Chinese Roast Pork Integrale Risotto

A few weeks ago I entered to be part of Marx Food‘s The Integrale Gauntlet. At first I was very intimidated by the title, but that’s probably because I’ve been watching a bit too much medieval-themed TV shows recently. The more I read about the “Gauntlet”, the more excited I became. This challenge is “all about rice”, one of my favorite foods!

After I entered the gauntlet, I was sent one kilo package of Italian Organic Integrale Rice — my mission was to make an original savory risotto.

Though rice is one of my favorite foods, I’ve only made brown rice a few times and risotto only once. Ashamedly, the one time I did make risotto was from one of those instant risotto packets back when I was in college. I’ve always been intimidated of risotto–the care and attention it takes, as well as the reputation it has for being so easy to “do poorly” or “just wrong.”

Luckily, Marx Foods has a good framework that broke down the process into general steps, noting when embellishments could be added. Using their steps as a guide, I formulated a recipe using some of my favorite flavors and inspired by a recent trip to a new dim sum restaurant nearby.

I chose to make a risotto with shiitake mushrooms, ginger, water chesnuts, pickled cucumbers, cilantro, scallions, and char siu (chinese roast pork). The end result was something that was creamy and rich with the taste of good memories though balanced with acidity and crunch from the vegetables.

For my first time making risotto from scratch, I was quite proud of myself. This is a great healthier version of risotto with it being organic and brown, and it has the added bonus of being a one pot meal!

This dish paired well with a deep red wine we picked up at the local store; the flavor of the wine helped cleanse between bites of the risotto since the char siu was quite fatty. I used about 2 cups (my rice cup measures 180ml) and had generous dinner and lunch portions the next day for two people.

Elly’s Birthday Cupcakes – Carrot Cake with Crystallized Ginger & Dried Apricots

Last year for my friend Elly’s birthday she came over to my apartment and we decided to bake something.

I pulled out my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book and tried to see what we could make with the ingredients we had on hand. We decided on the Carrot Cake Cupcakes, but swapped the golden raisins out for dried apricots, added in some crystallized ginger, and omitted the nuts. The cupcakes were delicious and just what we needed. In fact, they tasted even better the next day.

Happy Birthday Elly!

Mad Hatter Tea Party

Every year around Valentine’s Day, my sister’s usually throws a Valentine’s Day party for her Girl Scout troop. Last year, she decided the theme would be “Alice in Wonderland” and asked for my help in planning a Mad Hatter Tea Party. I worked with her and my mother to plan a menu and make all the treats. Everyone showed up to the party and was absolutely thrown away — they were expecting some food and some tea, but they got a full-blown professional-style party planned down to the tee.

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Totoro Cookies

Last May, I saw a post by Anna the Red about making your own cookie cutters. Using this as inspiration, I bought a circle cookie cutter and tried to make my own totoro cookie cutter. It seemed to work okay, though my cookie dough was not the best. I just used store bought sugar cookie dough and mixed cocoa powder into some and matcha powder into others to make several different colored totoros, but I think the store dough is very greasy so the shapes spread and didn’t stay firm.

The occasion was my sister’s graduation from junior college (she’s now almost done with undergraduate, soon to start graduate school) — she’s as much of a totoro fan as I am! Another thing I didn’t take into consideration was the weather. I decorated these cookies with chocolate, but the hot May sun melted the totoros against the box and they ended up being all melted blobs.

Black Bean Burgers from Everyday Food

I recently made these burgers with my boyfriend in an effort to eat healthier and use up some breadcrumbs. The burger itself tasted pretty good, but didn’t hold up well in the pan when cooking. The outside was crispy and colored like a burger, but the outside was still mushy even after flattening the patty, cooking it longer than the recipe stated, and making smaller patties. This is a good base recipe, and it might taste better if refrigerated to firm up before cooking.

The original recipe is on Everyday Food’s website–I won’t post it here since we followed it line-by-line other than halving it. The original reason for the recipe in the magazine was to use up a big leftover pot of beans several different ways, so it’d be worth checking out the whole feature! We just used canned beans instead of the ones used in this recipe.