Saturday, February 7, 2009

Rice!!!

Yes, around here rice deserves three exclamation points. For Ian and I, we could eat rice for all three meals and the occasional snack. Aimee will eat it so long as it is submerged in a sauce and nothing sends Avyrlie into crisis-alarm-panic mode faster than finding a grain of rice anywhere on her dinner plate.

Recently, we converted Aimee to the joys of rice pudding. It didn't take a whole lot of converting, she just had to taste MY rice pudding! She's slowly coming around on sushi as well. Also, my dad had asked me about making sushi rice so while I have a couple minutes this morning I thought I'd jot down two of my favorite, simple rice recipes.

There are recipes I like more, but they are pretty time intensive and in my world, if it's not pretty simple, I'm just not going to take the time.

3 cups cooked rice (short grain white)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2/3 cups white sugar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Put it all in a pot for about 20 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice.

Just as simple to make is sushi. Yes, the rice does matter. You need a japanese style short grain white rice. I've had good luck with Kokuho, and Tamaki Gold. You also need a rice cooker. Well, you don't actually need one, but if you ever use one you won't go back. I tried several different cookers and finally found one I love!

I can start the rice anytime that day and have it ready, waiting, and perfect when we're ready to eat. There are cheaper cookers that work well, they are just not quite as foolproof, and I NEED foolproof ;)

After you've cooked your rice, mix together in a saucepan on low:

2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Make sure the sugar is dissolved, then cool to room temp. Mix this with 4 cups of rice being careful not so smash to rice too much and voila!

My favorite simple roll (that Aimee will eat ;) is kamaboko (crab), cucumber, avocado and cream cheese.

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