Sushi!

Using the tips from our friend Tialda and the ingredients picked-up with the help of two others, Yuri and Wakako, I made sushi all by myself! It was much easier and faster than I expected. I also did not have the worry of getting ill from raw fish, as I used smoked salmon. I'm not sure where to get sushi grade fish in Cambridge.

Tialda had taught me how to make Korean sushi, which meant adding sesame oil to the rice and sesame oil and sesame seeds along with the other ingredients to be rolled. I picked up the sushi mats, seaweed, sesame oil, sesame seeds, sushi rice, pickled radish and rice vinegar at Seoul Plaza—a Chinese/Korean/Japanese grocer located on Mill Road. The salmon I picked up at Sainsbury's and the cucumber at the daily market on Market Hill Square.

Recipe (makes about nine rolls)
Seasoned Sushi Rice
sushi rice (2 cups before cooking)
rice vinegar, to taste (I'm guessing 1/4-1/2 cup)
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste (I'm guessing 2-3 tbsps)
sesame oil, to taste (I'm guessing 1/4-1/3 cup)

(You can buy seasoned rice vinegar, which already has the sugar and salt added, or powdered sushi rice seasoning instead of vinegar, sugar and salt.)

Procedure
Cut one cucumber lengthwise into 9 or 10 strips. Cut smoked salmon into 9 0r 10 equal size pieces roughly the same length as the width of the seaweed.

Lay seaweed on sushi mat. Spread a thin layer of seasoned sushi rice on little over 1/2 of seaweed. Drizzle sesame oil and sprinkle sesame seeds on rice. Place one pickled radish, one cucumber strip and one salmon strip in center of rice. Using the mat, begin to roll the sushi, rice end first. Once you've rolled the rice end under, pull the mat back to tighten the roll. Then use the mat to complete the roll; and you can again use the mat to tighten the roll. To help the rolls keep their shape, place them in a container or foil, and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then cut and eat. Since soy sauce contains wheat, we served this with tamari.

Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Tea Loaves

Another recipe from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" by Annalise Roberts. There is nothing bad in this book. I've made this recipe twice in the last week. The first time I made it, I gave one loaf to our landlord, and the remaining loaf disappeared in less than 24 hours.

This recipe is very easy. Grating the 2 tbsps of lemon rind is the only time consuming step, and that only takes about 10 minutes. I found that one and a half lemons renders the desired amount. All ingredients are standard in a kitchen, except maybe the lemon extract. I didn't have the four 5x3 loaf pans, so I used two larger ones (6 1/2 x 4 1/2 I think). Baking time was only three minutes longer.

My second batch, which I've just taken out of the oven, I modified slightly. Since the recipe calls for a lot of sugar, I reduced it to 3/4 cup. M* noticed the difference and like it; he said that it tasted less like candy. I also substituted two egg whites for one of the three eggs. I'm going to attempt to make this with egg replacer, to keep the cholesterol down for M*.

Recipe
2 cups Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp xantham gum
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup poppy seeds
2 packed tbsps grated lemon rind
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp lemon extract
3/4 cup milk
granulated sugar to sprinkle on top of loaves

Mix the first six ingredients—set aside. Combine and beat the next four ingredients with mixer at medium-high speed for one minute. Add milk, flour mixture and mix until just blended. Fill loaf pans (lightly coated with cooking spray) with batter and cook in oven preheated to 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cool loaves for 10 minutes in pans before removing them to cool completely.

Pretty Pakora

The pakora keeps getting better each time I make it. It's a bit scary to heat up oil to 375 degrees, but the high temperature ensures the batter stays on the vegetable and not the bottom of the pan. This time I doubled the recipe, so we'd have leftovers, and added turmeric and ajwain seeds and increased the amount of cumin. Our new favorite vegetable to pakora-ize is kale. It arrived in our weekly vegetable delivery, so we thought we try it. Sooo good—it holds less batter when dipped than the other veggies so the taste of the kale is prominent. The flavor of the other vegetables tends to take a backseat to the batter.

Oh, I also parboiled the vegetables first. Since the batter dipped vegetables don't have to stay in the oil very long, the partial cooking accomplished during parboiling makes the veggies, especially the denser cauliflower, easier to eat. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet or not, but we always eat this with ketchup. It's just easier to prepare (open the bottle) than chutney.

Gluten-Free Raspberry Lemon Cornmeal Scones

Another recipe from Gluten-Free Baking Classics. Ingredients: Gluten-free flour mix (milk, raisins, brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour) cornmeal, sugar, xantham gum, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon extract, lemon peel.

This is an easy recipe, although it requires a few more bowls (= more cleanup) than I'd like. Not being a raisin fan, but feeling that I should replace an ingredient instead of just deleting it, I used frozen raspberries (all I had). Since frozen raspberries do not hold their form once defrosted, they ended up almost completely blending into the mix and gave the scones a pinkish tint and a general raspberry flavor that complemented the strong lemon taste. I didn't have lemon extract, so I used lemon juice and a bit more peel. Maybe it was the addition of the raspberries or just the strength of the lemon, but the impact on the taste buds of the cornmeal was minimal.

It wasn't until I had cut out six circles from the dough that I realized they were suppose to be one inch thick—I was going more for thick cookie dough depth (about half an inch). Regardless, they are yummy, and, really, a small scone is better for the waistline.