Food Experiment: Mock "dessert" sushi
Sep. 27th, 2008 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjI've had this concept kicking around in my imagination for a couple of years (and in the mean time have discovered that other people have done something along the same lines) but it needed the proper experimental subjects to try it for. The potluck I went to tonight seemed optimum: I was in an experimental mood and it was a completely mundane event so I was free to experiment.
The basic idea is this: what if you made "mock sushi" using the Rice Crispies Treat (tm) recipe as a base and various preserved fruit items as the "fish" and condiments?
Since I decided to try it on the spur of the moment this morning, I didn't necessarily get all the specific ingredients I wanted. And there were a couple of elaborations I decided to skip trying since I figured I'd need some practice to make them presentable. I figured that it would be best to work with the RCT base in small batches, so my base was:
For nigiri-style sushi, lightly grease a nigiri mould. Trust me, even if you make regular nigiri with your hands, you'll want a mould for this.
In a microwavable bowl combine
* 1/2 Tbsp butter
* 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
Microwave on high for one minute. Remove and stir until the melted butter and marshmallows are combined and smooth. Add
* 1.5 cup Rice Crispies
Stir briefly until coated. Grease your hands lightly. Press the mixture into the mould firmly. (The mould I used makes 5 pieces and each batch filled it twice for 10 items total.) Unmould and let cool. When cool, you may firm them up a little with your (greased) hands. Add toppings at your leisure (see below).
For rolled sushi, lay a sheet of waxed paper on top of your rolling mat and have your fillings prepared and ready. Don't forget the step about greasing your hands. Put the RCT mixture on top of the waxed paper and quickly press it into a rectangular shape, as thin as you can without leaving holes. Add your fillings quickly then roll it up (making sure the waxed paper doesn't get caught inside the roll). Compact it firmly when rolled. Leave it rolled up in the waxed paper and put it in the freezer for at least 10 minutes before any further steps.
Now for the toppings and fillings.
I wanted to use pistachio paste for the wasabi but my usual supplier was out today so I went with almond paste colored green. (My basic principle was to try to use naturally colored items as much as possible, but I figured dying the almond paste would be the best approximation of the target taste, for the purposes of experiment.) I did the nigiri half and half with or without "wasabi".
For plate garnishes, I used thinly sliced candied ginger (a pity it doesn't come in pink, although if I were making it from scratch, I could arrange that) and fresh spearmint leaves.
Apricot "salmon"
Use sulphered dried apricots to get close to a proper orangey "salmon" color. Moist, whole apricots work best for this effect. Make about 6 parallel cuts halfway through the apricot, then squeeze the sides together and arch it slightly away from the cuts to that it separates for a "muscle striation" effect. Place on top of the nigiri base with or without "wasabi".
Apple "shrimp"
Again, use sulphered dried fruit for the best color. Cut dried apple rings in half and dye slightly pink. (I used food coloring, but would like to experiment with berry juices. I also dyed them evenly, but it would be fun to do a bit more detail painting to make them more shrimp-like.) Bind onto the nigiri base with a thin strip of green fruit leather, with or without "wasabi" underneath.
A note on the bindings: If I could uniformly find a dark green fruit leather or something close to black (e.g. grape-purple) that would work nicely. The useful thing about using fruit leather is that it's elastic, sticky, and sticks to itself without need for encouragement. On the other hand, I'd like to experiment with using dark chocolate to mimic the nori bindings. This was the major experiment that I decided to postpone for late (after having bought the chocolate to try it). While I found some long thin "ribbons" of fruit leather in a rainbow color that included green parts, the only large sheets I could find today were strawberry. Hence the odd color in the following.
Berry "fish roe"
Mostly I was aiming for preserved ingredients so these could be made up days in advance, if desired. But blackberries and raspberries were just too perfect as fish roe to pass by. Red currants would have made lovely salmon roe but there weren't any in the store today. (The red currants would work even better if bound together in a gelatin glaze, whereas the blackberries and raspberries stay put, being bigger.)
The constructions uses a nigiri base and a wider strip of fruit leather (about an inch wide). Stretch the fruit leather slightly as you wrap it around the top of the base. When you have it wrapped about halfway around, carefully insert two or three berries inside then finish wrapping. Stretching the fruit leather will make it hug the berries closely and hold them on securely.
Now the real idea I have for these involves chocolate. My idea is something like this. Paint the outside of the nigiri base with melted chocolate then wrap the whole thing in a tube of waxed paper that sticks up at least half an inch above the base and chill. When cold, paint more melted chocolate onto the inside of the waxed paper. Alternate chilling and painting until you have something thick enough to hold up. To serve, fill the chocolate extension with berries then carefully unwrap the waxed paper. I believe this will work in theory, but I wasn't willing to gamble on it working right the first time today, so I went for the easy method.
Apple "unagi"
I wanted something to mimic barbecued eel but I haven't hit on the perfect choices yet. This one uses more of the dired apple (trimmed into rectangular shapes), brushed with caramel sauce. (If you heat the sauce a little first, it goes on more easily. Put some sauce under the apple as well as on top or the apple will come off sticking to the first thing it touches.)
Pears as generic fish
I didn't have a particular fish in mind for the dried pears to mimic -- they just looked like they'd work well. Used inside a small roll, the color would be about right for that yellow pickled radish. They're cut in strips and bound onto the nigiri base with fruit leather, with or without a smear of "wasabi" underneath.
Coconut "crab roll"
I had this vision of using shredded coconut to mimic crab meat. I didn't get any inspiration for the other necessary ingredients for a California roll (will have to work on that), so I just combined it with a thin rolled "string" of date paste to mimic a preserved gourd strip and some fresh spearmint leaves. I tossed the coconut with a little red food coloring but left the color deliberately uneven. I thought about coating the roll with toasted sesame seeds -- the only case where I'd be using the "real" ingredient to mimic itself. But I decided not to mess around with that idea this time, which was the right choice because the batch of RCT I used for this roll was a little too heavy on the Rice Crispies and turned out to be very brittle when I sliced the roll. I think rolls may need slightly different proportions in the mix.
Mango & date "veggie roll"
My other roll was more structurally successful. The filling was dried unsweetened mango cut into strips and a rolled "string" of date paste, as above. Think of it as mimicking carrot and gourd or something along that line. A future experiment with rolls will be to coat the outside in dark chocolate "nori", but this will involve some messy experiments (and would require being able to refrigerate the result until just before serving).
Future experiments
As I noted above, I'd like to figure out what to use for the other ingredients for a California roll ("cucumber" and "avocado"). I'd also like to figure out something to mimic a sliced rolled omelette. (The other experiments I've seen along this line have pretty much given up and done it all out of dyed fondant. I like the challenge of using more natural ingredients.) I want to brainstorm a bit more for the unagi. The major experiment, of course, is the chocolate-as-nori thing.
And that's what I brought to the potluck tonight.
The basic idea is this: what if you made "mock sushi" using the Rice Crispies Treat (tm) recipe as a base and various preserved fruit items as the "fish" and condiments?
Since I decided to try it on the spur of the moment this morning, I didn't necessarily get all the specific ingredients I wanted. And there were a couple of elaborations I decided to skip trying since I figured I'd need some practice to make them presentable. I figured that it would be best to work with the RCT base in small batches, so my base was:
For nigiri-style sushi, lightly grease a nigiri mould. Trust me, even if you make regular nigiri with your hands, you'll want a mould for this.
In a microwavable bowl combine
* 1/2 Tbsp butter
* 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
Microwave on high for one minute. Remove and stir until the melted butter and marshmallows are combined and smooth. Add
* 1.5 cup Rice Crispies
Stir briefly until coated. Grease your hands lightly. Press the mixture into the mould firmly. (The mould I used makes 5 pieces and each batch filled it twice for 10 items total.) Unmould and let cool. When cool, you may firm them up a little with your (greased) hands. Add toppings at your leisure (see below).
For rolled sushi, lay a sheet of waxed paper on top of your rolling mat and have your fillings prepared and ready. Don't forget the step about greasing your hands. Put the RCT mixture on top of the waxed paper and quickly press it into a rectangular shape, as thin as you can without leaving holes. Add your fillings quickly then roll it up (making sure the waxed paper doesn't get caught inside the roll). Compact it firmly when rolled. Leave it rolled up in the waxed paper and put it in the freezer for at least 10 minutes before any further steps.
Now for the toppings and fillings.
I wanted to use pistachio paste for the wasabi but my usual supplier was out today so I went with almond paste colored green. (My basic principle was to try to use naturally colored items as much as possible, but I figured dying the almond paste would be the best approximation of the target taste, for the purposes of experiment.) I did the nigiri half and half with or without "wasabi".
For plate garnishes, I used thinly sliced candied ginger (a pity it doesn't come in pink, although if I were making it from scratch, I could arrange that) and fresh spearmint leaves.
Apricot "salmon"
Use sulphered dried apricots to get close to a proper orangey "salmon" color. Moist, whole apricots work best for this effect. Make about 6 parallel cuts halfway through the apricot, then squeeze the sides together and arch it slightly away from the cuts to that it separates for a "muscle striation" effect. Place on top of the nigiri base with or without "wasabi".
Apple "shrimp"
Again, use sulphered dried fruit for the best color. Cut dried apple rings in half and dye slightly pink. (I used food coloring, but would like to experiment with berry juices. I also dyed them evenly, but it would be fun to do a bit more detail painting to make them more shrimp-like.) Bind onto the nigiri base with a thin strip of green fruit leather, with or without "wasabi" underneath.
A note on the bindings: If I could uniformly find a dark green fruit leather or something close to black (e.g. grape-purple) that would work nicely. The useful thing about using fruit leather is that it's elastic, sticky, and sticks to itself without need for encouragement. On the other hand, I'd like to experiment with using dark chocolate to mimic the nori bindings. This was the major experiment that I decided to postpone for late (after having bought the chocolate to try it). While I found some long thin "ribbons" of fruit leather in a rainbow color that included green parts, the only large sheets I could find today were strawberry. Hence the odd color in the following.
Berry "fish roe"
Mostly I was aiming for preserved ingredients so these could be made up days in advance, if desired. But blackberries and raspberries were just too perfect as fish roe to pass by. Red currants would have made lovely salmon roe but there weren't any in the store today. (The red currants would work even better if bound together in a gelatin glaze, whereas the blackberries and raspberries stay put, being bigger.)
The constructions uses a nigiri base and a wider strip of fruit leather (about an inch wide). Stretch the fruit leather slightly as you wrap it around the top of the base. When you have it wrapped about halfway around, carefully insert two or three berries inside then finish wrapping. Stretching the fruit leather will make it hug the berries closely and hold them on securely.
Now the real idea I have for these involves chocolate. My idea is something like this. Paint the outside of the nigiri base with melted chocolate then wrap the whole thing in a tube of waxed paper that sticks up at least half an inch above the base and chill. When cold, paint more melted chocolate onto the inside of the waxed paper. Alternate chilling and painting until you have something thick enough to hold up. To serve, fill the chocolate extension with berries then carefully unwrap the waxed paper. I believe this will work in theory, but I wasn't willing to gamble on it working right the first time today, so I went for the easy method.
Apple "unagi"
I wanted something to mimic barbecued eel but I haven't hit on the perfect choices yet. This one uses more of the dired apple (trimmed into rectangular shapes), brushed with caramel sauce. (If you heat the sauce a little first, it goes on more easily. Put some sauce under the apple as well as on top or the apple will come off sticking to the first thing it touches.)
Pears as generic fish
I didn't have a particular fish in mind for the dried pears to mimic -- they just looked like they'd work well. Used inside a small roll, the color would be about right for that yellow pickled radish. They're cut in strips and bound onto the nigiri base with fruit leather, with or without a smear of "wasabi" underneath.
Coconut "crab roll"
I had this vision of using shredded coconut to mimic crab meat. I didn't get any inspiration for the other necessary ingredients for a California roll (will have to work on that), so I just combined it with a thin rolled "string" of date paste to mimic a preserved gourd strip and some fresh spearmint leaves. I tossed the coconut with a little red food coloring but left the color deliberately uneven. I thought about coating the roll with toasted sesame seeds -- the only case where I'd be using the "real" ingredient to mimic itself. But I decided not to mess around with that idea this time, which was the right choice because the batch of RCT I used for this roll was a little too heavy on the Rice Crispies and turned out to be very brittle when I sliced the roll. I think rolls may need slightly different proportions in the mix.
Mango & date "veggie roll"
My other roll was more structurally successful. The filling was dried unsweetened mango cut into strips and a rolled "string" of date paste, as above. Think of it as mimicking carrot and gourd or something along that line. A future experiment with rolls will be to coat the outside in dark chocolate "nori", but this will involve some messy experiments (and would require being able to refrigerate the result until just before serving).
Future experiments
As I noted above, I'd like to figure out what to use for the other ingredients for a California roll ("cucumber" and "avocado"). I'd also like to figure out something to mimic a sliced rolled omelette. (The other experiments I've seen along this line have pretty much given up and done it all out of dyed fondant. I like the challenge of using more natural ingredients.) I want to brainstorm a bit more for the unagi. The major experiment, of course, is the chocolate-as-nori thing.
And that's what I brought to the potluck tonight.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 05:20 am (UTC)mmmmm, sush
Date: 2008-09-28 02:42 pm (UTC)It was really fun!
Re: mmmmm, sush
Date: 2008-09-28 03:05 pm (UTC)What about dried banana strips for Unagi?
http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11120685/Dried_Banana_Strips.jpg
Re: mmmmm, sush
Date: 2008-09-29 05:21 am (UTC)Great idea -- I had dried banana strips in mind as an ingredient but the only place I usually see them is Trader Joe's and I hadn't gotten that far by the time I figured it was time to get back to the kitchen and get to work. I think they might be perfect eel.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 03:31 pm (UTC)You know, you might be able to simulate octopus sucker feet using meringue as a base, and dotting it with sliced white jelly bellies (coconut?)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 03:39 pm (UTC)While it's not preserved, banana might be a thought for getting the texture of avocado. And fresh green apple for cucumber?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 06:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 06:26 pm (UTC)Though I must confess, my initial reading was mock desert made with Sushi ingredients! (though actually, doing both and serving them in succession would be pretty neat!)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-28 08:38 pm (UTC)I've encountered "sushi" based on RCT before, but the toppings were sweedish fish. This is much more fun.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-29 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-30 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-03 08:25 pm (UTC)