An Angel in the Kitchen is a real food and family recipe blog.
A place to be able to find our recipes again & remember how we made stuff!

Friday, October 30, 2020

Sushi Salad

 It's kind of weird that there are still food ideas out there that we've never heard of or imagined before. Down the road at the Colab Cafe they've been making sushi salad. What a brilliant idea! We love sushi but sometimes it's very ricey. So we've been experimenting with the flavours and textures in salad form- and have found it to be a brilliantly useful food. The basic salad lasts really well in the fridge and is very portable.

I'm not very good with plain white rice and since we always have a choice- last night I cooked a mix of red rice, brown basmati and wild rice. I like to put the rice in a pot during the day, pour water of it to a round 5 cms over the rice and let sit until later when I add a tsp of sea salt and simmer with the lid on for around 40 minutes and until the water is has been absorbed. 

Cool. Add ground black pepper.

So what else do you want to add to your sushi salad?

What do you have on hand and what do you love the most in sushi?

I've recently learnt that the light Asian pickle thing makes all the difference to raw veges so while the rice is cooling cut up a couple of carrots in to match sticks, peppers too if you like and then heat a 1/4 of cider vinegar to boiling point, add 1 tsp of salt and of sugar and pour over the cut up veges in a bowl. Give them a good toss together.  

Carrot sticks, any colour of capsicum, courgettes, cucumber, asparagus, snow peas and edamame are all great. The courgettes, asparagus and snow peas I slice finely and cook briefly before blanching. Drain well. Other things that work well are Yomogi- Japanese mugwort, mint, rocket, cress, coriander, nasturtium leaves and flowers. 

Then we added home made preserved ginger. It's so easy- learn how to make it just here.
And then a dressing: 
1/3 c of apple cider vinegar (or white rice wine vinegar if you prefer) add a dsp of honey or sugar and a little sea salt, lastly a dsp of soy sauce. Shake or mix together and pour over the salad. Mix it altogether- I use my hands.
That's the salad part. Next add things like nori cut in strips or pickled seaweed like Neptune's Necklace. Avocado makes a nice contrast to the other textures and flavours. We bought a small pierce of lovely salmon and cut it finely to make sashimi (remove any bones as you go) sprinkle with sea salt. Toasted sesame seeds white or black are a lovely too. The rest- make up as you go along. Wasabi if you like it.
So delicious and very satisfying.
Katie X

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Persian Love Biscuits

 I came across these Persian Love Cookies just here at heneedsfood the other day and just adored the beautiful presentation! I don't bake a lot of biscuits but these looked so delicious and seemed so simple I decided to make them to celebrate spring.

Very easy to make- I halved the recipe the first time around.

Mine have come out tasting like extra delicious biscotti.

Ingredients:

140 grams of ground almonds

110 grams of sifted icing sugar

1/3 c of dried rose petals (yes, they're fine in the biscuits- I cut mine up)

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg- I grate nutmeg from whole nuts

A teeny pinch of salt

1 tsp rose water 

1 egg white

Mix until it all comes together in a ball

Roll in to balls & then in finely sliced pistachio nuts

Press each ball fairly flat- around 1 cm thick on to baking paper on an oven tray

Bake at 170 c for around 20 minutes

Keep a close eye on them towards the end of cooking- they need to be golden not dark brown!

When cold, ice with this icing:

Make a small amount of strong hibiscus (sabridiffa) tea in a small cup- cool

Strain and stir in to 1/2 cup of icing sugar until the icing is pourable 

Add a splash of rose water

Such a simple way to make glorious rose pink icing without artificial colourings

Decorate the biscuits and the plate and the table, if you like, with edible flowers

I've used lilac, double violets, heartsease, double pink hawthorn, flowering cherry blooms, white soul strawberries, Mme Cecile Brunner roses, granny bonnets and scented geranium flowers.

Dust the whole thing with icing sugar when you're done for a magical feel.












Katie X
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