Creamy Coconut Lime Rice with Peanuts
Christian Reynoso for NY Times Cooking
Servings: 4
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked jasmine rice, rinsed
1 (13- to 14-ounce) can coconut milk
Salt and pepper
1 (1½-inch) piece ginger
2 large garlic cloves
2 limes
½ cup roasted and salted peanuts, crushed (I put them in a small food processor because I’m lazy)
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons sambal oelek
2 cups ripe cherry tomatoes, halved (about 10 ounces)
1 cup roughly chopped mixed herbs (such as dill, cilantro or mint)
Steps to make it
Cook the rice according to the packaging instructions until tender, replacing 1 1/4 cups of the cooking water with 1 1/4 cups of the coconut milk. I use a steamer/rice cooker which calls for 1 1/2 cups water, so the last time I made it I finally remembered to make sure I added the extra water.
Fluff the cooked rice with a fork, transfer to a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper. It should taste well seasoned and almost buttery - and let cool.
While the rice is cooking, add 1/4 cup coconut milk to another bowl. I put into a pint jar that I shake the heck out of - no whisking involved
Finely grate the ginger and garlic into the bowl, followed by the zest of 1 lime. Then, juice both limes into the bowl.
Whisk in 1/4 cups of the peanuts, the peanut butter, sugar and sambal and season with salt.
When ready to serve, add the tomatoes and 3/4 cup of the herbs to the bowl with the rice.
Pour in the coconut dressing, toss well to coat, season with pepper and top with remaining 1/4 cup crushed peanuts and 1/4 cup herbs.
For the best flavor, serve at room temperature the day it’s made. If there are leftovers I found it best to take it out and make a plate about an hour before I ate, but really it is better the day of.
I missed another week and I’m trying to be nice to myself about it because I designed an eating extravaganza for myself for my birthday, convinced Beth to come and partake with me, and then started a new job pretty much right after that. As much as I love writing these recipes, sometimes the best thing I can do for myself is sit on the couch and read and then go to bed and read some more. I’ve been cooking up a storm, but not talking about it as much. Hopefully I will get some down time sometime soon and start to figure out what I’m doing and what meetings I actually need to be in, and have nice cold weather so I’m not weeding or picking produce or canning salsa or making loads of recipes using fresh tomatoes or just slicing and eating them because ripe tomato season is the best in all the land. I will eat tomatoes until the sides of my mouth start indicating with small sores that perhaps I have had enough. And then I will eat more.
I admit I feel this way about all fruits and vegetables that I like when they are in season. I really love the magic of seeing my garden evolve throughout the season and I also celebrate the end of gardening season when I am exhausted and pull out the plants even if there is a slim possibility it could get ripe before freezing. Last year I pulled the plants when I was done and was not haunted by the fact that I had pulled a perfectly good plant that could have still produced food (ok, maybe I did a little bit). I want all things to grow but I have also started cutting plants back when they extend past the boundaries I’ve created for them. I have convinced myself that I want them to focus on the fruit rather than the plant. I feel pretty good about the narrative I’ve created to fit my lifestyle.
Beth and I started out at Black Forest where her sister Julie C works as a bartender occasionally and she introduced us to Rhubarb liqueur. Oh. My. God. If you haven’t had it and like rhubarb, go immediately. Most rhubarb items rarely taste all that much like rhubarb. It’s usually too sweet and watered down, but this was amazing. Tasted just like the most delicious rhubarb. I asked at Black Forest if it was something I could buy at a liquor store but no, they make it themselves. Beth and I have started talking and texting each other about how we could make it ourselves. Our initial experiment is to make a rhubarb infused vodka and a rhubarb simple syrup and combine the two. It’s a good logical first try.
Then we headed to Travail. I love the experience there and definitely wanted Beth to experience it too. It was the Filipino/Latino menu and each course was amazing, though I really do wish there were about 5 fewer courses because I have to try everything and I am so full when I leave that I kind of want to die. I wore my favorite fancy dress and Susan brought the tiara. I think it paired perfectly. Susan is really the master photographer and is so great at capturing the food and the vibe. Most of my photographic memories (and Facebook profile pictures) are thanks to her. Would it be lame to go to Travail and ask if I can share the tasting menu with a friend? Because it is seriously too much food.
The second day I got to cook for everyone. Between 11am and 2pm I had the following schedule:
11am:
Cinnamon rolls: some with raisins and some without
Granola with yogurt and fruit
Noon:
Salad
Butterscotch pots de creme
Blueberry blackberry pavlova
Gazpacho
Creamy coconut lime rice with peanuts
1pm:
Chips and salsa
Charcuterie tray with cheese, meats, spicy honey
Charred cherry tomatoes with yogurt and delicious bread
Lots of what I made was done in advance. There was still plenty of work to do the day of and I didn’t get as much prepped as I thought I would to align with the timing, but it turned out just fine. I will definitely make a timed schedule for all the things and then be late with stuff. It was so lovely to see folks who knew each other reconnect, those who were just meeting have lively conversations, and those who came to finally meet Beth in real life because they had heard so much about her from me over the years.
I have made the creamy coconut rice with peanuts every week since Sara sent me the recipe. It’s so refreshing and delicious and I’m only just starting to think maybe I won’t make it this week (but maybe I will?). I love how in this picture Sara looks great and I have my hand in my armpit and my eyes closed. But I’m also reminded that this was a lovely day at the arboretum with Sara and Janine and I learned they have a sculpture garden which was a delightful surprise.
Monday was the third and final day of festivities and the plan was for folks to bring a dish from their favorite takeout place or bring one of my or Beth’s favorite takeout dishes. This was what folks brought:
Tacos Quatro with Carnitas and Yucca fries from Centro (the leftovers from this made some sweet breakfast burritos a couple days later)
My Sheroni pizza from Pizzeria Lola
Empanadas from Sonora Grill
Bajiya from Muhim’s cafe
Veggie platter from Mesob Ethiopian
Chocolate Pistachio Escargot pastries from Marc Heu
Olive Sourdough from Patisserie 46
Chips and quac from Chipotle
Ice cream cake from Dairy Queen
Rhubarb custard pie from the farmers market
Spanakopita from the Greek festival
I was worried there would be way too much food but it wasn’t too bad. Enough leftovers for a couple meals and I got to try new places that other folks loved and had a few of my favorites delivered as well. I again loved how well my friends interacted with one another, but my energy was running pretty low at this point. Thankfully Tuesday I had planned a full reading day without activities and it was so needed. Both Beth and I were so exhausted. In retrospect of course it was too much and if I were doing it again I would organize it differently even though I had the best time. I really hope I haven’t scared Beth away from visiting me.
I also asked folks to bring baking ingredients and jars for canning and then I wrote their names on the packages. It delights me to cook or bake a thing and think about who I’m making it for, but also who helped provide it.
The day after that I made toys out of fabric scraps and we headed over to Ann W’s house to socialize kitties. It was divine and I’m so happy I didn’t end up accidentally adopting a kitty.
The Monday after all the birthday festivities I started a new job! I’ve been consulting for the last 10 years and while I did enjoy that, the market has changed lately. In the past I’ve gone a month without work, this time it was 8 1/2 months after my contract ended. It was a scary difficult time meeting with my smart friends who were wondering if they would get laid off because funding was disappearing. I started to apply for all kinds of full time jobs with zero response making me wonder if I would still get to do this job I’ve loved for over 20 years and if I was good at it at all. I found myself exhausted at reaching out, applying for jobs where I heard nothing, and seeing my savings disappear. It got to the point where I was struggling to do anything at all.
There were a couple of things that started to pull me out of my funk. One was medication. When you need it, you need it and it really did help. The other was Julie D finally finding her dream house and paying me to help her get rid of stuff in the old house she wasn’t using, and organize things in the new house. I loved that it was a tangible outcome that helped my friend and I felt like an HGTV show as I walked her through it and she was so happy.
Telling other friends how good it made me feel to create delightful spaces led to more jobs organizing digital files, a sewing room, helping someone downsize, going through a kitchen to re-organize and remove, and organizing a career history. I really enjoy it and I’m going to keep doing it until I don’t want to anymore. It felt good to have a skill I could make a bit more money doing. Folks kept saying to me that I had so many skills and I do, but I had no idea how to use them and most wouldn’t pay enough to live off of. I don’t have an extravagant lifestyle, but I want to be comfortable and I hate debt. I am so fortunate the only debt I had was my house, that I had savings, and that I had equity in my house when my savings ran out.
Ultimately, it was my smart friends that helped me start to get interviews as jobs were created in their companies. I ended up taking a job as a senior product manager at Softrams, a company that works on lots of government contracts (I get to work on healthcare.gov). I’ve actually been really interested in transitioning into government work for awhile so it was lovely that it felt like a great fit and I’m really excited about the work. It’s also great to work with Ann again and she has a delightful team. Right now it’s super meeting heavy and all the HR and government trainings have given me less energy to write recipes but I’m going to keep doing my best because I really like this as well. I’m also trying to keep up with all the ripe tomatoes coming out of my garden right now.
I haven’t had the energy to organize things with my friends in awhile, preferring to enjoy the get togethers that were regularly on the books or when folks reached out to me. So I went overboard with birthday fun. But still, I have been reminded how amazing my friends are, that fun doesn’t have to be expensive, that I still know how to economize like I did when I was young and broke, and that I had paid for loads of subscriptions or products I didn’t use. I’m hoping in a year the house equity I had to use will be paid back, and my savings will be better than before my contract ended or at least headed that way. At some point I’m certain I’ll take it all for granted again, but right now I’m just thankful.
I'm so glad you found a great job with Ann! Love it!