Leftover onigiri: What to do with leftovers? (Improvisation)

Growing up in a very economical family, I have more than often brought leftovers for lunch. However, over the years, I grew tired of eating rice and leftovers the same way: in a container with leftovers in the bottom and rice on the top (if you hate having your rice soggy, that's the best way to place your leftover lunch). And being a fan of convenience, I found a new way of eating leftovers the next day without intensively microwaving and without using utensils. Plus, it is a much cuter way to eat your lunch!

Alright, less talk.


Timeline:
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes (if rice is ready!)
Ready time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

Rice (preferably calrose or sticky rice)

Leftover

(optional)

Nori sheets

Soy sauce

Sesame seeds

1. Prepare the rice, it is preferable to use calrose rice or sushi rice due to its sticky texture. However, if you have glutinous rice, it works out as well. As for jasmine rice, it could work, but it would not give a very satisfying result at the end.

2. Prepare the filling. Depending on the type of leftover you have, make sure that it turns into tiny chunks. I had salmon leftover, so I used a spoon to tear the salmon into tiny pieces. If you have something that contains a lot of liquid, squeeze out the juice to use it later. 

3. If you have some juice from your left over, pour a small amount (1 tsp for 1/2 cup cooked rice) in the hot rice and mix well. Make sure that the rice is hot so that it could absorb the sauce in. Otherwise, if you do not have sauce from the leftover, you can add soy sauce. I like the taste of seaweed and sesame, so I added some nori chunks with sesame seeds. With the rice paddle, mix well.

4. Now mould the onigiri by placing some rice in your hand. Place approximately one tbps of leftover in the middle and bring all the rice around the filling. There are two ways to wrap your onigiri. The traditional way is to wet your hands with salted water and mould the rice balls. The other way, without wetting your hands, you can use a plastic wrap to work it out. 

5. Shape well by pressing the rice, not too much to keep the leftover in the middle and uncrushed. To make it in triangular prism, place the rice ball in between adjacent hand position. 

6. After shaping the onigiri, take a nori sheet to partially wrap. It is now ready to serve.

I usually wrap them in plastic wraps to bring to job or class. The convenience of onigiri is that you do not need to heat it before eating, as long as you leave it at room temperature for at least an hour. 

Good luck and enjoy! 

Chewy Matcha Mochi Cake

Can you imagine a chewy, soft and warm texture of a piece of cake? Very, very chewy. So chewy that you wonder whether your teeth are in Dreamland.

I actually got the recipe from another blog and just fell in love with the idea of using Mochiko to replace all purpose flour. Furthermore, having always been a fan of glutinous rice's chewiness, I just told myself "Eureka" when discovering this recipe.

I however have modified the recipe, to suit my own taste as well as people surrounding me; less sweet and less buttery than the original instructions. I have also added one step to make the mochi cake last longer. In a way, this mochi cake tastes quite similar to the Chinese Niangao (年糕). Easy, sweet and yummy!

I was in a rush that day, so I referred to cups instead of weighing the ingredients. This gives 12 matcha mochi cakes.

Alright, less talk. 

Ingredient:
1 1/2 cups glutinous rice flour
1 tsp green tea matcha powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
knob of melted butter

1. In a bowl, sift in matcha powder, baking power, salt and the glutinous rice flour.
2. In a big bowl, mix vegetable oil with sugar. When the sugar is dissolved in the oil, add in the egg and milk.
3. Combine the dry ingredient in the liquid ingredient. Stir well. You may feel that the batter consistency is very thick. Do not worry, it is the thickness that makes it chewy.
4. Leave the batter in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but ideally leave it overnight. This step consist in "activating" the glutinous rice powder, making it last longer and taste chewier after several days. If you cook it right away, the cake will become hard after a day or two (from my own experience).
5. After letting it sit for a few hours or overnight, take it out from the fridge and stir again. You may need to add a bit of milk if it is too thick, but I highly don't recommend it.
6. Preheat the oven at 350°F.
7. Melt a knob of butter and spread it in the cupcake cups or sheets. This will help make it easier to remove from pan or cupcake sheet.
8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
9. Let it sit for 1 hour. It is best consumed within 4 days of baking it.

Good luck and enjoy!

Cake Pop with Fillings!

The excitement of unboxing a new cookware: the cake pop maker! Actually, the intention of getting the cake pop maker was mainly to make something else, something savoury that you will soon discover! As a test, cake pop is in the menu for today. A simple and adorable recipe that both adults and children will enjoy. For those who are curious, the result of my recipe is a bit like a mini size round shaped Taiyaki! And if you do not want fillings, you can just take this recipe and make regular cake pops, it works as well.

I initially found the idea of cake pop superficial, but overtime, discovering new diets, I concluded that cake pops are actually great due to its small size. To some, a smaller size is bad because they tend to gobble bites down one after another; to others, it allows them to take smaller bites in diminished quantities. It depends of the lifestyle that one adopts. Bigger bites and large quantities are usually the description of a stressful lifestyle, when taste becomes secondary and the need to eat is more prominent. I won't say more about this.

It looks like those cake bites have become trendy because of Sugar Crush Saga, a quite addictive game spreading all over social networks. I do not have any opinion over that, besides the remark that people do not seem to look at where they are standing or sitting when taking the bus or the subway. I sometimes wonder how they do not get motion sickness when the bus is moving (because I do). And when people play, they have the screen so close to their face that it reminds me of my childhood when mom told me not to sit too close to the TV because it would destroy my eyesight (damn you, Pokémon!). It looks like those people don't have their mom to tell them that (because I still do).

Alright, less talk.

Ingredients:
170 g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
65 g sugar
50 g oil
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

(optional)
red bean paste (or any desired fillings)

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Add in the egg. The more you whisk, the chewier the cake will be later.
3. Add in the oil, milk and vanilla extract and mix until everything is incorporated.
4. Preheat the cake pop maker. When ready, brush some oil and bake the cakes for 5 to 7 minutes.

** Details: cake pops with fillings, using only one side of the device**
1. You will need two skewers to make it work easily. Plug the cake pop maker.
2. When the cake pop maker indicates that it is ready, brush some oil on the lower surface only and fill each mould to about 1/3. Do not worry if the batter is expanding, but make sure you work quickly enough so that it does not cook fully. The best way to work is to make 5-6 at a time.

3. Add in the desired amount of fillings and pour in the batter to cover the fillings.

4. It takes approximately 2-3 minutes to cook the surface of the batter, so after that lap of time, use the skewer to turn the cakes to 90°, add batter and turn the cooked part to fully cover the newly added batter.
5. It will take 3-4 minutes to cook the cakes, so make sure to flip it from time to time.

6. When it is well browned, it is ready to serve. Repeat the steps to make more!

Good luck and enjoy!

PS: Sorry, someone forgot to take pictures with the inside of the cakes...

Zesty Lemon Cake

This lemon cake came from the idea of reaching a simple yet condensed recipe that many will like. It is difficult to choose a ground of satisfying Eastern Asian flavour with North American taste, yet difficult does not mean impossible. The magic of lemons is its rich flavour – sour, sweet, bitter – and its fragrant smell. Hence, this is how this recipe is inspired.

A note on flavours

It is difficult to describe taste in English. In the above paragraph, the taste of lemon appears so simple and bland in words. There are the basic tastes like salty, sweet, bitter, sour or hot, but tastes are not solely limited to these basic experiences, it is not only the tongue that experiences foods, the whole palate, the teeth, the gum and the throat are part of the process. Sadly, in most time, when speaking English, it could become difficult to describe a taste without using words that indirectly describes it. If one takes the instance of Chinese, the taste of lemon is much varied:

酸 Sour

甜Sweet

苦Bitter

澀 Dry and astringent

甘 Sweet as in the aftertaste

清 Clean

The possibility in providing a direct and concrete word would allow the tasting experience a different dimension. With more precise words, the speaker may convey a virtual experience of tasting and it creates less surprises to the people who would eventually do the tasting. This, however, is a personal remark.

Without waiting longer, you may now get to enjoy yourself the recipe of the cake.

Ingredients:

(cake)

300g all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

65g granulated sugar

65g butter

3 eggs

1 tsp lemon zest

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp plain yogurt

(syrup)

3 tsp honey

3 tsp lemon juice

(glaze)

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla extract

Hazelnuts (or any kind of nuts)

1. Mix the all-purpose flour with baking powder and salt. Sift for finer taste.

2. Preheat the oven at 350°F.

3. Take a one or two lemons and grate to obtain the zest. Squeeze out the juice and let it aside.

4. Beat sugar and butter until it becomes fluffy in a mixer. Then add in the eggs, one at a time. When it is well blended, add in the zest, vanilla extract, milk and lemon juice.

5. Add in the dried combination from (1) in the blend. Using a spatula, mix everything. When the dried ingredients are well incorporated, mix in the yogurt.

6. In a 12” cake pan, pour the batter. Tap it to evenly spread. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes.

7. While baking, you can prepare the syrup and the glaze.

8. When taking out the baked cake, tap the bottom to let the hot air escape and prevent the cake from shrinking.

9. While the cake is still warm, brush some syrup. When the cake is ready to handle, yet not completely cold, you may spread the glaze. Before the icing freezes, top it with hazelnuts or any nuts of your choice. Let it sit for at least 4 hours to let the syrup to settle down.

Good luck and enjoy! 

Chocolate Cookie Bites

Chunky, buttery and overly sweet chocolate chip cookies are not really my thing. I was trying to find a way to finish the bag of chocolate chips I had at home. Then suddenly, as I was flipping through my compilation of recipes, I found a pilot recipe I used for cookies and then decided to make some changes and came up with that one. Since we are in the Nutcracker season, I realized that adding some nuts would enhance the chocolatey and the bitter taste of the cocoa powder. A great marriage between fragrance and bitterness! 

Ingredients:

170g All-purpose flour

80g chocolate chips

50g butter

2 tsp cocoa powder

30g sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

Hazelnut (or almond)

1.  Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until it becomes fluffy.

2. Then add in the egg and the vanilla extract.

3. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Then pour the melted chocolate in the mixture of butter, sugar and egg.

4. Once everything is incorporated, add in the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Mix well.

5. Preheat the oven at 325°F and shape the cookie dough into drops of 1 inch. Then add a whole hazelnut, pistachio or almond on top of it.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. 

7. Cool down and then it is ready to serve.

Good luck and enjoy!