AUNTY’S RICE SALAD

AUNTY’S BROWN RICE SALAD

A great salad – the trick to this salad is adding the soy sauce and onions to the hot brown rice and letting them steam and soak and cool together. My sister first introduced this to me at New Years in New Zealand. She is not a cook. In fact she openly admits she hates cooking so you can be assured that this is simple and straightforward to make.

First: 1 cup of brown rice and two cups of water into your rice cooker. (Or pot if you prefer).

When the rice is cooked  (and the machine is turned off) stir in just under 1/4 cup of good quality soy sauce and a couple of good handfuls of chopped onions. Put the lid back on and let the hot rice steam the onions. My sister and I use all or any kinds of onions, white or red and spring or chives.  (I also added finely chopped celery and broccoli stalk at this stage).

Let it sit and absorb. I took the lid off after about 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

When you are ready to serve toss in two big cups of seeds and nuts. I used sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and raisins.

Pour over the lemon and honey dressing:  olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic and honey.  Start with 1/4 cup of olive oil and go from there.  (I added a few tablespoons of rice wine vinegar for that extra layer of zing plus I used grape-seed oil which is a little lighter).

And there you have it. The perfect rice salad.  And as you can see you can change it up or down.  It is very forgiving. The most important step is putting the soy sauce and onions in while the rice is still hot.

I did find a recipe here for those of you who like more precise recipes.  I don’t know if that was my sister’s reference, she is travelling and I cannot ask her, but it is so TASTY that I wanted to tell you all about it.

Today I call a man who has a trailer for sale. The old black mariah needs four new wheels (yes wheels not just tires) a new floor (the floor is rotting) and the rust in the roof is becoming big holes (a convertible stock trailer is not the best of ideas in the winter).  We bought this old one at the beginning of my farming career (about 10 years ago) for $800.  But I think it has done its dash. The one I am looking at will be around $1500 which is a bit more than my budget can reach so I hope to do a deal.

When I finally secure a new second hand trailer the Black Mariah will be taken out into the back field and repurposed as a shelter for the pigs. Filled with straw it will be a great summer house.  I have huge heavy rubber mats to drape over the holes in the roof.

I went and looked at piglets from a local Herford breeder.  But his pig house is heated to 68F – hotter than my house – and the shock of going into an unheated barn would be too much.  I would need at least six for them to keep each other warm.  And he does not have enough.  He grows the animals for the show people. I have bought animals from him before  – though not field raised, he grows their GMO – free feed himself.  So, I can go back in a month or six weeks or so and get the animals when they are a bit bigger and the weather is a bit warmer.  If they sell they sell. He has more sows farrowing in the meantime. But I don’t think they will manage here in the cold barn, with temperatures veering up and down so fast.

As I write it is 28F and blowing. This is pretty much the high for today so we will milk early.  It will drop to around 5F by tomorrow morning.

My silage is almost gone.  The biggest bonus is how much the pigs love it.

Egg production took a huge jump – 25 eggs yesterday.  I think they are not missing those roosters! And are enjoying a little more sun and the odd warm patch in the day.

The pigs will be happy when I boil these up for their breakfast.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Love celi

WEATHER:  Cold and wintry windy.  Well, it IS winter.