Curry Rice Salad

Ingredients:
Short grain brown rice - 1 to 1 1/2 cup, best is organic (I used 4 cups cooked brown rice.)
One large yellow onion - chopped
Curry paste (mild), 2 heaping tablespoons, or curry powder - red or yellow Indian (not Thai)- 2 tablespoons
1/4 cup Olive oil , (I didn't use quite that much oil, more like 2 tablespoons.)
dash Cumin
dash Chili pepper
a few drops sesame oil
chopped Cilantro
1 cup Raisins
One apple - cored and chopped (not peeled)
2 tablespoons honey
Salt
Celery - chopped
Snow peas - stringy ends chopped off, then chopped
Bell pepper, red, green, or yellow - chopped
Green onions - chopped
Italics = optional ingredients
1. Prepare the brown rice. Put rice in a big pot, add 1 3/4 cups of water for every cup of rice, bring to a boil, cover, lower the heat on very low, let simmer for 45 minutes, take off heat and keep covered for at least another 10 minutes.
2. Prepare onions and curry oil. In a large saucepan put 1/4 cup of olive oil on medium high heat. Add a couple heaping tablespoons of curry paste (if it is mild) or add a couple of tablespoons of mild curry powder. Add a dash of chili pepper and cumin and a few drops of sesame oil if you have it. Let the curry simmer for a minute. Add the chopped yellow onion and cook until translucent.
3. Mix rice and onions. In a large mixing bowl, put in the hot rice and then fold in the onions with the curry infused oil in which they were cooked. You'll need to use a strong wooden spoon to mix. Taste test the rice at this point. If it needs more curry flavor, heat some more curry powder, chili, and cumin in olive oil for a few minutes and add to the rice to desired spiciness. I didn't need to add any more.
4. Add other ingredients to taste - cilantro, raisins, apple, celery, snow peas, bell pepper, green onions. Add a couple tablespoons of honey. Add a dash of salt to taste.
5. Chill and serve. Serves 4 to 6.
The secret to this recipe is the cilantro, raisins, and chopped apple. Sesame oil is a nice touch.
You can also add shrimp, large or small, to it to make it more of a cold main salad dish.
The salad gets better the longer it sits in the fridge (to a point) because of the absorption of the curry oil. So it is a good idea to make a big batch because the leftovers are even better.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000050curry_rice_salad.php (simply recipes)