Recipe Rundown: Carla Lalli Music's "Wild Rice with Pomelo, Coconut, and Cashews"

"Pomelo. Hmmm..."

I would say that about sums up my feelings on this somewhat elusive ingredient that plays a starring role in this recipe. 

This week's recipe, "Wild Rice with Pomelo, Coconut, and Cashews," is again from Carla Lalli Music's cookbook That Sounds So Good (I got this for Christmas last year and have barely made a dent in it; forgive me). A recipe based off of the Thai dish yum som-o, it's located under "Chapter 4: Big Salads." Unlike Carla's version, yum som-o usually features fish sauce, peanuts, and dried shrimp, among other things not found in this recipe. 

I'm not opposed to the idea of repurposing international dishes to suit a different audience--however, I'm generally not a fan of taking an already existing, extremely delicious dish and making it objectively worse. By removing the fish sauce, dried shrimp, and soy sauce, Carla has made this dish much more mild in flavor. Additionally, Carla replaces some of the ingredients at random, it seems, such as swapping peanuts for cashews, and dried coconut for coconut chips (what even is a coconut chip? I couldn't tell you because I couldn't find these anywhere. I just used shaved coconut that I toasted in the oven, and it was fine.) I can't help but feel as if these changes were made to avoid accusations of culture stealing, because without these changes, this is simply yum som-o (which Carla certainly did not invent). 

Now that that's out of the way, I'll move on to the actual recipe now: you're better off sticking with grapefruit. Pomelo was hard to find and difficult to cut, as it has a thick layer of white pith that needs to be carved away to access the fruit. Then, the fruit has to be carefully peeled away from its membrane (during which I kept accidentally crushing the vesicles of the fruit). In the end, I found the flavor to be milder than a grapefruit--definitely less bitter, but ultimately less flavorful. 

Next comes the matter of "wild rice." I couldn't find wild rice at my regular grocery chain. I already had to go to the Asian market to find the pomelo, so there was no way I was going to a store like Whole Foods or Wegmans to hunt down wild rice, not "wild rice blend," which Carla explicitly warns against. So, what did I end up using? Wild rice blend. 

The actual process of making this dish was fine. However, you need one pot for the rice, a baking sheet for cooling the rice, one small bowl for mixing the pomelo and lime juice, and one pan for crisping the shallot, cashews, and coconut chips (if they event exist. Again, I toasted my shaved coconut on a baking sheet in the oven, which I also used to cool my rice to cut down on dishes). In total, including the serving bowl and cutting board, that's six dishes. Way too many for a salad, in my opinion. Add in other entrees, as this dish doesn't contain a large source of protein, and you're potentially looking at even more dishes.  

All of that being said, my eaters loved this dish, and so did I. The lime juice, sugar, and pomelo worked really well together in combination with the crispy shallots and toasted cashews. I had leftover pork belly in my fridge, so I re-crisped it in the same skillet in which I toasted the shallots and cashews and added that into the salad, as well. That additional spark of salty fat definitely worked in harmony with the tangy and sweet elements going on. 

There are ways to make this recipe easier--just using grapefruit, not stressing over the type of wild rice you can/can't find, and finding a way to make one dish do the job of two dishes if possible. With that in mind, if you're in a position in which pomelo and wild rice are pantry staples at your house, then this recipe should come easily to you. Despite my trip to multiple stores and the pile of dishes in the sink that I have to scrub, I enjoyed this dish, even if I was tempted to add a few drops of fish sauce when no one was looking...