I’ve been interested in trying my hand at these for some time now. Finally went hunting for an easy recipe that uses leftover (rather than making fresh) rice. Adapted from a recipe found on About.com.

Sorry about the picture. Couldn’t seem to keep my hands still.

Bolinhos de Arroz
2 c. Leftover Rice
1 c. Water
3 TBL. Heavy Cream
1 Egg
1/4 c. Finely Chopped Red Onion*
1 Green Onion, Finely Chopped*
2 TBL. Finely Chopped Parsley*
1 tsp. Baking Powder
4 TBL. Grated Parmesan Cheese (opt)
3/4 c. AP Flour**
1 tsp. Salt
Oil For Frying

Combine rice and water in saucepan and bring to low boil. Cook until water is absorbed. In large bowl, combine all ingredients except oil and mix well. Add more flour if necessary to form a dough that can be form into balls. Heat oil in heavy pan or deep fryer to 350 degrees. Flour hands and roll dough into small balls about the size of a walnut***. Fry 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Let drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Kids loved them so it’s likely I’ll make them again.

*Finaly chopped in this case means fairly close to minced.
**The original recipe called for 1/2 c. I put in closer to a cup of flour and the dough was still a little sticky. Might try refrigerating it or trimming down the water in the rice next time.
***Watch the size. Smaller ones will cook through better. I had some that were a bit on the large side and they were a bit doughy on the inside despite being quite browned on the outside.

We haven’t decided if we’re going to use this in the restaurant yet, but here’s Chef’s cold appetizer for his final reception.

A cold, creamy, spicy Avocado Soup with fried tortilla strings and a small bit of Pico de Gallo. We need to work on the heat level a little (it kicks in late and builds up, and this is before the soup has been chilled the full time it’s supposed to be, so I’m imagining the heat will be a little too high when it has been chilled the full 4 hours), but it’s otherwise a good soup.

And quite pretty too!

Yes, it has been a long time. I’ve actually considered deleting this journal because I’ve been so busy and it’s become such a huge spam trap, but since next to no one reads it, I guess it’s all good.

Chef has finally come up with the first official appetizer for the restaurant: Caribbean Egg Rolls with a Spicy Sweet & Sour Sauce.

These were developed for his Garde Manger class. For the final, each student must come up with one cold and one warm appetizer for 24 people. This is his warm appetizer.

He took a Caribbean salad recipe and made the following changes:

» replaced the lettuce with cabbage and cut down the amount a little
» added shredded carrots
» added some chicken

Now the salad had a dressing which he used as a marinade, but couldn’t be used as is in the actual egg roll. So he made the salad as usual with the above changes, marinated it all in the dressing, and then wrapped it in egg roll wrappers and fried it like usual egg rolls.

He also modified a hot sweet and sour sauce. He didn’t want it too spicy, but with just a little bit of a kick. The two items marry well, and the sauce has a nice sweetness of flavor that works well with the sweetness of the egg rolls, but that spicy kick is enough to keep that sweetness from being too overwhelming. You can’t see it, but the sauce has a nice texture and speckling, and it’s a much lighter color than this picture shows, almost a golden red-brown. Very pretty.

And in a few, he’ll be working on his cold appetizer: an Avocado Soup in Tortilla Bowls.

This past Wednesday I was finally back up to playing in the kitchen. For this week: gnocchi. I found a recipe I liked that included Parmesan cheese and I added my own twist of Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. Unfortunately, I had to take a look at several other gnocchi recipes as the dough originally came out very loose and sticky. A check revealed that it called for way too little flour: 1/2 cup versus 2 cups in other recipes that used less potatoes. I also chose to boil the potatoes like I would for mashed rather than baking. Not sure if that “shortcut” made a change in the results.

At any rate, I knew the sticky dough was a problem. I’ve eaten gnocchi only once, but I’ve seen it made on Top Chef, so I knew the dough wasn’t supposed to be sticky. It had to be a manageable dough that could be rolled out. I ended up needing all the flour that was missing to get the nice, non-sticky dough seen below.

After splitting the dough into 4 (the recipe suggested 5 pieces, but I think maybe 6 pieces would make it more manageable) pieces. The amount of dough I was working with at one time ended up being a bit much, but I suspect that’s mostly because we use a wooden cutting board to work with our pastry stuff, so I didn’t have the whole length of the table (and because of an accident with the table earlier, I couldn’t use it that way anyway).

Then came the cutting into “little pillows”. Some of them ended up not so pillow shaped and keeping the sizing consistent was a bit difficult, mostly because I had trouble rolling the pieces out to a similar thickness.

We did the boiling in batches, though I think next time I would try to have more in the pot at one time because as we continued to use the water, it seemed to make it take longer for the gnocchi to rise to the surface. Not sure what was going on, but the water was becoming milky, and I’m sure that had something to do with it. But we did little batches and drained on cleaned towels. They didn’t quite keep their shapes as little pillows.

With the gnocchi read to go, I caramelized my onions and set them aside.

We fried the gnocchi in the same pan as the onions. I was kinda hoping it would give the gnocchi a touch of that onion flavor, but I don’t think it did, especially for the later batches.

Grated Parmesan was mixed in with the finished gnocchi and it was served topped with the Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. They tasted really good, and all but my potato hater and the Chef loved them. The Chef has determined he’s just not into gnocchi, while I keep saying he just needs to find the right recipe. I found them heavier than the ones I had at Creations, and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure if I’ll try them again since the Chef doesn’t particularly like them, but I might. I’m wondering if they can be frozen and used for bentos. I may have to try that at some point.

The entire meal, shown below, was a honey baked chicken (with paprika, ginger, and a touch of nutmeg), the gnocchi, and broccoli.

I’m not sharing the original recipe. As I said, the flour portions were off, so I’m concerned that the other ingredients were a bit off. I may use it again, now a little wiser on the flour, and play around with the other measurements. We’ll have to see.

We did have a Mystery Box this week that came out wonderfully. As soon as the Chef sends me pictures, I’ll post about it.

I found this recipe on TasteSpotting last night, and we decided to give it a try today as a possible alternative to the standard Mozzarella Sticks. The recipe here is pretty much what was posted to TS, but I did make modifications in the procedure based on what we learned today. Changes we’ve already tried will follow the recipe, as well as a few other notes.

Puerto Rican Cheese Fritters
2 c. water
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 c. cornmeal
1 c. shredded cheese
oil for frying

Boil water and salt, remove from heat and slowly stir in cornmeal to avoid lumps, add cheese. Let cool, then place in fridge for about 30 minutes (cover to avoid having the top drying out and getting crusty). Heat oil to about 350*. Using about 2 tsp per fritter, form cornmeal mixture into oblongs about 2″ long. Fry until golden and done on the inside.

The first thing we noticed is that the cheese we chose wasn’t particularly strong enough: there wasn’t a whole lot of flavor. In fact, the fritter seemed more like a cornmeal version of hush puppies and were pretty bland. (We were trying them without any dipping sauce to get an idea on their flavor before we played with them; and we’d fry one, taste, make a few changes, then fry another.) We used queso fresco crumbling cheese, and the mild flavor of the cheese was overwhelmed by the cornmeal, at least at these measurements.

So, we increased the cheese until we had about 2 1/2 cups. We also added about 1 1/2 TBL paprika and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper. While all this helped, we’re thinking about adding some cubano peppers. We still have some of the dough left, so we’ll make the adjustment and I’ll edit to indicate how it came out. We like to taste the food we’re making without overwhelming it with too much spice, but this one just might need the spice to work out.

The other thing I noticed was that you definitely have to watch the oil temp and the thickness of the fritters or they won’t cook through.

Even if we tinker with this recipe enough to where we like it at home, I’m not sure it will land in SaxyK’s. I don’t think it would work well as a catering recipe since it’s definitely a serve hot recipe, but it might work in the restaurant.

Or the Chef may just want to stick with Mozzarella Sticks.

ETA: So we tried adding the peppers (1 each poblano and cubano), and the things fell apart in the oil. don’t know if we’ll be trying again. We’ll see.