brown rice sushi salad with seared tuna

I can usually be found blogging at simmer down! (a food lover's blog), but seeing as how I had taken part in suggesting this month's "heart-healthy" theme, I thought it was as good a time as any to get over here to our MLFB blog and submit my first post! The theme gave me an excuse to revisit a Japanese-inspired rice salad that I've made in the past, but to try it with brown rice this time to make it more nutritious. It also includes avocado and tuna, both of which are recognized for their heart-healthy benefits. (The links will take you to a site where there is specific info about why these items are good for the heart.) If you like sushi but have steered away from making it at home because rolling it seemed tricky, this is a recipe for you- it has all the same flavors as sushi in a free-form version. (For another heart-healthy brown rice salad recipe, check out this post.)


For the rice, I used Lundberg Sweet Brown Rice, but I think any short-grained brown rice would be fine. Word to the wise: I strongly advise against following Lundberg's directions on the rice-to-water ratio. I used a 1:2 ratio per the package instructions, and my rice came out like soupy porridge. I had to start over and make a new batch for the salad and was pretty annoyed with myself for not having gone with my gut! I did the second batch with a 1:1.5 ratio (i.e. 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cups water) and I felt it was still a little too much water, but I just put it in a colander and let it drain a bit. You're going for a consistency that's slightly sticky but not overcooked.

For the protein, I used yellowfin tuna that I pan-seared and left rare in the center, but you could certainly use raw tuna or salmon if you can find sushi or sashimi-grade (deemed safe for eating raw). I used one tuna steak that weighed 1/2 lb; I'd say this would be enough for 4 small-ish lunch portions or 2 larger dinner portions. Feel free to up it to 2 steaks if you want it heavier on the protein, but I just went with 4-5 slices per serving. Alternately, what I often do when I make this to take in my lunch is just use good-quality drained canned tuna. You could substitute sautéed or boiled shrimp too, or some grilled tofu.

brown rice sushi salad with seared tuna

2 cups short-grain brown rice
sushi vinegar or rice wine vinegar (see notes)
furikake seasoning (see notes)
about half a cucumber, seeds scooped out and cut into small matchsticks
1 large carrot, peeled & grated
1 ripe but firm avocado, cut into slices or medium dice
1-2 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
1 tuna steak (approx. 1/2 lb), thawed if frozen, or 2 if you want bigger portions (see notes)
soy sauce
pickled ginger
wasabi paste

Notes: Furikake is a Japanese rice seasoning. It comes in different flavors but always contains sesame seeds and shredded dried seaweed. Sushi vinegar is "seasoned" rice vinegar that has sugar and salt added to it. If you can't find it, just dissolve 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt into 4 tbs regular rice vinegar. For the tuna, I would suggest buying it frozen, since the stuff you get at the fish counter has typically been frozen and thawed anyway, even in the "upscale" markets. Trader Joe's has packages of frozen tuna steaks that are reasonably priced. If using 2 tuna steaks for larger portions, I would probably up the rice to 2 1/2 or 3 cups.

Directions: In a plastic container large enough to hold the tuna, mix together 1/3 cup soy sauce and wasabi to taste. Don't be afraid to go a little on the hot side; the heat will mellow upon cooking. Add a couple tbs of sushi vinegar or mirin (rice wine). Rinse and pat your tuna dry. Leave it to marinate in the soy while you prepare the other ingredients.

Cook the rice. As soon as it's done, stir in 4 tbs sushi vinegar, mixing well. Shake in a generous amount of furikake seasoning, stirring well to incorporate and cool the rice. (If you're unsure how much furikake to use, just add and taste as you go. I tend to use about 1/4 cup.) Set rice aside, covered; you'll want it room-temperature when you assemble your salad.

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet (not non-stick) over medium high heat. If you like, you can add a few drops of toasted sesame oil. When the oil is hot, place the tuna in the pan and cook undisturbed for about 2 minutes (3-4 minutes if you don't eat it rare). Flip and cook the other side for another minute or two (again, longer if you want it less rare). I brushed a little sweet chili sauce on the tuna and coated it with toasted sesame seeds, but honestly it was a little messy and I'd probably skip this next time. Set aside tuna on a cutting board. Pour the remaining marinade in the skillet and cook for a couple minutes to reduce; it should be slightly syrupy. When the tuna has cooled a bit, cut it into slices. If it's cooked past rare, it may fall apart a little when you try to cut it, but it'll still taste good!

You can put the salad together two different ways: when making this for a lunch to take to work, I just toss the carrot, cucumber, tuna and avocado in with the rice, along with some julienned pickled ginger, and sprinkle a little soy sauce on top. For a slightly fancier presentation, you can put little clumps of each ingredient on top of a bed of rice, with a few tuna (or salmon) slices fanned over the top (as in the photo). Drizzle some of the soy/pan juices on top and sprinkle with some of the scallion.

Summer Roll Pie

My intended submission to the MLFB pie challenge was an adaption of this Five-Spice Apple Quince pie recipe from Epicurious. I wanted to make it into mini pies with a new crust recipe I'm working on that is partially whole wheat. That plan fell flat when I found my stored quince were becoming mealy. I went ahead and used them anyway but I was further disappointed that the quince flavor completely overwhelmed the amount of spice called for in the original recipe. Even when I doubled the spice, it wasn't noticeable. The resulting hand pies were edible but nothing special. So I went in an entirely different direction...

In my food blog browsing, I saw a recipe for a Vietnamese-inspired summer roll salad. Experimenting with this recipe seemed like a great idea for our "Summer in January" get together. I've made summer rolls several times and love them but making them is a labor intensive process. The pie version is more like a rice paper decorated salad. I liked that I could keep the same flavors as a summer roll with a lot less work. It felt like tapping my inner Sandra Lee, an amusing change of pace for me. To warn you, this recipe is definitely still a work in progress. I think there might be a better vegetable combination and the tofu could easily be substituted with shrimp or other protein. For a vegan version, you could season the vinegar or lime juice with a little sugar and salt and eliminate the fish sauce. Here's what I did for Saturday's get together.

Vegetable Summer Roll Pie
Inspired by Hey what's for dinner mom?
Makes enough for 10-12 servings, fills a 10-inch deep dish pie plate

9-10 6-inch rice papers, less if using larger papers
1 jicama, about the size of two fists together
2 medium carrots
1 1/2 cups snow peas
10 ounces of firm fresh tofu
3 tablespoons rice vinegar (If I had it I would have used lime juice instead.)
1-2 teaspoons fish sauce, to taste (nam-pla or nuoc-mam)
a small bunch of mint, washed and dried
spray oil (I really like Spectrum grape seed oil spray. It gives the cleanest taste.)
cashew butter sauce (recipe follows)

-Trim, peel and finely julienne the jicama and carrots, I used a mandoline. Trim the stem ends from the snow peas, stack and thinly slice on the bias. Thinly slice (chiffonade) some of the mint to get ~2 tablespoons of sliced mint. Set aside the vegetables and mint in separate piles.
-Slice the tofu into 1/4 inch slabs. Heat a skillet or griddle. After the griddle is hot, spray with oil and lay the tofu in a single layer. Lightly brown the tofu on both sides then remove.
-Bring out your pie plate and fill another pie plate (or large bowl) with a inch or two of hot water. One by one soften the rice papers in the hot water and cover the bottom of the pie plate. I worked in an overlapping flower pattern and used 5 papers to line the bottom of the dish.
-In a large bowl, stir together the vinegar (or lime juice) and fish sauce. Toss the jicama in this dressing and remove, giving a little shake to remove excess dressing. Place the jicama in a layer in the lined pie plate and sprinkle evenly with the sliced mint.
-Toss the carrots in the fish sauce dressing and again remove shaking off excess dressing. Place the carrots in a layer on top of the mint and jicama.
-Place the sliced snow peas as the final vegetable layer. I would suggest not dressing them because they are more likely to get soggy and limp. I only dressed the jicama and carrots.
-Cut the cooked slabs of tofu into halves or quarters and spread a small amount of cashew sauce on one side. Place the sauce side down in a layer in the pie. Get as decorative as you'd like, this is the part that will show through the top rice paper.
-When all the tofu is placed, lay whole mint leaves over the top. Use as many as you'd like.
-Soften a sheet of rice paper and carefully place it over the center of the pie. Soften more sheets, cut them in half and cover the edges, rolling the edges from the bottom layer of rice paper together with the top layer pieces until the top is covered.
-Chill until serving then slice into wedges and serve with additional cashew sauce on the side.

Cashew Butter Sauce
My slight changes to this recipe from Steamy Kitchen
Makes ~3/4 cup

2 teaspoons neutral oil
3 cloves garlic, finely grated or pressed (a microplane is great for this)
1/2 to 1 whole Thai bird chile, seeded and finely minced
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
4 tablespoons roasted cashew butter
a splash of fish sauce
1/4-1/3 cup water

-Cook the garlic and chile in the oil until fragrant.
-Add the hoisin, cashew butter and fish sauce to the garlic oil. Stir over low heat, the warmth will soften the fats in the cashew butter and help it incorporate easier.
-Add enough water to make a thick mayonnaise consistency. Taste for seasoning and add more fish sauce for salt and more chile for more heat.
-Store extra sauce in a jar in the refrigerator.

*Random pie related link If you were the baker would this bother you?