A Salad With Rum Raisins? Hell Yeah!

Rachel Yang and Seif Chichri created major buzz with their first restaurant, Joule. Last week, they launched a new baby, Revel. This stylish spot in Fremont is a red haute hit for the culinary power couple, who first met while working at Alain Ducasse in New York City. Read part one and part two of this week's Grillaxin to learn more.

Their approach to food at both Joule and Revel is pretty darned novel: Asian comfort dishes -- noodle pancakes and rice bowls, duck balls... yes, duck balls -- with classic French twists. This playful salad is a shining example of the way they like to mix things up.

Spinach and sunchoke salad with miso vinaigrette

4 cups spinach
3 ounces sunchokes (about 3 medium size)

2 tbsp golden raisins
1 tbsp black currants
½ cup rum
3 tbsp sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp miso
½ cup canola
Salt
Pepper

1. Scrub sunchokes under cold water. Slice them thin on mandoline.
2. For rum raisin: Place rum in a small pot on a high heat. Burn off the alcohol from rum and add sugar. Take if off the heat and add golden raisin and black currant into the pot to rehydrate.
3. For miso vinaigrette: Mix rice wine vinegar, miso, and canola together.
4. Mix spinach with sliced sunchoke, spinach, rum raisin, and dress it with miso vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper and serve.