Inarizushi and Cucumber Sushi

Today was meant to be the welcome party for Aji's playground, but the weather interfered and the party was rained out.  But not until after I had made inarizushi for the party.  I did not manage to take any photos of the inarizushi, but I am sharing how to make it.  For dinner, I used the same rice and made cucumber sushi, which was a big hit with the girls.

Step One: Rice Mixture

I make a brown rice mixture.  I always use brown rice, hijiki seaweed, and a vegetable.  Sometimes I add millet, quinoa, sesame seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, you get the idea.  Adjust the amount of water to the amount of rice, millet, quinoa that you are using.

2 (rice) cups brown rice

1-2 T dry hijiki

1 cup shredded zucchini (or other vegetable)

4.5 (rice) cups water

I set this in my rice maker with a delay start so that it is ready in the morning.

Step Two: Making Inarizushi

You need to purchase inarizushi-no-moto (like here from Amazon) or make your own from auberage.  I haven't been able to find unseasoned auburage, so I buy the seasoned cans of the inarizushi-no-moto from the local Korean natural grocery store.  

When I'm making a large batch of inarizushi, I use the liquid from the can to mix with my rice mixture.  When I'm just making a few for my kids' lunches, I use a reasoned rice vinegar (sushi vinegar).  Not much is needed, enough to mix with the rice to add a little flavor, and let the rice cool a little bit so that you don't burn your hands stuffing the inari.

After mixing the liquid with the rice, then to make the inarizushi, you take one piece of the inarizushi-no-moto out of the can, and gently open it, taking care not to tear it, making it into a little pocket.  Then, you take some of the rice mixture and stuff it into the pocket.  You can either stuff it to the top or stuff it a little less and fold over the edges of the pocket.  I always leave edges to fold over.  If you stuff the rice to the top, you can add sprinkles of gomassio or something else to the open rice.

When I make inarizushi for the girls' lunches, I use two stuffed pockets for each lunch.  Today I made 10 pieces for the party, which we ate for lunch with friends.

Step Three: Making Cucumber Sushi

One large cucumber makes four large pieces for the girls' dinner

I take the cucumber and partially peel it, but you can leave the skin on or peel it completely.  The girls and I like the stripes from the partial peel.  Then, I cut the cucumber into four sections that are 1.5-2 inches long.  Using a spoon or a knife, cut out the center (seeds) of each cucumber piece.  Take some of the rice mixture and stuff the cucumber.  Sprinkle black sesame seeds gomassio on top and serve.  Yum!

 

I served this with pecans and avocado for the girls' dinner tonight.  They had a lot of fun eating these, although I may make the cucumber pieces a bit shorter next time.  :)

Baked Rice and Lentils

from many months ago...written but never remember to hit publish...
 
Taking inspiration from the Mothering November/December issue's potluck article, I made baked rice. I mostly used the recipe provided there, but made a few changes, mostly to veganize it. :)

Ingredients
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup brown long-grain rice
3/4 cup dry French lentils
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups vegetable broth
15 oz diced tomatoes with juices
1-2 cups frozen greens, defrosted and chopped
1/2 cup Daiya (mozzarella style)

What to do
Preheat the oven to 350.
Warm your Dutch oven over medium heat. While it is warming, chop the onion. When the pot is warm, add the olive oil. When the oil is warm, add the onion and saute for five minutes. Mince the garlic and chop the carrot and celery. Add them to the onion and saute for another five minutes. (Add a little water if everything starts to stick.)
Add the rice, lentils, and cumin and stir and cook for approximately one minute.
Add the broth and tomatoes with juice. Stir well.
Remove from heat and place in oven, uncovered. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Defrost and chop the greens (or use fresh).
Add the greens and Daiya to the casserole, stirring well to combine.
Place back in the oven and bake for another 20-30 minutes, uncovered.

Asparagus risotto

Last night I made an asparagus risotto for the girls' dinner. 

Ingredients 

1 bunch fresh asparagus from the farmers' market, trimmed 

Olive oil 

Coarse sea salt 

Freshly ground pepper 

1/2 red onion, finely chopped 

2 T extra virgin olive oil 

1 1/2 cups arborio rice 

1/2 cup reisiling (also from farmers' market) 

3 cups organic vegetable broth 

Salt 

What to do 

Preheat oven to 425. Wash and trim the asparagus. Then toss with evoo, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. Roast for ten minutes. Let asparagus cool, then cut into one inch pieces. Meanwhile, in a heavy bottom pan, heat the 2 T evoo and cook the red onion. When it is soft, add the arborio rice and cook for two minutes. Then add the white wine (I used reisiling), stirring constantly. When the wine is cooked in, add the veggie broth, one or one-half cup at a time, constantly stirring. With last cup or half-cup, add the roasted and cut asparagus and salt to taste. Serve with salt And nutritional yeast. Relatively easy dinner, except for the constant stirring. Jacqui complained about the asparagus, but ate everything up. Aji ate a bit more than half her portion, but had gorged on coco bread right before, so she may have been legitimately full. I liked it too. Leftovers for lunch this week!

Mujadara

Ingredients
1 cup long grain brown rice
1 cup green lentils
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T nutritional yeast
1/4-1/2 cup cooked onions (1 medium to large size red onion, diced, cooked in olive or canola oil for 15-20 minutes, until reduced, slightly browned, and sweet)

Tools that you need
skillet/pan for cooking onions
sharp knife to cut onions
measuring spoons/cup
rice cooker with brown rice setting with rice paddle

What to do
Cook onions if not already prepared -- see directions above.
Rinse rice and lentils, if desired.
Put everything into the rice cooker, stir with rice paddle to combine, and set for brown rice cycle.
Enjoy!
You can top with additional fried onions, olives, etc. :)

Thoughts
I set this last night for delayed start to make for the girls for lunch today. It made 4 servings: 1 for Jacqui, 1 for Aji, 1 for me, and 1 for leftovers. I packed the girls' portions with an assortment of colored olives and sweet yellow pepper slices. I will report later with the girls' assessment of their Tuesday camp lunch. But, it had rice, lentils, and cooked onions, three of Jacqui's favorite foods, so hopefully she liked it! :D And they got to have their cool yellow sporknives with lunch today.

I ate mine as an early lunch (1130 today). I meant to have a few bites because I hadn't eaten much breakfast, but ended up eating the whole container. SO GOOD. I think I could add a bit more olive oil (some recipes I saw had A LOT more olive oil), but as this was my first time putting olive oil into my rice cooker, I didn't want to overdo it. Might try some more next time.

Beans and Cauliflower Stew

Two types of cauliflower, two types of beans. And a whole lot of goodness.

The seasoning is weird (although I like poultry seasoning, I don't normally cook with it, and I usually use other herbs) because the pantry here at the house we're staying at (on VACATION!!!) is heavy on the granulated garlic and baking powder and light on everything else. Including measuring spoons! But I'm on vacation and it's snowing, so trying to make the most of what I've got.

Ingredients
Romanesco cauliflower, cut into small pieces (it's neon green with spires)
Orange cauliflower, cut into small pieces
1 large sweet onion, minced
3 gloves garlic, minced
olive oil
3-4 cups cooked garbanzos (cooked with shallot and garlic), and any remaining cooking water
1 cup dried Sangre de Toro beans (Rancho Gordo - Xoxoc Project beans), cooked with garlic, with cooking water
1 potato, thinly chopped
lacinato kale
poultry seasoning
basil
salt
black pepper
2 heaping T nutritional yeast
water
1/2 cup organic rice
handful of angel hair pasta, broken into two inch pieces

What to do
I cooked the garbanzos last night with shallots and garlic, and saved the remaining (not much) cooking water for the soup today. (As I found, this house, while large, is lacking in the kitchen department -- despite the size of the kitchen. No vegetable bouillon. Not many spices at all...)
This morning, with breakfast, I hard boiled the Sangre de Toro beans with 3 cloves of minced garlic for twenty minutes, then let them sit for 1 1/2 - 2 hours before cooking them.
While the beans were cooking, I minced the garlic and onion for the soup and sauteed them in some olive oil.
I washed and cut up the two heads of cauliflower. (I didn't use all of the cauliflower in the soup though).
Last night, I had washed and chopped all the kale when I was making the Christmas Lima Lasagna, so that was ready already, but if you haven't prepared it, wash and chop the kale.
Wash, peel, and chop the potato.
Once the Sangre de Toro beans are finished cooking, add the garbanzos and cooking water, the sauteed onions and garlic, several handfuls of cauliflower, handfuls of kale, the potato, some poultry seasoning (because it's the spice here!!!), dried basil (the spice I bought yesterday for the lasagna), salt, and black pepper, and water. As much water as you need to cover everything. Also, add the rice and broken angel hair pieces. Cover the pot and let it all cook.
After 30-40 minutes, taste and check the cauliflower to see if it's finished. Add more spices.
When it tastes good and the cauliflower is finished cooking, take off the heat and add the heaping spoonfuls of nutritional yeast. Let it cool a bit, and Lunch Is Served!!!

Orange Stew

Today's stew is orange. Very orange. But not orange from oranges. Orange from sweet potatoes and squash. Beautifully orange!

Ingredients
1 cup dried garbanzos, soaked overnight (makes ~ 3 1/2 cups cooked beans)
2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed
1 long squash
1-2 T olive oil
1/2 very large onion
2 large cloves garlic
2 large parsnips
2 blue potatoes
2 T liquid vegetable bouillon
water
2 handfuls wild rice mix
3/4 cup red quinoa

What to do
Cook the beans, drain.
Chop the onion; dice the garlic.
Heat soup pot, when warm, add the olive oil. When the oil is warm, add the chopped onion and saute for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another 3 minutes.
Cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch rounds, then into six pieces per round slice. Add to the pot with enough water to cover.
Add the vegetable bouillon. Stir to combine. Cover the pot.
Peel the squash, halve it, scoop out the insides, and cut out the stem. Then, slice it into 1/2 inch half rounds and cut those into 3-4 pieces each. Add to the pot. Add more water if needed. Stir. Cover the pot.
Peel the parsnips and chop. Add to the pot. Add more water if needed, to cover vegetables. Stir. Cover the pot.
Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch rounds, then into six pieces per round slice. Add to the pot. Add more water if needed, to cover vegetables. Stir. Cover the pot.
Take two large handfuls of the wild rice mix and add to the pot. Stir. Add more water if needed. Cover the pot.
Let it all cook for 35-45 minutes, stirring to keep the stew from sticking.
Add the quinoa (rinse if you remember to - I didn't last night/this morning when I added the quinoa at 1-something). Stir well. Cover the pot and let it cook for another 20-30 minutes.
When the cooking is finished, cover the pot until you are ready to serve it, reheating on the stove if needed.

Saturday Stew

This stew was excellent! ...and probably deserves a better name than Saturday Stew...



I wanted to use up some of my veggie stores before going to the farmers' market. J and I put this stew together in the morning between making/eating breakfast, getting A to sleep for a nap, and heading out to the market, where we of course bought lots more vegetable goodness.

Ingredients
1 big tomato (mistakenly bought or given me by one of the farmers last week), chopped
1 cup cooked black beans
1 golden squash, sliced into rounds and then halved or quartered
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups Brussels sprouts, halved
6 small red potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
1 cup wild rice mix
1 no-chicken vegetable bouillon cube
water
olive oil

What I did
I started by chopping the onion, heating up my huge LeCreuset, and warming the oil. Then I sauteed the onion for a few minutes.
J picked out six of our little red potatoes, which I then scrubbed, cut the eyes out of, and cut up.
I peeled the butternut squash, scooped out the insides, and cut it up. I then cut the rest of the veggies. I had already "peeled" (not quite the right word, but I'm not totally sure what to call it) the Brussels sprouts earlier in the week, so I just had to cut them in half.
I added the veggies as I cut them to the pot, where I had already add the water and two bouillon squares. This process took an hour or so, between all the other stuff we were doing. I kept it on low-medium heat.

Maybe 15 minutes before we left for the market, I added the black beans and J helped me add one cup of a wild rice mix that I got at MOM's last time we were down in Maryland. (I kept wavering on adding the black beans, because I really wasn't sure about black beans with potatoes and squash. I decided that I needed to use them, and they were the only cooked, non-frozen beans that I had on hand, so I put them in. I don't know why I was so wary about adding them -- they were excellent in this soup, and provided a nice contract to the whites, reds, and browns of the rice, and the orange of the squash.)

We left it on low heat on my simmer burner and spent 1 1/2 hours at the market getting all sorts of fall vegetables from Evolutionary Organics and a NJ farm (hello way too many green and yellow beans!) and some Freekah and spelt flour from Cayoga Pure Organics, listening to Cajun zydeco music (two fiddlers and one accordionist), and stopping off at the Brooklyn Public Library to drop off and pick up a book.

The apartment smelled delicious when we walked in. J asked for some more zydeco music; I didn't have any on my iTunes, so we settled for some South American, and got ourselves some stew for an early lunch (it was 11:40). Not only did is smell like it should be eaten again and again, it looked gorgeous! So many colors and textures! One bowl each of thick, filling stew later, J and A were ready for their naps. Ahh...sleep...full tummies...



I gave J this stew for lunch on Sunday, adding more water to it when I heated it up on the stove (the rice had soaked up all the broth). It was just as delish and possibly more filling the second time around (I ate the bit that didn't fit into J's bowl). She's got probably three more servings for meals this week. Yum.

Mushroom Risotto with French Lentils

Here's what I made for J last night (for her lunch or dinner today).

Ingredients
1 cup French lentils
several big shakes of Organic no-salt Seasoning
2 cups water

3/4 cup arborio rice
1 medium organic sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced and coarsely chopped
3/4 -1 cup mixed exotic mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups water
olive oil

What I did
First, I cooked the lentils in my medium Le Creuset: combine water, lentils, and seasoning; cover; stir as needed until water is absorbed and lentils are cooked. When the lentils were finished, I transferred them to a medium glass bowl.
I then heated the olive oil in the same pan. When it was warm, I sautéed the onion for 4 minutes, and then added the garlic for another minutes. Then I added the rice to coat it in the oil and the mushrooms. I sautéed everything together for a minute or two, then added the water. I covered the pot partially and let it all cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When the water was absorbed and the rice creamy, I added 3/4 of the cooked lentils and stirred to combine. Then I turned off the heat.

Voila! Mushroom risotto with french lentils! And only one dirty dish! Woo hoo!!

It smelled good, so hopefully it will taste good too! I put the remaining lentils in another dish to save for another meal. :)

The verdict on this dish: too much of a mushroom flavor (and not enough of something else) for J. She ate it rather unwillingly, but ate it. I ate it with LOTS of nutritional yeast added, which made it taste a lot better. But noone gave J sprinkles for hers with lunch. Oh well.