Tip of the Day: Experiment with non-dairy milk
Continue reading Tip of the Day: Experiment with non-dairy milk
Food shortages hitting the US already?
If you keep up with the news, you've probably heard about the food shortages and riots in Haiti and Egypt. You've also probably heard about the drought in Australia and the fact that China and India are limiting exports of rice. That's all going to lead to a lot of problems worldwide, as it already has in some places, but have food shortages hit the US?According to this article in the New York Sun, the answer is yes. Some stores in New York and California are limiting the amount of rice and flour that consumers can take home. Retailers are also complaining about spotty deliveries for rice in California.
We tend to think of food shortages as something very far away, something that doesn't affect us. With the possibility that Americans could be affected by this, will we be able to come up with a solution in time to prevent a real crisis?
Late-winter food porn: Hawaiian food blog
The last of the March snow is still on the ground and I was wearing my down coat all day, so The Tasty Island, a Hawaiian food blog, struck me as drool-worthy in two ways - the reviews of yummy Hawaiian food and the amazing palm tree and beach backgrounds in the pictures. Check it out - coconut shrimp, fried mahimahi, lychee yogurt, takeout Japanese chicken katsu and way more, all rated on blogger Pomai's own Spam musubi rating system (Spam musubi, or spam on rice with seaweed, is an iconic Hawaiian snack) - five Spam musubi means superb, one means average. I'm considering trying to make the sweet, glutinous rice cakes called kakanin with coconut topping, which Pomai describes as the lovechild of a Rice Krispie treat and a mochi (Japanese glutinous rice dessert). I wonder if there are any cheap tickets to Hawaii on Travelocity?
Japanese bag of rice birth announcements
For some reason these bouncing baby bags of rice make Western style birth announcements seem a tad impersonal. Talk about bundles of joy. These dakigokochi, or baby-shaped bags of rice personalized with a picture of their respective newborns, weigh just as much as the infants whose arrival the text announces.
Dakigokochi are far from being an age-old Japanese tradition. They were, ahem, conceived by Naruo Ono and his wife, Yukiko, who own the Yoshimiya rice shop in Kita-Kyushu. The popularity of the pair's wedding favor – a packet of rice, adorned with a picture of the happy couple – inspired them to create the unusual birth announcement. Even though their own son, Sota, is now four months old, the Onos haven't had a chance to send out their own dakigokochi. Guess they've been too busy fulfilling orders for other proud parents.
[via Boing Boing]
Peg Bracken's Hellzapoppin Cheese Rice

Last week Bob wrote a post about how cookbook author Peg Bracken had died. I followed up his post with one of my own that included her recipe for Fake Hollendaise. It was only after that post went up that I noticed that a commenter had specifically asked if anyone had Bracken's recipe for Hellzapoppin Cheese Rice. Mary, this one is for you.
Hellzapoppin Cheese Rice
4 cups cooked rice
4 eggs
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound grated sharp Cheddar
small pinch each of thyme and marjoram
1 package chopped frozen spinach
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
Franken-rice for pharmaceuticals in Kansas

The USDA has just approved a plan to grow 3,200 acres of genetically modified rice near Junction City, Kansas for the purposes of making pharmaceuticals. The "Franken-rice," as it is called by those opposed to the plan, will have human proteins in them.
Though the USDA claims that it will be safe because there are no commercial rice farms (i.e. not for human consumption) in Kansas, there is the possibility that the rice may mix with other edible crops.
Yikes.
Cinco de Mayo: Horchata
Before we get into Happy Hour recipes for the celebrations this weekend, I wanted to draw attention to this non-alcoholic Mexican drink that admittedly sounded strange to me until I tried it - now I am hooked. Though there are drinks under the name Horchata in other cultures, the Mexican version is made from blended rice. It looks (and even tastes) like a milky drink, but there is absolutely no dairy in the recipe. It is rumored that this drink helps to cure hangovers, so you may want to whip up a batch if you plan on indulging at all this weekend.
If you want to try the drink but don't want to go to all the effort of making it yourself, Rice Dream apparently makes a version that is already prepared, though I've never tasted that myself. You can find the full recipe after the jump.
Recipe for Fried Rice is just a formula

There are certain things for which a recipe seems silly because it's more of a formula with variables rather than a specific set of ingredients and techniques -- a salad, sandwiches, casseroles, and in the case of Asian cuisine, fried rice. Fried rice is just something you throw together, pulling various ingredients from whatever choices you have in the fridge. You start with a base of leftover rice, then go from there. Meat? Pick one from what you have. Vegetables? Use whatever you have. Seasoning? Well, this one is a little tricky, but it always comes down to your personal preference. Jaden of food blog Steamy Kitchen always uses fish sauce, but I simply splash in some soy sauce, butter, and of course, my favorite hot sauce, sriracha.
Chicken and Chocolate Cakes: The Boston Globe in 60 seconds
Hey, don't use rice...use pasta! - The paper went to several area grocery stores and taste-tested rib-eye steaks.
- Boston's Restaurant Week is coming, March 4 to 9.
- I've never heard of Chicken Ballotine, but it looks quite good. (Though I don't agree with the line " chicken is often dismissed as dull and ubiquitous, but chefs feel compelled to keep a version on their menu." Chicken is only dull if you make it that way, and not having some chicken dish on a restaurant menu is kind of silly. I mean, "compelled??")
- Thomas Keller and other chefs cooked for a benefit this past week in Boston.
- Do you use a mortar and pestle?
- This week's recipes (very choco-centric): Warm Chocolate Cakes with Dulce de Leche, Fruits and Nuts in Chocolate, and Tunnel of Fudge Cake.
Food Porn: Red Beans and Rice

Red beans and rice doesn't sound like a very exciting dish, but the staple of Louisiana cuisine can actually be elegant as well as delicious, as long as you put as much care into making yours as BWJones did with his version of the dish. His recipe calls for rice, red beans, onion and a lot of spices, including sage, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne pepper, garlic, paprika and chipotle. His is topped off with crawfish, seasoned generously with Old Bay (not to be confused with Old Spice), although some would say that sausage (andouille, in particular) or ham sets the standard for the dish. The meat can be left off entirely for a less expensive or vegetarian version of the dish.
This is an easy recipe to master and an extremely versatile one. Not only can you play around with the spices, increasing and decreasing the heat, but it can work both as a side dish and as a main course.
Sake losing popularity in Japan
In spite of a 2,000-year-old tradition, sake is declining in popularity in Japan. Consumers there are opting for wine, beer and cocktails -- Western drinks -- at home, at bars and at restaurants, causing a 10 percent drop in sake's alcohol market share in the last year alone and an almost 50 percent drop in total sales in the last decade. The home sales are particularly flagging, something attributed to the increasing popularity of Western cuisines and the desire of cooks to match them with appropriate drinks. This trend works in reverse in countries where Japanese cuisine is still seen as hip and trendy, like in the US.
To renew interest, brewers are turning more and more toward premium sakes and cutting-edge ad campaigns, not unlike the ones commonly seen for beer or luxury spirits, to attract younger drinkers to their products. They don't want the trendsetters of the nation to see sake as "what grandma and grandpa drink" or as "what your boss forces you to drink in a smoky pub in a sticky glass." In pursuit of hipness, they are also touting the drink as being low in calories and a good stress reliever.
Flood-tolerant rice means bigger, better crops
Rice is a crop that needs a lot of water to grow successfully, but too much water can be devastating, and as rice fields are usually in very low-lying lands, a flood can mean the difference between feast and famine in some parts of the world. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with UC Riverside and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, are breeding a type of rice plant that can survive - and thrive - under water for up to two weeks, which is far longer than the three or so days that the plants generally last.
The gene that is responsible for the this submerged survival has been known or about fifty years, but it has only been in the past decade that scientists were able to isolate it and figure out how it worked. One of the primary goals is to bring the rice into areas that are at high risk of flash flooding, particularly in rural areas in Asia where the population could be devastated by a ruined crop. Another main goal is to take advantage of the ability to keep crops underwater for extended periods of time to keep weeds under control without increasing the use of pesticides or herbicides on the crops. This reduction in the use of potentially harmful chemicals could result in cleaner water supplies as the floodwaters run off the fields, less expensive rice production and higher yields. The new strain will also appeal to organic farmers, who will be able to reap the same weed-reducing benefits.
Food Porn: Tofu Stuffed with Brown Rice and Mushroom Dressing

Forget the Tofurkey. Susan, the amazing vegan cook behind Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, has come up with a much more appetizing vegan alternative to the omnivore's turkey dinner. She made Tofu Stuffed with Brown Rice and Mushroom Dressing. The dish has the classic elements of stuffing and gravy, but is missing, of course, the meat. Susan marinates her tofu so that it absorbs some flavor before cooking, but it is pretty clear that the bulk of the flavor comes from what is inside the tofu. The stuffing has rosemary, sage, garlic and onion, along with nutty brown rice and mushrooms. The gravy is thickened with tofu, but has similar seasonings, along with a bit of nutritional yeast, which is often added to vegan dishes to give them an ever-so-slightly cheesy flavor. Her post also includes detailed photo instructions for cutting the pockets in the tofu to hold the stuffing.
Vegan or not - this sounds like an appealing fall meal for any Sunday dinner.
Tackling the Tofurkey

For years, the "Tofurkey" seemed like some sort of make-believe food item and I pictured blocks of tofu stuck together and carved into a giant turkey shape. This particular mental image was smashed the day I first spotted an actual Tofurkey at the market. The product is a 100% vegan roast made out of tofu and vital wheat gluten (this is the combination, with seasonings, is known as "Tofurkey"), stuffed with a brown rice stuffing and accompanied by a side of "giblet and mushroom gravy," which contains more Tofurkey, mushrooms and a variety of seasonings, oils and thickeners.
I decided that I'd give it a try and see what it was like. After all - how bad could it be?
The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, Cookbook of the Day
There are many people who use their rice cookers for making plain rice and nothing more. This is fine when you like a lot of plain rice, but if you want to get more use out of the machine, or at least expand your repertoire, The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook might be the best resource you can add to your library. The book has over 250 "no-fail" recipes for just about every rice dish you can think of, including risottos, puddings and pilafs, not to mention that it also has a wide variety of non-rice recipes that take advantage of the machine's cooking capabilities. And there is nothing that we like more than an appliance that multi-tasks.
Since it is a book about a type of appliance, the first thing that it covers is some basic information on the different kinds of rice cookers and how they are used. After that, it dives into the recipes, which include Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto, Salmon Stuffed Japanese Rice Balls, Corn and Black Bean Tamales, Hummus and Maple Cinnamon Rice Pudding. Even if you don't like all the recipes, there are sure to be at least a few that you enjoy and trying some new techniques could help you get more mileage out of the cooker in the long run.










