Sushi Rice and Sushi 101

How long has it been since you made sushi? Myself, I can't remember when. I used to roll sushi occasionally with friend Laci, fun times that were as much about socializing as they were about dining. RL was enthusiastic about sushi when we had it for dinner, but it's been a while, a long while, since we've enjoyed it at home. For no particular reason sushi has just dropped off the kitchen rotation. It was time to get back in practice. The week's dreary winter weather made it a perfect time to hang out in the kitchen and revisit Sushi 101. Hilary came by to join in the fun. 

People fret about learning the techniques for rolling sushi, but the important activity really begins with the seasoned rice. There is no good sushi without good sushi rice. Really. It's not difficult to prepare, but here are some rice cooking tips to follow.

• Use medium-grain Calrose or sushi rice, NOT short-grain glutinous or sticky rice.
• Rinse the rice well to remove the dusty starch coating on each grain, rubbing gently with your hands. Drain. Repeat rinsing and draining 4 or 5 times until the water runs fairly clear. Drain well (and some cooks suggest you let the rice sit draining in a strainer for 14+ minutes).
• Use a rice cooker for consistently good rice. Add the rice and a roughly equivalent amount of water to the cooker. (OR use the knuckle approach: use your index finger to touch the TOP of the rice and add water until it reaches the knuckle.) Turn the machine ON.
• When the rice cooker switches from COOK to WARM, it's time to transfer the rice to a wooden or other non-metallic bowl or tray. Sprinkle the seasoned rice vinegar* on top of the rice; use a wooden paddle to slice the mass of rice diagonally in several places and turn it over, all the while fanning to help it to cool and achieve a somewhat glossy surface. Continue cutting, folding and fanning until cooled to room temperature.
• Cover the cooked rice with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap until you are ready to use it. Do NOT store it in the fridge as that will change the texture, and not in a good way.
• Use prepared seasoned rice vinegar or mix your own using a 2:1 ratio of plain rice vinegar to sugar, plus salt to taste. Some recipes call for adding a splash of sake or mirin as well. (3 cups cooked rice uses roughly 1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar)

It's also important to prepare and organize the filling ingredients ahead of time. 

Have plastic wrap handy to enclose the bamboo rolling mats and to wrap each sushi roll as you go. 

Here's a quick overview of our efforts this week.

Inside/Out California Rolls (uramaki) with Dungeness crab, sesame seeds, cream cheese batons, cucumber strips and sliced avocado. The first roll might not have been perfectly formed, but it tasted just fine.

Rice Cubes, using a clever Australian-designed gadget, with assorted fillings and topped with Sriracha sauce and tobiko (flying fish roe). This was a fast, fun way to turn out single bites.

Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls (temaki) with rainbow-colored crunchy vegetables. They were gorgeous, but a bit challenging to eat.

Inside/Out Spicy Tuna Rolls (uramaki) with mango, mint, avocado, Sriracha sauce and tobiko. These were awesome, our very favorite taste treat of the afternoon. The fresh mango and mint enhanced the flavor of the Sriracha-flavored diced ahi tuna for an amazing sweet/hot/tangy/smooth/crunchy combination. 

Just when we thought we couldn't sample one more bite, we formed Nigiri-style sushi, a hand-formed pillow of rice topped with a butterflied shrimp and a wasabi-flavored sauce... yum! We made room for several of these beauties. 

Uwajimaya's Renton store provided the absolutely fresh seafood and several YouTube videos answered a few how-to questions, like "how do you get the rice to stick to the nori on an inside/out roll?" You can tell, we had hours of fun playing with sushi

Stir-Fried Beef with Oranges and Green Beans

After several weeks of indulgent holiday meals and dining out, I craved something simple... a dish with few main ingredients... a one-skillet dish that incorporated fresh, crunchy vegetables... Of course! a stir fry. Quick memory flashback to a favorite, near-forgotten dish, a stir fry recipe from a cookbook that never fails to inspire, Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen. My copy of this 2003 gem is covered with yellow Magic Marker highlights, pencilled notations and a generous spattering of food stains from uber-enthusiastic cooking.

Stir Frying - hmmmm, I've grown quite relaxed about this preparation, ignoring written recipes and working more freeform. Sometimes this approach succeeds and other times, well... not so much. Today I pulled out the Real Kitchen cookbook and worked off the original recipe, exchanging ingredients as necessary but following the printed procedure. Examples: I ground 1 star anise, 5 cloves, 1/8 tsp coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp fennel seed, plus 1/4 tsp cinnamon in a spice grinder to replace the Chinese 5-spice powder missing from my pantry. I used beef chuck already on hand instead of the recommended round steak. Canola oil replaced the specified peanut oil. Balsamic vinegar subbed for Chinese black vinegar. 

The results? Still delicious, and every bit as good as remembered. 
  

Stir-Fried Beef with Oranges, Green Beans and Chiles

Adapted from Tyler Florence’s Real Kitchen

Serves 4-6

1 egg white

½ tsp hot sesame oil

1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

1 TBS cornstarch

Ground white pepper

1 lbs boneless beef, sliced very thin (slice when semi-frozen)

2 cups oil (I used canola)

1 orange or 2 Mandarins or Clementines, unpeeled, sliced in paper-thin rounds

2 TBS cornstarch, divided

1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled & minced or grated

4 fresh garlic cloves, minced

2 green onions, minced

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

¾ lbs fresh green beans, halved and blanched

¼ cup low sodium Chicken Stock

2 TBS low sodium soy sauce

1 TBS balsamic vinegar

1 TBS Mirin (or sugar)

2 TBS toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Marinate the Beef:  

Whisk together the egg white, sesame oil, five spice powder and cornstarch. Add white pepper to season. Toss the beef strips in the marinade to coat thoroughly; refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.

 

Cook the Orange Rounds:  

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat to 350 degrees F. Toss the orange slices with 1-tablespoon of cornstarch. Fry the oranges until crisp and beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove with a strainer and drain on a plate covered with layered paper-towels.

Finish the Dish:

Bring the oil back up to temperature and stir-fry the beef in small batches for 2 minutes; remove to a paper-towel covered plate to drain. Repeat with the remaining batches of beef.

Carefully pour the hot oil into a heat-proof container. Return ¼ cup oil to the wok and reheat the pan. Stir fry the ginger, garlic, green onions and chiles until fragrant. Add the green beans, season with salt and white pepper (optional).

Mix the chicken stock with the remaining 1-tablespoon of cornstarch and add to the pan; stir in the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and Mirin or sugar. Simmer until the beans are tender and the sauce is thick (3-4 minutes if the beans are very thin and pre-blanched, up to 10 minutes for thicker, raw beans).

Return the beef and orange slices to the pan, toss to coat. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and serve with steamed rice.

Microwave Risotto with Lemon and Broccoli

Hilary and Chelsea came by for another cooking session (see previous post) and their requested topic was Side Dishes 101. That covered a huge range of possibilities, so we narrowed it down to a vegetable and a starch. The girls suggested Brussels sprouts and rice, two ingredients that can be prepared in a variety of ways. We began with the sprouts, first Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Potatoes and Bacon and then Sprout Chips with a honey and Sriracha sauce. Next came a traditional stovetop Risotto with Mushrooms, Lemon and Basil followed by a Rice Pilaf with Nuts and Dried Fruits. The girls measured, chopped, stirred and tasted, and we filled the afternoon with good eats and laughing conversation. I organized, and they did all of the work cooking and cleaning up. Lucky me!

Evidently the leftovers were popular the following day as well:

"Thank you, thank you for such a fun cooking lesson yesterday! We could not stop talking about the dishes when we got home. I added some chicken to my rice pilaf and packed it up for lunch today...sure beats a cold turkey sandwich! I wonder if there will be any risotto left when I get home tonight ;)" 

Each dish took 45 minutes or longer in combined preparation and cooking time, an issue when you arrive home super-hungry after work and want something quick to eat, quick like right now. I wondered if risotto in the microwave would (1) speed up the process significantly and (2) produce an acceptable, authentic-tasting risotto. Barbara Kafka's 575-page Microwave Gourmet, a terrific guide to all things microwaveable, provided helpful guidance. This cookbook is so useful that I keep a copy in the kitchen ashore and have another copy onboard in the boat galley (thank you Jean for that second copy).

Kafka's risotto recipe recipe provides variations and directions for portions to serve 6, 2 or 1 as a first course. Single portions are handy when you want to test a new recipe, or to experiment swapping ingredients. I added lemon juice and zest, broccoli florets and parsley to the basic recipe-for-one, and was pleased with the result. The rice kernels finished perfectly, midway between too soft and too toothy, and the dish's overall flavor had a lovely citrusy tang. This was definitely a tasty rice dish worth repeating, but... not quite my usual, creamy risotto. Perhaps a larger 6-person batch, with more liquid and its longer 30-minute cooking time, would better approximate the classic version, but it wouldn't save much time for the cook. 

Final thoughts: microwave risotto is a useful preparation for one or two, but I will continue to use the traditional method for company meals. This is still a work in progress. Now, about risotto in the pressure cooker... there's another quick-cook method to try.

Microwave Risotto with Lemon and Broccoli

based on Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet

Serves 1 as a first course, 2 as a side dish

1/2 Tablespoon butter
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup Arborio rice
2 green onions, chopped; divided into white and green portions
handful of broccoli florets, chopped; divided into flowers and stems
juice of 1/2 lemon (approx 1 tablespoon)
1 1/4 cups homemade or lo-salt chicken broth, at room temperature
salt and white pepper, to taste
2 Tbs shredded fresh Parmesan
2 Tbs loosely packed, minced, fresh flat-leaf parsley
zest of 1/2 lemon (optional)

1. Heat the butter and olive oil in a deep pie dish, uncovered, in a full-size microwave at full power for 30 seconds. 
2. Add the rice, the chopped white portion of the onions and the chopped broccoli stems to the dish and stir to coat. Cook, uncovered, for 2 minutes.
3. Add the broccoli florets, the lemon juice and all of the broth. Stir to mix and cook, uncovered for 6 minutes.
4. Stir again and cook, uncovered, for 6 minutes. (Yes, that's a total of 12 minutes with some stirring in the middle.)  
5. Remove from the microwave and let stand, uncovered, for 3 or 4 minutes. If you want a creamier risotto, this is a good time to add an additional tablespoon of chicken broth. Taste, then add salt and white pepper as needed.
6. Stir in the Parmesan, green portion of chopped onions, minced parsley and lemon zest if you are using some.

Risotto can be made ahead of time, IF you hold back a portion of the liquid and stop the final cooking 2 minutes early. Cover the partially cooked dish and hold at room temperature. When you are ready to serve, add the remaining liquid and cook, uncovered, for 2 or 3 minutes.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

SRC: March 2013

Stuffed grape leaves, oh yes, please! Dozens of those plump, glistening little rolls covered the counters, piled high on a platter and spilled over onto the tabletop as I played with several recipe variations. This renewed interest in filled grape leaves began with Faith Gorsky's terrific new cookbook, An Edible Mosaic, a treasury of her Syrian family-inspired recipes. Vegetarian Stuffed Grape Leaves was the first recipe she selected for her cookbook: that fact alone makes them special. 

My Secret Recipe Club blog assignment this month was Sid's Sea Palm Cooking. Each month it's a new blog to explore, new recipes to investigate, and I happily browsed through Sid's ample archives. I checked out some tempting sweets (including a two-part post on making your own puff pastry!), dozens of Danish specialties, a host of Mexican-inspired dishes, and then... listed under Cooking with Friends... I found it! Sid's Sea Palm recipe for Syrian-style Stuffed Grape Leaves. I knew this had to be my focus for March. Sid, I'll come back later to see what's cooking on your monthly Tapas Nights and Boat Club Potluck posts.

I prepared two filling variations, one vegetarian and and the other meaty with a ground lamb sausage. After gathering the ingredients and spices noted in Faith's and Sids recipes, I skimmed Joanne Weir's From Tapas to Meze for a little more flavor research. In the end I selected a blend of seasonings we love and that were available in my galley. Soon I was busy mixing and rolling, having fun and up to my elbows in stuffed grape leaves and rice filling. 

Forming the rolls was easy enough; it's similar to wrapping up a burrito or a Spring roll. Add a dab of filling to the bottom third of a grape leaf just above the stem and shape the mixture into a cylinder; fold in each side and  roll up firmly (but not too firmly or they'll burst as the rice expands) toward the top point. Stack the rolled leaves seam side down in layers in a heavy-bottomed pot. Weight down the top with a heavy plate or lid to keep the rolls firmly in place or they will float and unwrap. Cover with water, add a drizzle of oil and some lemon juice and simmer slowly until the rice is cooked.

The rice-only vegetarian grape leaves were a treat, served cold as an appetizer, accompanied with a bowl of tzatziki and a few lemon wedges. We enjoyed the meat-stuffed grape leaves at dinner, served warm with grilled lamb sausages, lemony roasted potatoes, Fattoush, and a bit of Wild Rice Salad. 

This recipe for meat-filled rolls makes three dozen stuffed grape leaves, enough to feed a crowd. 

Syrian Stuffed Grape Leaves

Inspired by a recipe from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
makes roughly  2 1/2 to 3 dozen

3/4 cup raw medium-grain rice

2 Tbs oil

½ large yellow onion (or 1 bunch scallions) in small dice

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp cumin

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp turmeric

salt and black pepper to taste (optional)

½ pound ground meat (from 2 links raw of lamb/pork sausage) optional

a generous Tablespoon of dried mint leaves

¼ cup dried currants, soaked in white wine

¼ cup pine nuts

1 Tbs rinsed capers

2 Tbs flat-leaf parsley, chopped

2 Tbs fresh mint, chopped

1 8-oz jar of grape leaves, rinsed well

¼ cup lemon juice

Yogurt or tzatziki and lemon wedges (optional, for serving)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion for a few minutes until soft. Add the spices, cinnamon through turmeric and a generous pinch of salt and pepper and cook until fragrant. Cool completely.
2. Add the onion mixture and crumbled ground meat to a bowl with the rice. Toss in the next 6 ingredients, dried mint through fresh mint and combine everything thoroughly. Add more salt and pepper to the mix (optional).
3. To prepare the jarred grape leaves, soak them in a pot of gently boiling water for 1 minute. Remove and transfer to a pot of chilled water. Do this at least once to remove the excel salt and processing chemicals from the leaves. Drain, pat dry and trim off any extra-long stems if needed.
4. Lay a leaf out flat, shiny side down and ribbed vein side up, and place approximately one tablespoon of filling at the base of the stem. (Adjust the quantity of filling to the size of the grape leaf.) Shape the filling into a cylinder and proceed to fold and roll as you would a burrito or a spring roll: fold the bottom up over the filling, fold the sides in to cover, and roll up the leaf, tucking the edges in as you go. Roll into tight rolls, but not too tight or they will burst as the rice expands during cooking. Repeat with the remaining filling and leaves.
5. Arrange layers of stuffed leaves packed close together, seam-sides down, in a medium-large, heavy-bottomed lidded pot. Place a heavy heat-proof plate on top of the leaves to hold them down while they cook. Add water to cover by about 2 inches; add 1/4 cup lemon juice and a splash of oil. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer at a low bubble for an hour, or until the rice is cooked through. Let the pot sit awhile, off the heat, for the rice to absorb more liquid.
6. To serve, drain the stuffed leaves in a colander, *but you might save the liquid in a bowl underneath. Accompany with plain Greek yogurt or tzatziki and some lemon wedges.
7. Store any leftover stuffed grape leaves in the refrigerator. *One source recommends storing them in the reserved cooking liquid to keep the rice moist. 

Nutty Wild Rice Salad, Loaded with Flavor

I am wild about wild rice; the name alone suggests something tempting, alluringly exotic. It hints at a different taste experience well beyond that of the "regular" rices stocked at the local grocery. Wild rice is different, so different that technically it isn't even a rice. Nope, it isn't even genetically related. "Wild rice" is the common name given to an aquatic grass plant (Zizania) and the seed that it produces. Wild Rice is America’s oldest grain and it is the only cereal grain indigenous to North America.

Today's rice came from Canada, with a label boasting it was "natural grown, 100% lake wild rice, machine harvested by airboat."  Minnesota is also renowned for its naturally-occurring wild rice, though my pantry holds a cultivated product, not hand-harvested from any lake or river. California claims title to producing the most wild rice in the world, cultivating the grain in huge paddies in the Sacramento River delta region. No matter what the origin, use whatever wild rice variety is readily available and affordable and let it contribute its woodsy flavor and chewy texture to a favorite recipe. 

Wild rice is delicious when simply cooked in a broth, tossed with melted butter or a light vinaigrette, and dusted with grated parmesan cheese or a sprinkle of grated lemon zest. But today I craved big, bold flavors, contrasting textures, bright colors... I wanted a surprise in every bite. So forget the simple approach and layer on the flavors and crunch.

This salad began with a tried and true recipe from The Silver Palate cookbook...

...and then I added a few more items, one by one, and taste-tested my way to the final combination. Hmmm, add a little more mint, then some feta cheese. Toss in a handful of orange-flavored dried cranberries to join the party, add some chopped Italian parsley and a big splash of lime. And so it went. 

Finally, this was it, a nutty wild rice salad that was yummy at lunch and even better as a late night snack after the flavors had more time to mellow and blend.    

Nutty Wild Rice Salad
adapted from The Silver Palate Cookbook

3-4 servings

1/2 cup (1/4 pound) uncooked wild rice

2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup shelled pecan halves, rough chopped
1/2 cup sultanas (yellow raisins)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
grated rind from 1 large orange
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley, chopped
2 scallions (green onions), thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup orange juice
A handful of Feta cheese, crumbled, to taste
a tablespoon or two of lime juice, to taste
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Rinse rice thoroughly under cold water; drain in strainer.
2. Place rice in a heavy medium-sized saucepan. Add the stock and bring to a hearty boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. After 30 minutes check for dryness and firmness of rice - don't let it cook so long it turns too soft. Line a colander or strainer with a thin tea towel; dump the rice into the colander and drain. Transfer the drained rice to a mixing bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the cooked rice and toss gently. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Let the mixture rest for several hours to allow flavors to develop and blend. Taste again and adjust seasonings again if necessary. Serve at room temperature.

Almost Spanish Rice

... aka Mexican Rice, or Red Rice/Green Rice

What do you call that flavorful red rice that accompanies every entree at a Tex-Mex restaurant? Whatever you call it, it's so tasty it could be the main attraction at any dinner... or lunch... or midnight snack when you're just cruising through the fridge looking for something tempting to reheat. I had that in mind when the dinner choices had to feature chicken and rice in one form or another.

Mention chicken and rice in the same sentence and I think arroz con pollo, a dish faintly reminiscent of paella or perhaps a Latin-style pilaf, but not quite.  Oh yes, I can mentally taste that amazing layering of spices and flavorful ingredients. I've often wondered if a deconstructed version of this dish would be an improvement or a disappointment, so it was time to find out. 

Four skin-on chicken thighs, rubbed with an arroz con pollo blend of pepper, cumin, oregano, paprika, cayenne and cinnamon, sat marinating in the fridge overnight. I browned the thighs well on each side in a nonstick pan, then let them cook in their own juices with a cover on until cooked through. A squirt of lime at the finish added a nice citrusy tang. Mmmmm, good.

But this was really about the rice, surprisingly good with just a few ingredients and a short-cut approach to flavors. I prepared rice, pilaf style, and added salsa, green olives and chopped fresh cilantro just before serving. OMG, the resulting rice dish exceeded all expectations. The rice avoided being mushy or overcooked, an occasional issue with the original all-in-one-pot version. 

Since the rice was cooked without benefit of the spicy oil rendered from chunks of chorizo, this was not a true comparison, but we still liked the results. For fast, flavorful, nearly-Spanish rice, it's a winner.

Almost Spanish Rice

This is more a set of suggestions than a formal recipe.

1. Use a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and saute rice in a tablespoon or so of spicy oil over medium-high heat until the rice turns translucent and begins too sizzle. 
2. Add the appropriate amount of liquid (water or chicken broth) as suggested on the packaging and cook until just tender.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in chunky salsa by the quarter-cup until you like the results. Add sliced green olives and chopped fresh cilantro to taste. Diced red pepper or even poblano or tamed jalapeño would also be tasty additions.
4. Top with chopped almonds, or add some diced avocado if you like. Serve quickly and enjoy.