Playing with Food

I always loved playing with playdough as a child.  It was so fun to roll it or smash it in to different shapes, then mush it all together and start over to create something new.  So it’s no surprise that I like to play with my food when I’m cooking.  I have several baking recipes that involve rolling and shaping, but now I have a savory dish that is quite fun if you like playing with food.  If you don’t like getting your hands messy when cooking, then this recipe isn’t for you! 

I found the ‘Sushi Ball’ recipe (from the Buddist Chef) on Facebook a while ago.  I saved the recipe to Evernote so I could make them at a later date.  Well, today was the day to make them.  I decided to make a veggie stir fry over buckwheat soba noodles for dinner, so I thought the sushi balls would be an appropriate side dish.  The recipe calls for Calrose medium grain rice.  I prayed to the rice gods that I could find it at Whole Foods and sure enough, I found an entire shelf of it! I’ve never cooked a medium grain sticky rice before, but it turned out pretty good (I tend to have patience issues when cooking rice!).  Adding rice vinegar and maple syrup to the rice when it is finished cooking helps it from becoming a giant chunk of stickiness.  

I used a small melon baller to make the avocado balls and soaked them in lime juice.   Getting your hands wet when working with the rice is a must, or you will become one with the rice and have to wash it all down the drain!  I will admit it’s a bit tricky to work with slimy avocado and sticky rice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually kind of fun!!  Sprinkling toasted sesame seeds over the tops of the balls adds a nice flair.  I suggest serving them with lime wedges, as they are somewhat bland by themselves; however, bland is not a bad thing as you don’t want them to take over the main dish.

My main dish was a veggie stirfry with a modified sauce from The Summer Soba recipe from My Beef With Meat (Rip Esselstyn).  I use this sauce as a base for my peanut sauce.  However, instead of using oily peanut butter, I used peanut powder this time!  I found this gem at Target of all places.  It’s peanuts ground into a fine powder.  The package recommends using it in smoothies, which I don’t consume, but I figured I could use it in other recipes.  Sure enough, it worked perfectly in my sauce.  The powder gave the sauce a nice light peanut flavor, without adding a lot of oiliness.  I added roasted marinated tofu to the dish which added some texture without weighing it down too much.

Here’s the link for the Sushi balls (thank you to the Buddist Chef for these morsels!)…they are quite yummy:  http://www.thebuddhistchef.com/recipe/sushi-balls/.

Here’s the Peanut butter powder:

  
Here’s Dinner:

  
Here’s the Sushi balls: