le sauce

spicy mushroom hot pot

grilled onigiri in a green tea broth

(Ochazuke with Yaki-Onigiri)

I'm going to tell you what you might be thinking as you read through this recipe anyway.... this is seemingly odd combination of mild, punchy, salty and sweet flavours. I agree. But, you know how people are always talking about balancing flavours? There's a lot of complimentary tastes happening here, and a predominently warm, soothing texture. It requires you to perhaps get one or two ingredients that you might not always have in your kitchen, but substitions are welcome. But before we get to that, and in case you're unfamiliar with it, let's say hello to onigiri.

Onigiri are balls of rice made with freshly cooked, starchy, sushi rice or other glutenous, short-grain rice, and they often hide a little treat in the middle. Tuna, seaweed and, as in the case here, omeboshi (pickled plum) paste, are common fillings, and onigiri are often triangular in shape. Here's how to make them and here's why mine are rectangular:

1. Cook your rice.


2. While the rice is hot, use wet or oiled hands to form your shape, or better yet, an onigiri  mold. Create an indent in which to add a tiny amount of fillling, then enclose the filling with rice and work the shape while the rice is still hot, otherwise the grains will not stick to each other well or be easily maliable.


3. Hot rice is too hot to handle! Having no onigiri mold, I tortured myself for as long as it took to make two onigiri and they were less of a triangular shape and more shaped like the outline of searing pain. I couldn't bear to work the shape long enough and when they cooled to just punishingly hot, the grains were no longer cooperating. Thus, I turned to the smallest little yet deep enough mold I could find to accomodate a 1-cup scoop of rice, and that ended up being a rectangle plastic container. Yours might be a measuring cup, single-serving yogurt container or you may go out and get an onigiri mold! In any case, make sure to oil your mold so you can tap the packet of rice out easily.

If you are running out to get seaweed, just the right tea or that onigiri mold (wow, you are hardcore) for this recipe, please do get omeboshi paste. I recently wrote about its sharp, deep, briny flavour which I love, and combined with that subtle, warming tea, salty seaweed and those caramalized shallots and scallions...well, you'll have highly pleasurable, balanced spoonfuls in your bowl.

first taste: lyle lyle crocodile

Childhood picture books, stories and TV shows that depicted food and dining made a real impression on me. Illustrations of steaming bowls of pasta or a piece of toast smothered in purple jam gave me my first taste of foods I'd yet to try, and are sometimes still the archetypes I hold food up to today. Instead of simply reminisce, I'm going to bring those dishes to life the way I imagined they'd be.

Once upon a time, there was

                                    a crocodile named Lyle...

When I was little, I was drawn to Lyle. I may not have realized it then, but I related to him. He liked nice things, unapologetically, and appreciated a civilized meal, whether at a nice table, or in the park...or in the tub... 

* Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and The House on East 88th Street story and illustrations by Bernard Waber

He also got into trouble once in a while--but of course that wasn't it. I loved that he appreciated luxury and style. He wasn't picky, but he did have distinct tastes. And while he eventually grew to enjoy a wider variety of foods, such as Italian ices, Lyle really had a thing for Turkish caviar. You can see how Lyle particularly liked to enjoy this treat while soaking in a warm bath.

This caviar is a little different than what Lyle is used to but I did make it with him in mind. It's a seaweed caviar and consequently, it's super-healthy. It tastes of the ocean and despite being cooked it retains a little chew as seaweed does--plus there's an added little bite from the inclusion of garlic. And what crocodile doesn't like a little bite, right?   

sesame soba noodle lunch

if packaged ramen noodles weren't, possibly, the worst thing to consume, i would eat one every day for lunch FOREVER and be extremely happy. but they're equally irresistible and scary, so i'm always trying to come up with ways to imitate and curb my cravings for them. a broth of water flavoured with dried shiitake and seaweed is usually where i start, and miso soup has often followed. but this time i turned to a sesame paste in my freezer from a recipe i made months ago. this particular sesame paste was flavoured with tomatoes and herbs, which i think is why it worked so well to round out the broth. and the nutty sesame itself made the soup luscious and aromatic. it was never intended to be a soup base so i can't fault this paste for not being perfect in this, but it was enough to get me thinking about how to create a healthy, vegetarian, ramen (or soba noodle!) soup option. something to work on, and i can't wait to get started.

sometimes i stir an egg into my soup while it's simmering, but in my lunch pictured above, i decided to poach one whole in the soup. toasted sesame seeds and scallions are always nice but do you ever put seasoned nori on your soups? that's nice too. do you have favourite additions? if you want to share them, i'd be grateful, as well as any ideas for that soup base. maybe we can come up with the perfect recipe before there's snow on the ground and we want need this soup every day.

sea(ing) greens

adding seaweed to boiling water almost instantly creates a broth. it imparts so much flavour, and it deepens any vegetable or miso broth i already have going. but before i added seaweed to a pot the last time, i had to stop and admire how beautiful it looked. isn't it the craziest blue? ...or green? the colour seemed to change in the afternoon sun every time i turned around.

ramen noodle week pt. i

i bought fresh ramen noodles so i'm experimenting with a couple of homemade ramen soups this week. tonight, a seaweed-steeped broth, with red, coarse miso added late, and pak choy, a few strips of the boiled seaweed, a mollet egg, toasted black sesame seeds and hot sauce. though the amount of hot sauce pictured is not even a quarter of what i end up using. my ramen broth, like my pho broth, ends up the colour of tomato water, i'm slightly embarrassed to say. can't help it, it's just the way i'm used to it. maybe i'll show you in part ii... 

a random bite of zaru soba and the best tofu ever

there's a little, unassuming restaurant called sakawaya that makes traditional and fantastic japanese food. i will gush about them in detail another time, and focus for now on my recent take-out order from there. to start: zaru soba. because i actually took this to lunch the next day, i just piled everything into my bowl (and no, i didn't eat even half of the wasabi). usually, the only thing served on the noodles are the nori strips, and the scallions and wasabi are mixed into the dipping broth. but it's damn good eaten this way too. 

the tofu you see off to the side really is the best tofu i've ever eaten--consistently. it's silken tofu fried and dressed in a sweet, sticky sesame sauce that makes my head explode. it's perfectly cooked with a really thin crunchy shell around silky hot tofu. as for the sauce...i have to find out what exactly is in it the next time i eat there, but i'm starting to think sesame is my new favourite flavour. expect an "i love you, sakawaya" and more japanese food posts very soon.  

a random bite of sushi (marche)

 

"a random bite" is the other non-recipe addition to the blog that i mentioned i'd be making. it really will be a random (something i ate, read, saw or craved recently), and bite-sized post, but i'm excited about it because there are so many things i know i want to share here.

i bought the house i currently live in from a foodie-acquaintance (small world) and i inherited a small but reliable bunch of take-out flyers. one was for a place called sushi marche on queen st. east in toronto, and the flyer had pretty impressive reviews printed on it. hi! the chef, john lee, trained under masaharu morimoto--possibly my favourite iron chef! 

first, look how gorgeous...with gooseberries, shiso leaves, lime and a pretty flower, instead of, you know, plastic grass. and it actually tasted even better than it looked. i once read that a sushi chef should be judged by how well their tamago (egg) sushi is because that would show skill in flavouring, cooking, and attention to all parts of the menu. we savoured the tamago sushi and every other well-prepared taste and texture too. 

i heart white rice: pt. 1

(and my obsession with seaweed snacks!)

it's nerdy but true. in a way, this is my version of junk food. i try to eat brown or unrefined grains most of the time, and i enjoy them! there are great whole grain pastas out there (but not all are created equal) and despite growing up on white rice, i made the switch to brown rice years ago. brown rice is great. but sometimes the smell, texture and comfort of white jasmine rice...there's really nothing like it. so when i indulge in it, i like to let it stand on it's own.

i was at a friend's house one day and she was snacking on paper-thin, snack-size sheets of seaweed. for those of you who frequent chinese or korean grocery stores, these are not the really tiny sheets in plastic, usually made with kids in mind. these sheets are perfectly seasoned with oil and salt and kept ultra-fresh in individual-serving foil packages. while i know seaweed is good for you, the process that this variety goes through, and the added salt and oil don't make it the healthiest option. but they are so tasty, they border on addictive. i defy you to eat only one package! 

they are great on their own and i was in love at first crunch. but i'd tasted nothing yet. i was still licking my lips from maybe the fourth sheet when my friend served up some rice fresh from the rice cooker. "try this...!" she said, and wrapped a piece of crisp seaweed around a small hot mound of rice and popped it in her mouth. good lord. what a perfectly simple, simply perfect mouthful. the rice is a perfect foil for the salty seaweed and the seaweed's texture changes to slightly chewy when it hits the hot rice. she was right...try this!

mushroom + farro pie

(and other stories)

i intended to write about the delicious mushroom and farro pie that i made days ago, but smitten kitchen beat me to it. it almost never happened, me making this pie. then it happened that i made it twice in two weeks.

what was supposed to happen was, i was to create a complete sri lankan dinner party spread for 6 of my partner's friends and their others, at our first big dinner party in our new house. what actually happened was that i totally chickened out before i even thought about that idea for too long, and opted to make something from a recipe instead. that says something about how spooked i was. aside from my family's recipes, which i follow with a mix of equal parts insecurity and distrust, i hardly ever use a recipe when cooking. don't get me wrong, i have nothing against recipes or cooking from them. in fact, i cherish published recipes in tv, book or magazine form like an addict. but even if inspired by what i've seen or read, i hardly turn to recipes to create a dish.

those recipes of my mother's and my aunt's are for my favourite sri lankan dishes that i know i can make. i know because i've made them alongside them, during steph-by-step tutorials. but my familiarity with the spices is weak and i don't know how to tweak them to get just the right flavour. and rather than fail, i run.

i ran to gourmet magazine's november issue, and the coverline promising "the ultimate vegetarian thanksgiving" received me like a warm, embrace of avoidance. here, in this fabulous mushroom pie, was the answer. a vegetarian entree that looked worthy of a dinner party, that required a recipe in my mind, since it involved dough, and the only thing that scares me more than cooking my family's recipes is baking. 

but of course i had to make the thing once before serving to my guests, lest it not be as yummy as it looked. plus what if it was too hard? i had never made this recipe before. see? stressful to cook with recipes...