Recipe - Southwestern Rice Salad

1 Whole Serrano or Jalapeno
chili
2 Garlic cloves or to taste
6 tablespoon Olive oil
One fourth cup Lemon juice
One half teaspoon Cumin; ground
Three fourths teaspoon Salt
1 md Tomato
One half Yellow bell pepper
5 Green onions
One half small Jicama; (about 10 ounces)
One half cup Cilantro; (loosely packed)
2 One half cup Cooked rice; (cold)
2 Avocados
One half pound Monterey Jack cheese

Here are a couple of recipes from the Kitchen Link ENewsletter that
contain our favorite item. With a little doctoring the heat level could be
kicked up a few notches to meet our normal (?) standards. Hope you enjoy
them.

Here is a wonderful Rice Salad and Poppy Seed, Onion and Cheese Batter
Bread.

You could also do some nice quiches and serve a Greek salad of baby
lettuces, tomatoes, capers, red onion, olives, feta with a dressing of
olive oil, red wine vinegar and garlic. Add to this some fresh fruit and
some muffins.

This recipe calls for a food processor. But can be made without one.

Core, quarter and seed the tomato. Cut bell pepper, onions, and jicama into
1inch pieces. Cut cheese into 1/2inch cubes.

STEEL KNIFE: With machine running, drop chile and garlic through feed tube
and mince. Add oil, lemon juice, cumin and salt and mix 5 seconds, stopping
once to scrape down sides of work bowl. Leave in work bowl.

Add tomato, bell pepper and green onions to work bowl; chop coarsely using
about 10 on/off turns. Transfer tomato mixture to large bowl. Add jicama
and One half cup cilantro to work bowl and chip coarsely using on/off turns. Add
jicama mixture and rice to tomato mixture and toss to combine. (Can be
prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Up to 2 hours before serving, peel avocados and cut into 1/2inch cubes.
Mix avocado and cheese into salad. Adjust seasoning.

Garnish salad with fresh cilantro sprigs. I like to serve as a nice summer
lunch with cheese bread.

REMINDER: A Serrano is very hot, small fresh green chili available at Latin
American markets and some supermarkets. For less heat use Jalapeno or
lessen the amount of chili.

Posted to CHILEHEADS DIGEST by ChefChile ChefChile@aol.com on Mar 2,
1998