Tempting Tuesday: Rice Crispy Sushi

Tempting Tuesday: trying not to kill my family with my experimental cooking.

 

 

You may have noticed by now how obsessed I am by sushi and yes, although I hate fish in all forms, I am finding all the ways I can to make the super cute food regardless. 

This version is made using lovely gooey rice crispy cake and sweets. 

 

Melt 25g of butter with 100g of marshmallows in a pan, then pour over 100g of rice crispies & mix well. 

 

After a few failed attempts to flatten it out, I finally managed it by putting it in between two Teflon sheets (can't recommend them enough) and going over the top gently with a rolling pin. If you're too rough, you'll just crush the crispies.

 

I laid rainbow strips across the top & trimmed the rice crispy accordingly. 

I would recommend making the rice crispy cake shorter than the strips because it'll squish into place better. 

 

I put a strawberry cable in the centre and rolled it up. This is possibly the trickiest thing I've ever attempted but I got there eventually after much rolling and squashing. 

 

Then it's the joyful slicing up. I love this bit.

 

 

Not bad for a first attempt. 

Tempting Tuesday: Carrot and Courgette Rolls

Tempting Tuesday: trying not to kill my family with my experimental cooking.

I thought this week I'd do a healthy snack, especially as breastfeeding my little man beast is making me the hungriest person in the land and rather than living off cereal bars, I need to fill my fridge with some good stuff. 

Inspired by quite a different recipe for similarly shaped food with different contents (courgette round the outside, filled with cream cheese & Stilton), I went for this. 

Here goes...

 

 

One carrot, one courgette and a dollop of soft cheese. 

I grated the carrot and mixed in the cheese. I don't know how much I put in, just enough to make it stay put when I roll it up and then I added a bit more to make it creamier. 

Using a vegetable peeler, I sliced up the courgette, plunged it in hot water and a little salt for a minute, then put it into cold water.
 

 

I put a little dollop of carrot onto a slice of courgette and rolled it up like sushi. 

 

As I was worried about how soggy everything was (the courgette was still damp and carrots always tend to be quite wet when you grate them) I placed all my little rolls on some kitchen roll, packed them all up nicely (patted the contents down and topped up as required) and put them in the fridge for 30 minutes.
 

 

They are really yummy, in a very refreshing way, but I feel like they are a tad bland, like they need something else. I'm yet to work out what that is. Any ideas? They taste much better with a little salt and pepper. I also tried sweet chilli sauce (I think adding a little spice in the soft cheese might be good) and chunks of mature cheddar but I'm not sold in the idea of mixing cheddar with soft cheese. My most successful experiment was fresh mint. Maybe next time I'll chop up some leaves and mix them with the carrots.

 

Comment below if you can think of any way to make them less...boring. 

Tempting Tuesday: Fruishi

Tempting Tuesday: trying not to kill my family with my experimental cooking.

I've been dying to have a go at making some fruit sushi.

I've been making wonky sushi for years and as with most foods, I was always left thinking; "yes, this is great, but how can I make it into pudding?"

Mmmmm pudding. 

So, here we go. Rather pleased with them myself, despite them being a bit of a nightmare to make. 

First things first. You want to get the rice right.

Don't, under any circumstances, half cook the rice, leave it in a pan with a lid on and then do the school run. You'll end up with rice that has turned to smush and yet unbelievably is raw on the inside of each tiny grain. Trust me when I say, this is un-fixable. 

Banana chunks with the middle removed, filled with sushi rice & topped with chocolate balls. It's easy to get the inside out with an apple corer, but its a nightmare to fill the things with rice without the whole thing splitting.

Thinly sliced strawberries, laid out on cling film, with a dollop of rice in the middle. Form into a ball & chill before unwrapping. 

These little balls are actually really easy to make, so long as you cut your slices thin enough. Once you've got the knack of balling it all up into the clingfilm, you're on a roll.

Thinly sliced kiwi, laid out on cling film, with a dollop of rice in the middle. Form into a ball & chill before unwrapping. 

Slices of kiwis and strawberry in the centre, wrapped in rice using cling film and a sushi rolling mat, then dipped in poppy seeds. 

A bit tricky to roll, even trickier to slice. I find chilling the whole roll in the fridge for a bit before attempting to slice it up makes it much less likely to disintegrate.

The recipe inspiration I used, I found here and here.

Of course, I never followed the recipe because, well, I can't. Though that's probably why I struggled so much getting my rice right.

The possibilities are endless!

And it's all so very, very yummy.

I'll definitely be making more in the very near future.

What fruits would you use? Share your Fruishi ideas, I'll give it a bash.