Rice Cubes with Coriander Chilli Dipping Sauce

09/06/201316/06/2013 Moya10 Comments

Trying to figure out the Rubik’s cube was always a puzzle and one I never quite managed to solve, however, looking at my new culinary gadget… this bright red cube looked like something I could master. When family and friends know you love kitchen gadgets, it’s inevitable you will receive them as gifts. My lovely daughter thought the Rice Cube looked really cool (I believe the shop had a video demo running in the background) and decided to buy me one… or maybe it was a big hint to make sushi.

Invented by an Australian cook Ross Patten to impress the judges at a Master Chef audition, the Rice Cube is used to mold rice and other soft foods into bite-sized portions. I love stylish presentation and am definitely sold on the idea of tasty square morsels of rice. Information about the Rice Cube is found on the official website, which has recipes and ideas if you plan on buying one.

The first recipe that came to mind was an appetizer I make for casual entertaining, cooked rice rolled into balls and served with a coriander chilli dipping sauce. Jasmine rice is naturally sticky and when compressed and molded, holds together without falling apart. Using the Rice Cube with this recipe seemed a good place to start.

Working with the Rice Cube felt a little awkward at first but I soon got into the rhythm after molding a few squares which looked so neat. This could be the start of a new obsession… a square one!Some notes: Use a good quality peanut butter when making the dipping sauce, I used a peanut butter (made by Neshat) that I had bought from a farmers market in Bahrain, which tastes so good. When cooking the rice add salt to the water, otherwise the rice will taste bland. The rice cubes or rice balls and dipping sauce can be made a couple of hours in advance, covered and stored in the refrigerator. If you are not a fan of fish sauce season the dipping sauce with some sea salt instead. Grilled prawns also taste delicious with this dipping sauce.

Rice Cubes with Coriander Chilli Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

4 cups of freshly cooked Jasmine rice (makes about 20 rice cubes)
2 cups chopped coriander, (leaves, stalks and roots)
2 small garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 or 2 small red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
4 tablespoons of roughly chopped spring onion (green part)
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
2 tablespoons lime juice
100ml creamy coconut (homemade or canned)
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon of fish sauce (approximately)
toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

How to make: If using the Rice Cube just follow the instructions. Molding by hand; when the cooked rice is cool enough to handle, gently compress small bite-sized portions of rice with your hand and roll into a ball, you will need to dampen you hands with a little water when doing this. Keep the molded rice covered at all time otherwise it begins to dry out. Garnish the rice squares or balls with the sesame seeds before serving.

For the dipping sauce, add the coriander, garlic, chilli, spring onion, lime zest, lime juice, coconut milk and peanut butter into a food processor or blender. Process all the ingredients together until smooth. Pour into a suitable container and season with fish sauce to taste. Cover and store in the refrigerator until needed.

Keep an eye out for more square recipes 🙂

food + drink · mains · posts

Miso Marinated Salmon with Green Salad

02/06/201302/06/2013 Moya7 Comments

Browsing through The Perfect 10 Cookbook’s (a supplement of Woman This Month magazine) recipes from around the world, “Japanese” and “Miso” caught my attention and immediately I found myself craving that pleasant savoury flavour, called Umami… our 5th sense of taste. Japanese is such a feel good food, even hearing and saying the words tempura, sukiyaki, miso, sashimi, sushi… makes me hungry!

Buying Miso can be a little confusing as the paste varies in colour, texture, flavour, sweetness and saltiness! Miso is a naturally fermented paste and is a basic flavouring used in Japanese cooking; produced by cooking soybean, rice or barley, injecting with a mold, mixing with water and salt, miso is then aged in kegs… some up to three years! When I think about miso as a condiment it opens up many culinary possibilities when adding miso to sauces, soups, broths, dips, marinades and dressings, all of which can be used with vegetables, meat, chicken, duck and fish.

From as far back as I can remember I have always loved the taste of Salmon. This oily fish is so versatile and works with many flavours. I used a dark soybean miso (Hatcho) with the Salmon, but it is quite acceptable to use a lighter sweeter miso. As miso pastes vary, tasting miso straight from its packet is a good way of gauging its flavour and saltiness before using with recipes. Use a smooth miso paste for marinating. Miso confused… then hop over to The Just Hungry blog which has some great information on miso.

Once the fish has marinated for 24 hours, the rest is quick and easy. For a more substantial meal, serve this dish with steamed Japanese rice or udon noodles. With the healthy omega and the satisfying umami, this dish is sure to please.

Miso Marinated Fish with Green Salad

This recipe is adapted from the Perfect Ten Cookbook, a supplement of Woman this Month magazine, recipe by James Claire.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of Japanese cooking sake
100ml mirin
100g of hatcho miso paste (or your own preference)
2 teaspoons honey
4 salmon fillets (or other firm white fish) (each weighing 150g to 175g)

for the salad and dressing

1 head of lolla rossa lettuce, torn into bits sized pieces
3 medium cucumber, seeds scraped out, thinly sliced
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoons sesame oil
sea salt, to taste
toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

How to make: For the marinade, pour the sake and mirin into a small saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 seconds. Remove for the heat and gradually whisk in the miso paste until you have a smooth mixture. Mix in the honey. Leave the marinade to cool. Slather the miso marinade all over the fish fillets. Cover the fish and leave to marinate in the fridge for 24 hours.

Heat a ridged grill pan to medium-high heat. Brush the ridges of the grill pan with vegetable oil before placing the fish on to cook, otherwise the fish will stick. Place the fish top side down and leave the fish undisturbed for about 3 minutes or until you make the grill marks. Turn the fish over, reduce the heat to medium and cook for a further 5 minutes or until you have cooked to the desired doneness.

In a small dish whisk the white wine vinegar, mirin and sesame oil together, season with salt. Toss the dressing with the salad and scatter over the sesame seeds just before serving. Serves 4.

Note: The fish is best marinated for 24 hours but you could marinate the fish overnight if you were short on time. You can use a normal fry-pan instead of the ridged grill pan or cook the fish under a grill if preferred.

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Sweet Sixteens

20/05/201326/05/2013 Moya8 Comments

It has been some months since I participated in a sweet blog hop and when I saw the theme “Sweets without Heat” over at Nic’s Dining with a Stud, I knew straight away which recipe to enter! The Sweet Sixteens recipe is from the calendar “Home Cooking” that a friend and I had worked on some years ago, back then I had no clue about photography so the styling and preparation of the food for the photo shoot was left to me. The photo above has some sweet memories, apart from being deliciously sweet, this was one of my first attempts at food styling for the camera! I also remember for this particular shoot, a short break was taken and on our return… a certain male in the house had eaten most of our “hero” food. Now knowing better I often get asked, “is this food for your photography or can we eat it?”

Sweet Sixteens is an old recipe for my childhood when living in Ireland and called Fifteens, as the recipe used 15 biscuits, 15 marshmallows and 15 cherries, I have always preferred calling them Sweet Sixteens! These yummy little morsels are not as sweet as you might think, even though the recipe uses sweetened condensed milk. With no heat involved these sweet treats are quick to make, however, the mixture needs a few hours in the fridge to set before slicing. Children will love helping you with this recipe and will take great delight in squashing the bag of coconut around, turning the coconut pink!

Sweet Sixteens

Ingredients:

50g/2oz desiccated coconut
2 or 3 drops of red food colour (optional)
16 digestive biscuits, crushed finely
16 red glacé cherries, quartered
16 large white marshmallows, halved
200ml or ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk

How to make: Mix together in a medium bowl the biscuits, cherries, marshmallows and sweetened condensed milk. If the biscuit mixture looks a little dry add another tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk, the mixture should not be very sticky.

Lay two sheets of greaseproof paper onto a work surface. Divide the contents of the bowl into two, tip mixture onto the greaseproof paper. With hands roll and form the mixture into a log.

Divide the coconut, sprinkle over log and greaseproof paper, roll each log until coated with coconut. Roll the log up firmly in the greaseproof paper, refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight to set. Slice the logs into desired thickness. Store in an airtight container until needed. Makes 20 slices (approximately).

How to colour coconut pink: Place the coconut into a medium plastic bag, add a few drops of red food colour. Holding the bag closed, gently massage the food colour into the coconut until you have the desired pink colour.

Variations: Use green glacé cherries or a mix of both. Use a mix of pink and white marshmallows.

To see all the other delicious entires for “Sweets Without Heat” head over to the hosts blog Nic’s Dining with a Stud, which is part of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop held monthly.