Onigiri...Japanese Rice Balls

Salmon Onigiri

Ingredients:

Salmon fillet

Salt and Pepper
A tiny bit of olive oil (for baking salmon)

Japanese rice

Japanese rice seasoning (furikake)

Sesame seeds (grounded and optional)

Japanese Plum Sauce (optional)

Rice Vinegar

Seaweed sheets

Japanese Onigiri Molds
A dipping sauce of your choice

Bake the Salmon

Put your salmon fillet seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper in a cold oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Once baked, flake and break the salmon in a separate large bowl and let cool.

Make the Rice

Make 1 cup of rice. Once it's done, open up the lid and let it cool for a few minutes. Add the rice vinegar to the rice and everything into the bowl of salmon.



Add the rice seasoning and plum sauce.

Put the mixture of rice in the molds and you can coat it with the grounded sesame seeds.

Add the strips of seaweed paper onto the Onigiri.

If you don't have the molds, you can make rice balls.

Optional: dip in sauce of your choice like spicy mayo or soy sauce....

Store it up to one day in a tupperware, separating it with wax paper.

Great snacks or pretty in your Bento box! Such a healthy lunch!

Bridal Indian Mask

Okay ladies, this mask came from India....it's known that bride to be's use this daily for a week until the wedding day to get that natural glow, it's ritual in India for all brides.  So let's try this at home and do it once a week.  Do it on your spa day chez toi or on a really hot day like today - the cooling mask refreshes my skin and the Tumeric Powder is a natural antiseptic.

Ingredients:

Sesame Oil

Chickpea Flour

Tumeric Powder

Almond Oil

Yogurt - for normal to oily skin

or

Milk - for dry skin

Ingredients for Indian Mask

Slab on a bit of Sesame Oil on your face and let it soak in...since I'm doing my Watermelon fast today  the Sesame Oil is smelling kinda good right about now and I'm dreaming of Asian food.....

Mix the Chickpea Flour and Tumeric Powder together in equal parts (just enough to cover your face).

Half of this amount should be just fine!

Mix a little bit of yogurt or milk and the almond oil.  Make sure the consistency is thick and pasty like mud!

Now slab it on your face and let it dry...30 minutes should be good

Nice and Bright

Once it's dry, wash it off with a face cloth and water.  I did it over the kitchen sink because I was afraid it'll clog my bathroom sink since there's no strainer.  

Awww....my face feels so fresh and clean and glowing!  Now put away the ingredients until next week - at least you can still use these ingredients for cooking...well, maybe not the Almond Oil. 

Yogurt Vinaigrette

Hmmmm.....what's in my fridge?  Not much but I'm craving a creamy dip or salad of some sort.

Here's my concoction of a creamy yogurt vinaigrette:

1 large Egg Yolk
about 6 tablespoons of Greek Yogurt
Sea Salt & ground White or Black Pepper
3/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Juice of a 1/2 lemon
Sesame seeds for serving

You can make this dressing, essentially a mayonnaise, in a blender or food processor but I just used a whisk (it's less clean up).
Put the egg in the bowl
Add 1 tablespoon of yogurt
Season with salt and pepper
Whisk to blend....whisking constantly, add the olive oil drop by drop.
When mixture starts to look like mayonnaise, you can pour in the oil in a steady but gentle stream.
After adding half of the olive oil, whisk in the juice of the lemon, then continue with the oil.  Add the remaining 6 tablespoons of yogurt and season to taste by adding more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice.

You can make this a day ahead and store and refrigerate. Make sure to whisk before using.

Don't laugh but I didn't have much veggies in the fridge so I ended up with chopped Romaine Lettuce and green apples, then I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top!  Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula, beets and corn would have been nice!  Enjoy your Yogurt Vinaigrette as a dressing or as a dip!

Lemon Bars

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees

Grease 9 x 11 pan

For Shortbread:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

12 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

For Topping:

4 Eggs

1 2/3 cups white granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 large lemons juiced

zest of lemon

Sift flour and sugar in bowl.  Add salt and melted butter.  Mix well and evenly press on the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Whisk eggs until light, pale and fluffy.  Add sugar, salt, stir well.
Sift flour in and whisk until smooth. Strain lemon juice.  Whisk in lemon zest.  Pour mixture in cold or warm shortbread.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.  Top should be set but slightly jiggly and slight golden brown.
Cool thoroughly, top with powdered sugar.

Chocolate Mousse in a jar!

Here's an easy chocolate mousse recipe,  it doesn't even require cream or sugar because the sweetness comes from the chocolate!

Recipe for: Chocolate Mousse

To prepare: 

Blender ready, Bain Marie, small pan for Raspberries, jars to put mousse in, sifter

Ingredients

Directions

200 g. Chocolate Semi-Sweet 3 egg yolks 5 egg whites 5 tbsp. sugar 5 tbsp. water Basket of raspberries

Prepare the Raspberry coulis.  Boil the water and sugar until it becomes like syrup.  Blend with raspberries in the blender. Sift the sauce out to take the seeds out. Melt the chocolate over the Bain Marie (metal bowl over heated water).  Add the egg yolks and mix it in with the rubber spatula and cool in fridge.   In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy, beat real fast.  When chocolate is cooled, fold the egg whites into the chocolate slowly and little by little.  The consistency should be like a mousse, fluffy & full.   Fill the jars and refrigerate for an hour. Top it off with the raspberry coulis and/or whip cream.