French Fridays with Dorie - Creamy, Cheesy, Garlicky Rice with Spinach, Mushrooms and Beetroot

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

~ Maya Angelou

Just a few weeks back, my father met this man. He is 111 years old... I'm not kidding you, there's proof he is "of that certain age". They both attended a group that read scriptures together (a kind of spiritual support group with a therapist called God). These gatherings took place in the evenings and by the time they finished, it was usually close to 11pm. This guy, who's still too young to make it into the Guinness World Records apparently, was always sent to and picked up from the site by his son. But on the few occasions when his son was going to be late, my father offered to send the man home. Listen, if you're 111 years old, you don't want to be hanging around outside on your own near midnight - anywhere. 

Sexy Sushi And An Award

Tell me honestly now, if you were a food item, wouldn't you want to date these hot-looking sushi? Look past their understated sex appeal, and you'll find that everything about them is healthy, wholesome and yes, even vegan. Purple sweet potato (oooh!), carrot and spring onions are snugly wrapped around with tasty organic brown rice and flavorful Nori. Looking at these rolls, I just wanted to break into song... ~Oh My Gosh....there's so many ways to love you!~  (To be sung to Usher's O.M.G., btw).

How to make these and impress your green-eyed family and friends? It's not nearly as stressful as you may imagine. Here's a simple pic-tutorial, followed by the recipe:

 The filling - spring onion leaves, purple sweet potatoes and carrot strips

 The stuff holding it all in - organic brown rice (+ nori sheets, of course)

 Line up filling ingredients neatly at one end

 Roll, roll, roll (you can see I forgot to lay down the nori here!)

 Slice and here you have it, the delectable Ms. Sushi

This is only my second time using brown rice in a recipe and also the second time that I've ever attempted  to roll sushi. Second time? Yep, if you would like to check out my 'virgin' brown rice and sushi attempts, click on the links below: 

Spicy Thai Red-Brown Rice with Eggplant and Apples, 

Black Rice Sushi Rolls.

Brown Rice Sushi with Purple Sweet Potato, Carrot and Spring Onion Filling

Makes: 2 sushi rolls

Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 medium purple sweet potato, cut into strips and steamed

1/2 a medium carrot, sliced into long strips and steamed
2 spring onions, use the leafy, green part only
2 Nori sheets (dried seaweed)
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:
1. Wash the brown rice in water, draining the water several times, then boil in 2 cups of water. You can cook this either on a stove or in a rice cooker, until the rice is fluffy and soft.
2. Once cooked, stir in 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar and a pinch of salt and ground black pepper. The vinegar helps bind the rice grains together to make it easier to roll. Leave to cool.
3. Prepare the vegetable fillings: Steam the slices of purple sweet potatoes and carrot for about 15-30 minutes until softened. Leave these to cool outside the steamer.
4. To assemble, spoon the cooled brown rice it onto a nori sheet placed on top of a bamboo rolling mat. Flatten with the back of a spoon following the shape of the nori sheet. Leave 1 cm of nori on one edge without any rice. If you don't have a proper rolling mat, use aluminium foil lined with cling film and place your ingredients to be rolled on the film instead.
5. Line up your fillings in 3 straight lines, then start to roll forward from the end nearest to you (where the rice is closest to the edge). Make sure you press firmly along the length of the rolling mat so the rice and filling can spread a little to the opened ends. Seal the roll by moistening the unfilled nori end with a bit of water.
6. Slice the roll across about ½ inch thick with a sharp, wet knife. Dip the blade in water to moisten it in between cuts. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi dip.

AWARD

Wait! I'm not finished yet.... A few days ago, I received this Lovely Blog Award from the cutest bird in the food blogging universe, Chef Gerald a.k.a. Jerry at Bistro Gerard. Yes, did you know that even parrots have their own blogs nowadays and this ninja birdie can cook up truly ah-mazing recipes? Although it can't be easy typing with those well-manicured claws (with only three fingers on each) and I suspect his Mummy, Anca, must help a lot in the keyboarding department. I may be wrong, so please correct me if I am, Chef and please, don't take this award away because I said something about your typing! Thank you for reading my posts all this time and for sending this award my way.

It's always a pleasant surprise to get some recognition from fellow bloggers either through their comments, emails, tweets and through awards like these. And quite wonderful to know that they weren't all from my mother either (signing in under the guise of various bloggers)! Now, it's time for me to "share the love" by passing this award on to 15 other bloggers whose posts I find simply amazing and make me want to wake up every morning to read. If you're smart, you'll want to check them out too!

1. Jennifurla @ Indigo's Sugar Spectrum
2. Michael @ Me, My Food and I
3. Margaret @ Savory Sweet Living
4. Krystle @ Quaypo Cooks
5. Carolyn @ All Day I Dream About Food
6. Roxan @ Kitchen Meditation
7. Cherine @ Chico's Kitchen
8. The Cook and The Dishwasher
9. Karen @ Tasty Trials
10. Maybelle's Mom @ Feeding Maybelle
11. Azmina @ Lawyer Loves Lunch
12. Lauren @ Foodie House
13. Jeff and Heather @ He Cooks...She Cooks...
14. Russell @ Chasing Delicious
15. Sonia @ Nasi Lemak Lover

Poetry Thursday #4 and Spicy Thai Red-Brown Rice with Grilled Eggplant and Apples

Poetry Thursday #4:

It grew in the black mud.
It grew under the tiger's orange paws.
Its stems thinner than candles, and as straight.
Its leaves like the feathers of egrets, but green.
The grains cresting, wanting to burst.
Oh, blood of the tiger.

I don't want you just to sit down at the table.
I don't want you just to eat, and be content.
I want you to walk out into the fields
where the water is shining, and the rice has risen.
I want you to stand there, far from the white tablecloth.
I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing.

Rice by Mary Oliver

It's time for Poetry Thursday again, except it's already Friday. Okay, so I had missed my deadline for posting this, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity of sharing this poem and recipe with you. Better late than never, as they say!

Mary Oliver's poem sums up my feelings about rice, what a blessing it is to be able to have it. Whenever I eat rice, it's normally the white or polished variety, because that's what I was brought up on and for a long time, that was the only kind of rice I thought existed. Well, that was all before I went off to study and live abroad. Then on, I discovered there are actually a mind-boggling variety and categories of rice such as wholegrain, black, brown, red, long/medium/short-grained and fragrant, with names such as Wehani, Forbidden, Basmati, Jasmine, even Risotto Rice. Rice is not just a cereal, it seems; it's also the powerful seed of civilization.