Arancini Sushi

Sushi Arancini

Short grain rice is used in making sushi and also risotto, and because of this, in a pinch you could use arborio rice to make sushi, or sushi rice to make risotto. With this connection in mind, I had been searching for ideas on how to combine the two dishes, but nothing made sense. Adding raw fish to risotto would either cook the fish if you stirred it in, or result in warm raw fish with hot rice which doesn’t sound appetizing at all. I finally came up with this idea to make fried arancini (normally made with leftover risotto) out of prepared sushi rice, then letting it cool, cutting in half, and popping the fish on top. These little bites came out fantastic! They had a fun texture with crunchy breading and crispy rice that gave way to the soft chewy rice inside. The flavors were familiar to any maki roll that has the crunchy bits on it.

Rice Bun Burger

Rice Bun Burgers

This burger uses two rice patties as the buns. For toppings, cucumber, mint, peanut, and sriracha.

Pork Belly Adobo

Filipino Pork Belly Adobo

I’ve been dying to get together with my blogger friend Bianca to cook some Filipino food for years, and the stars finally aligned to make this happen a few weeks ago. She recently quit her job so she could finish up her degree and we realized that we both have Wednesday afternoons completely free. Check out her blog today for more on this same recipe, and again later this week for some other stuff that we cooked that day. Hopefully we can do this again a few more times before her semester is over so I can taste more of this delicious cuisine I have never been exposed to before!

Lemon Pepper Soup

Lemon Pepper Chicken Soup

Some people say that your soup is only going to be as good as your stock, and that store bought stock is not really an option if you want a really good soup. If you read this blog at all, you probably know that I disagree with this statement, and have no problem using store bought stock in most of my soups. Most of my soups though, are loaded with lots of stuff, and the broth isn’t really the star. This soup however, making your own broth is essential because the broth IS the soup. It’s loaded with spicy peppercorns, savory parmesan cheese, and bright lemon flavors. I get this soup as takeout when it’s been a long week, but I decided to make it from scratch last week. It worked out well because I was sick over the weekend, but I had a ton of this soup to help make me feel better!

Pork and Lentil Collard Greens

Pork, Lentil, and Black Rice Collard Greens

This is one of those deceptively delicious dishes. It looks plain, and is easy to make, yet somehow tastes incredible. I was even tricked again with the leftovers. I didn’t want to eat them cause I thought they didn’t look that good, but yet again, amazing! The pressure cooker makes it all much quicker, but you could easily do this one in a dutch oven or any decent pot.

Rice Avocado Salad

Rice Avocado Salad

A hearty rice and avocado salad that is great for a healthy weeknight dinner in the summer.