses a package of shredded cabbage and a simple buttermilk dressing that you can put together in minutes. The dressing is wonderful for any salad. If you'd like to wilt the cabbage before dressing the slaw, put it in a colander, toss it with a teaspoon of salt and let it sit for an hour or so at room temperature. Then rinse it with plenty of cold water and pat it dry. If your packaged slaw contains red cabbage be forewarned that it will bleed into your finished salad if allowed to sit too long. You may or may not want that. Here's the recipe for the slaw and the buttermilk dressing.

Coleslaw with Creamy Buttermilk Dressing...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
1 (10-oz.) package confetti slaw
2 tablespoons finely minced shallots or scallions
1-1/2 tablespoons low-fat sour cream
1-1/2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
1-1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1) Place confetti slaw in a large bowl. Set aside.
2) Place shallots, sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, buttermilk and pepper in a 2 cup jar with a lid. Shake to combine.
3) Pour dressing over slaw and toss to combine. Refrigerate until well chilled. Yield: 4 servings.