Cafe World Challenge Week 47

I attended a Japanese cooking class last year and have used my notes from that class to make sushi. I'm not a fan of raw fish sushi and prefer eating rolled sushi ie. maki. I usually order the vegetarian option at restaurants, but I had leftover smoked salmon from making the Lox Bagel so I added that too.

SUSHI SPREAD

The term sushi actually refers to the rice which is mixed with rice vinegar. This rice can then be topped or rolled in various ways. My cooking instructor stressed the importance of properly cooked rice, so I followed her instructions:

Sushi rice

3 cups of sushi rice
4 cups of water
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

Place rice in a medium sized saucepan. Remove excess starch from the rice by rinsing it 3 or 4 times. (Add cold water until the rice is covered, then drain water.)
Add the 4 cups of water to the rice and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover the saucepan and reduce the heat so that the rice continues to cook, without boiling over.
Cook for 15-20 minutes then turn off the heat.
The secret tip: Don't peek, do not remove the lid until the dish is ready to serve.
When ready, mix the rice vinegar into the rice.

Cover your sushi rolling mat with plastic, it keeps things clean and non-stick. I wanted to make inside-out rolls, with the rice on the outside, so I tried both methods. Method 1, was to lay the nori on the mat and then cover it with rice and then flip it over, the rice sticks pretty well to the rougher side of the nori. I also just spread rice onto the mat and then pressed the nori into it to cover. Both worked okay. A good tip was to keep a bowl of water at hand to dip your spatula or spoon into. This dislodges sticky rice and makes spreading easier.

I laid my smoked salmon in the centre of the nori parallel with the bamboo. If you did it the other way it wouldn't roll properly. I used avocado and fine carrot sticks in mine. Then just roll up tightly. Remember you don't want to enclose the mat so fold the mat over the fillings to form the roll. I then sprinkled mine with toasted sesame seeds and cut it into pieces. I served mine with soy sauce with a little wasabi mixed in.
Very delicious. Considering it was the first time I did this myself, I think it worked out pretty well.


                            

Progress: 81/86 (only 5 to go)

Next up: I didn't get time to make Unbirthday cake for my husband before he left, but will attempt it when he returns, which will be after his birthday. He's at sea for 3 weeks.

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.

Cafe World Challenge Week 41

I'm back in the kitchen. Did I ever leave? No not really, I just took off a week posting while travelling around visiting family over Christmas. Since I have two weeks worth of dishes to report on, this post will be longer than usual. I finished up four more dishes to cross off the list, although one is a new addition.

PITA AND DOLMAS

The Cafe World version has a pita stuffed with Falafel and Dolmas. I have previously made Falafel for the challenge, so I made Tabbouleh instead. It is a fantastic salad made from Bulgar wheat, tomatoes, green onions, parsley and mint with an olive oil and lemon juice dressing. I make it pretty regularly and just estimate quantities and taste. I found a recipe on SimplyRecipes.com which is pretty much exactly how I make mine. So check it out there, it would save me typing it all out.

I've never made dolmas/dolmadas/stuffed grape leaves/stuffed vine leaves...whatever you call them. I've always enjoyed them though and had fun making them. I was in the middle of a biscotti baking marathon for a cookie tray fundraiser, so I chose a crockpot recipe to keep pots off my stove and out of the way of the baking. They turned out great. I made this recipe on the Blog "A Year of Slow Cooking" . This blog is a great resource for crockpot recipes and tips. The year involved was 2008, but the blog is still kept current with new recipes and crockpot related posts. These dolmas are stuffed with a rice and ground lamb and turkey (I used chicken) mixture. Once you get the hang of it, the stuffing and rolling of the leaves is quite easy and fast. I still have a big jar of leaves left so I'll probably make these again.

ATOMIC BUFFALO WINGS

I used a Betty Crocker recipe, it was simple enough except for the whole deep frying in batches thing which takes forever if you don't have a great big pot or deep fryer. It is fried in a seasoned flour and then tossed in a hot butter sauce. I set aside some wings for the kids before coating mine in sauce, it was spicy but not atomic. My husband's were probably ATOMIC as he made up his own dipping sauce using all the remnants of his hot sauces. He loves HOT sauce and the hotter the better. I dipped mine in some yummy chunky blue cheese dressing.

WALDORF SALAD

As my regular readers know, I didn't grow up in North America so I am only vaguely aware of what constitutes a Waldorf salad. The Cafe World game had you gathering walnuts, celery and lettuce and I knew there had to be apples in there. So I came up with my own version, although after further investigation I suppose you couldn't really call mine a Waldorf salad at all. It doesn't have grapes or raisins and isn't in a mayonnaise dressing. But what the hell, no apologies, mine was good, better than good, it was superb!! After using a blue cheese dressing the night before for the wings, I got a craving for some good blue cheese.  So this is my version:

Jen's Apple & Walnut Salad:

A bag or about 12 handfuls of mixed salad greens
2 stalks celery sliced
1 small green apple cored and thinly sliced
1 small red apple cored and thinly sliced
1/4 cup walnut crumbs
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
Vinaigrette or dressing of choice (I used a zesty Italian)

Toss together greens, celery and apple. Sprinkle with walnuts and blue cheese.

BLOOD SAUSAGE

I bought a package of blood pudding and cooked it up with some mash and butternut. I remember blood pudding from my childhood. My dad would buy it and I remember enjoying it and considered it a special treat. I haven't eaten it since then and couldn't even remember what to expect. It was good-ish, although it is very rich and I think it should be eaten in small quantities. No recipe here, just a dish to cross off the list.

CAFE WORLD COOKBOOK ADDITIONS

I unlocked the Waldorf Salad and there is also a new cake - Gem Cake.

Next Up: I'm making Kung Pao Stir Fry this weekend.

Progress: 75/86

Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property

Cafe World Challenge Week 23

This week was a one pan dish of awesomeness (yes I know that's not a word). I made Paella, but with a twist.



Seafood Paella

I've been watching the Martha Stewart show archives on the Internet. The shows are broken onto the segments, it's great because I can watch the segments that interest me and skip the others. I found her show on her South African visit interesting and she made one of my South African favourites, Bobotie, I suppose I should make it and post the recipe sometime. Martha's version is a bit different to mine though. Okay so I digressed a little, in my wanderings and watchings on her site I came across the video and recipe for Mexican Paella (click the photo for the video).

The Mexican elements are the poblano pepper, fire roasted canned tomato and Mexican chorizo sausage. The traditional Spanish version would have dry cured chorizo sausage and saffron. I had difficulty finding poblano pepper and fire roasted canned tomato, so instead I used canned chipotle peppers with some of the sauce washed off and regular canned tomatoes. The chipotle peppers added a bit more heat than the milder poblanos would have, but they gave the smoky fire-roasted taste. I could also not find Mexican chorizo, so I used regular Spanish dry chorizo. I used large green New Zealand mussels and they were great too. Oh and I didn't want to buy a whole bottle of tequila for just two tablespoons, so that didn't go in either, and NO I wouldn't drink the rest, my tequila days are long gone.

The resulting fusion of flavour was perfect......give it a try!!!!




Up next: I thought I'd put together some Fish Tacos.

Progress: 46/76


Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property