(no subject)

• 08:05 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Colossians 3:14 #
• 18:15 Show support for democracy in Iran add green overlay to your Twitter avatar with 1-click - helpiranelection.com/ #
• 20:59 This is, honestly, my favorite Billy Joel song: bit.ly/wbYDU #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Adventures in cooking: onigiri (rice balls)

I'm home for lunch, so food is on my mind. Last weekend, we put together onigiri, which is to say, I put together some Japanese rice balls.

We did fillings first. I fried and crumbled some bacon and some ground beef. The beef was seasoned with soy sauce and powdered ginger.

Our first try with the rice, well, did not work. We scorched it. The smell permeated all the rest of the rice, which ruined it.

So, we went to our local Wally world and picked up a Black and Decker rice cooker.

Making rice the Japanese way is interesting. Here are the directions we used - http://www.justhungry.com/2003/11/japanese_basics_1.html

After you wash the rice and it dries, it looks very different. Kind of like a pile of really tiny quartz rocks. Not quite translucent, but definitely shinier.

After it's cooked, it's really sticky. Even the lightest touch with a dry finger will take several grains with it. You have to work with it very fresh, before it decides that all it's going to stick to is the rest of the rice in the cooker.

Here are the guidelines I was using:
http://www.justhungry.com/2003/12/obento.html
http://www.justhungry.com/2007/01/onigiri_omusubi_revisited_an_e.html
http://www.justhungry.com/more-about-onigiri-keeping-them-fresh-and-more

anher didn't much like the flavor of nori, so I didn't use any. I eschewed the traditional, salty hands method because of just how extremely sticky the rice is, and used the one with the plastic wrap (link 2 above). We ended up with seven round little rice balls from six cups of rice. We have a plethora of ground beef left over, and didn't even touch the bacon.

They do freeze fine, but if you freeze them, you definitely want to 'revive' them in the microwave. About a minute will warm them and redistribute the steam throughout, restoring the texture.

Any patch where I accidentally spread a lot of salt really shows in the taste! It's not like potatoes where the starch overwhelms the seasoning.

I really did like them, so we're doing it again this weekend.