cookingwithducky

[cookingwithducky]

Blizzard Snackbowl Concept

I have not put this idea into practice yet but as there has been snowing for over 30 hours now it got my creative juices flowing, ironicly enough since it is freezing outside.

Now when i say “Snackbowl” it is a concept of dinner where you dont eat a full meal at one time, rather than you prepare a big bowl of food that keeps well in the fridge over the course of atleast 3 days. From time to time i prepare these big bowls and just have them in the fridge. They dont need to be anything spesific just as long as they can work well with eachother. At this very moment i have rice, sweet and sour sauce and pork in a bowl in the fridge and i use that bowl for a good start of the day. (i have grown a small hatred towards a stale bready breakfast)

For the “Blizzard Snackbowl” i was thinking of using white and possibly light blue ingredience mainly or maybe some traditional ingredience to cold places. One of these ideas would be to use cod in a sort of cabaret that may or may not be flavored, then again snacking on a glob of food gel might not be for everyone.

First concept i had for this bowl would be fluffy rice with peas, cod and carrot mixed in and possibly lightly beaten egg whites pourd over while it is still searing hot and fresh.

Second concept was a fish cabaret with cod, carrot, corn hard boiled eggs and possibly some prawnes. First off it is the problem with the gel i mentioned earlier, second problem being that we are using two sea food ingredience here. Seafood ingredience can be a bit dangorous from my recollection if left alone for a long time. Prawned spesificly gets very smelly very quickly if left in the open from my recollection, but the gel will act as a sealent so it will possibly work.

A Third concept i had was mashed potatos mixed with diced hardboiled eggs, a small amount of fish broth for flavor, melted butter and diced daikon radish, carrots and peas.

[cookingwithducky]

Out of all of us i can almost be absolutly sure about that all of us minus a few stragglers know about pokemon if not only just by name. Out of our herd many of us know about the anime. Again out of that group there are some of us that know about the atocities that 4Kids does to anime when localizing an anime for an american audience by claiming something that is clearly not a pastry to be a pastry.

This one day tweeked my reasonable thinking to the point where i want to make jelly filled rice donuts a reality so i started thinking. Using a recipe for sweet rice in combination with some relativly form holding jelly i could make a dessert onigiri that 4Kids grazed our TV Screens with. Enough about the short talk lets get crackin!

First of all lets go over the basis of Onigiri. You have sticky rice and you mold the rice. You can go plain or you can have filling. It will be Onigiri as long as you do not flavor the rice with sushi vinegar. The Onigiri i will be describing today is a standard triangular or oval onigiri with a strip of Nori. Normally Onigiri are very structurally sound but unfortunatly the sweet rice ended up being less firm when it is warm so i suggest when making these you either wrap them in klingfilm or scarf them down like the Muchlaxes we are.

To make this you need the following: 2 cups of rice that can be used to make sticky rice (I use Glutinous rice) 3 1/2 cups of water (This is what i use for the Glutinous rice but it may change depending on the type) a pinch of salt Sushi Nori (The deep green sheets of seaweed used in sushi or bento box decorations)

1 cup of unsweetend coconut cream 1/2 cup of granulated sugar 1 tablespoon of tablesalt 1 pandan leaf frozen or fresh tied in a knot (I did not get a hold of pandan so i substituted with essense of vanilla)

A jar of whatever flavor jelly you desire.

When making this we start by making the rice. When making sticky rice you need to “wash” the rice. From what i learned this means letting the rice sit in the water for a duration to anything between 30 mintues and 4 hours. After this time you stirr in a pinch of salt. When using a rice cooker (which i recommend) it is set and forget, but if you do not have a rice cooker you can use a pot on the stove. Set to medium heat and bring the water to an easy simmer. When the water starts boiling let it stay untouched for 10 minutes. When 10 mintues have passed use a fork and lightly make a hole to the bottom of the pan and see if there is any remaining water. If there is non take it off the stove with the lid still on and let it rest for 10 minutes.

When you have put the rice on you can start on the sweet additive. Mix the coconut cream, sugar and salt in a pot and also add the pandan leaf or the essence of vanilla. Turn on high heat and bring the mixture to a simmer while stirring but do not let it boil. Pull the pot of the heat and let it sit and reflect on itself for 5 minutes then discard the pandan leaf. If the rice is done with its 10 mintues of silence you combine the two together.

Now what happend to me is that my rice became very loose and not at all fit for rice balls. Having a ricecooker that keeps the rice warm when it is not cooking i let it sit in the cooker while occationally stirring to let some of the liquids in it evaporate. I would imagin doing the same but in a teflon pot on low heat is also gonna do the trick.

Next you need to prepare some squares of klingfoil and some rectangles of nori. When making Onigiri you normally wet your hands and rub with a pinch of salt, but i am guessing you may leave out salt if you want for this. Leave the water running lightly and keep a towel handy because you are gonna get very sticky hands.

Take a good amount of rice and spead it all over your open palm. Put a personal ammount of jelly in the middle of the rice and fold it. Gently handle the unmolded rice ball and make the motions like you were making a snowball (for those unfamiliar to snow think two cupped hands folding together at a 90 degree angle). When you are satisfied wash your hand you are not holding the rice with and place a strip of nori where you feel would be best for the riceball. Afterward you pack that sucker and store it in the fridge to regain some firmness.

If you followed these instructions you may or may not have been successful. If you were not successful in the last steps then i can make you feel better by telling you how this rice goes well with jelly so food was not wasted. Enjoy!

[cookingwithducky]

Welcome to the kitchen of a Madman!

My idea for this blog is to log my experiences in trying to cook outside the books, changing existing recipes or trying to combine recipes into a single dish. My reasoning for doing this is that recently i have had alot of thoughts for different dishes that i made on a whim like combining four yellow things together or even some “irregular” things for my region like Coffee Jelly.

I want to update this as i make food and when i make an update it will consit of an image of the final product, what my thoughts and whims were on the dish and finally how to make and what is needed to make said dish. Be forewarned that i am a european so i mainly deal with the metric system so most of the measurements will be in metric.