Favorite Recipes: Sticky Rice with Spicy Tomato Relish

Friday, April 19, 2013

Sticky Rice with Spicy Tomato Relish

Like I said in my previous post, I've been on a major sticky rice kick lately. And I was getting bored with eating it with just soy sauce. I'll be making another stir-fry soon now that I have all the regular ingredients but then I remembered this tomato relish that my best friend made several years ago. Super easy to make and very little ingredients yet very tasty. I thought I had the recipe written down but apparently I didn't so I asked her for it again. I think I used too much cilantro since the relish turned a little green but it tasted okay. It was missing something though-maybe salt. I added a little garlic powder to mine and some soy sauce and it tasted much better.

I've included pictures of the way I make my sticky rice but if you don't have the proper pieces I'm sure you can google how to make sticky rice in a ricer cooker or in a regular pan. I got all my stuff from an Asian store and my best friend went with me to help. The base is a metal pot-you fill it with water and heat it to boiling. The basket is shaped kind of like a funnel so that goes into the pot (without touching the water) so the rice gets steamed. The pan lid on top helps trap most of the steam. I cook my rice for 20 min and it comes out perfect every time. But an important thing to remember..no matter how you cook your rice, make sure you soak the rice in water at least 1 hour before you cook it or it will come out harder than a rock and not good to eat. I always soak my rice overnight just to be safe.

Again, I don't have an actual recipe..I just kinda went by general instructions from my friend and how I like it. According to her, for the cilantro, you should have half the amount of tomatoes and green onions should be half the amount of cilantro. So I'll try to put down what I used.

Sticky Rice with Spicy Tomato Relish:

25 grape tomatoes, halved
4-6 green onions, sliced (I used 6 only because my green onions were tiny)
1/2 c cilantro
1 Thai chili pepper, sliced

Using a mortar and pestle, grind the cilantro and chili pepper until dark green and mushy looking; transfer to a bowl. Boil the tomatoes and green onions until potatoes can be mashed down, about 5 min. In small batches, add the tomatoes and green onions to mortar and mash down. Once mashed, add it to the bowl. Once everything is added, mix it up well. This is when I added some garlic powder and soy sauce to taste.

Rice in the basket...