I missed PK Mart by 10 minutes, I think.
Mar. 17th, 2007 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sff_corgi_ljWhah. I went out this afternoon after staying up WAY too late and getting FAR too little sleep to buy dog food and cooking ingredients. See, I've very nearly been commissioned to fill that jyubako I posted about with Shunsui-appropriate food as well. Um, except for all the sake (yeah, it's a character thing - imagine Dionysus in hakama, OK?).
Sure, I could cook just-plain-Occidental, but booooring. I've been kicked into cooking mode, anyway. Shunsui = pink (sakura blossoms, rose petals, etc.), so the rice that's part of every traditional bento will need to be pink. Not garish, just... evocative. You gotta love Google - this recipe came right up (and look! Welsh website, woohoo!). It's a pilaf, instead of just a colouring/flavouring method, but mmmm, doesn't that look good? And pretty easy. I've got or will have most of the ingredients in the house; I can get POM at most any Publix.
Then... I got a look at this. Homygawwwwwd, will you look at that SUSHI? A cherry tree?
OK, play-with-food mode ENGAGED. Yellow rice is easy, especially in Miami; green would be flavoured and coloured with pesto-like preparations. Black uses sesame, yum. Buuuuut... what about blue rice?
Yes, Virginia, there is blue rice. Really.
There's a 'diet furikake' out there, bright blue, but using rice seasoning alone's a little boring. The one I found is a Malaysian recipe, and traditionally uses a specific flower, carefully collected and dried, to give the dish its unique blue tint. Here's one serving of nasi kerabu; here's another Malay dish using the same colouring agent. Nasi kerabu can also be described as a rice salad, as it uses lots and lots of fresh herbs. Fresh... local herbs. Look, Miami can, theoretically, grow the same plants but we definitely don't do so. So, when I found this simplified recipe in a blog, I was glad. It doesn't mention how to make the rice blue, but I figure if I can get into the flavour ballpark, I'll concede to food colouring.
So! I was going to need herbs and leaves and stuff. And a lime, and... oh, yeah, dog food. [runs out door barefootpawed before Mary's Pound closes]
Fresh Market: yes on ginger, watercress, 'easy-open' coconuts, shallots, cilantro (except it was an awfully big bunch and I don't like cilantro, so I passed on that for now). Never been in there, so I became entranced by the Wall of Bagged Seasonings. I found black sesame and ground turmeric there (might as well try for fresher than what I've probably got hanging around in the cabinet).
Meandered into Pier 1 on the way north — wow... they've really gone boring since the last time I was in. All the fun things have gone away.
Whole Foods: almost on the lemongrass - fresh, I mean, 'cause I found some in a jar - yes on the lime and oooo, look, fancy salt! ($18, no.) I ended up with some dulse sprinkle, dried hibiscus, beet root powder, black organic peppercorns, Irish steel-cut oatmeal (it IS St. Patrick's Day), shouyu (soy sauce)... was that everything? Oh, right - dog food. Rawhides.
I hoped to finish off my list at the PK Oriental Mart, but as I mentioned, missed them by thaaaat much. :( If I hadn't patted the Yorkie and played with the cats and forgot the rawhide and left my keys at the PetsMart counter, I might have squeaked inside. Drat. No real rush, except that I can't seem to get anything done during the week — my rice cooker's scheduled to be delivered the 20th, and yeeeesss, I know I can cook rice in a pot, but everybody says it's better this other way. The pink rice dish's a pilaf anyway, won't go in the machine.
Maybe tomorrow. Got a sewing 'date' with my other-mother, too.
Heh. Appropriately, I was watching Food Network's 'All-Star Kitchen Makeover' while typing this. I whimpered at Alton Brown's work. WANT.
Sure, I could cook just-plain-Occidental, but booooring. I've been kicked into cooking mode, anyway. Shunsui = pink (sakura blossoms, rose petals, etc.), so the rice that's part of every traditional bento will need to be pink. Not garish, just... evocative. You gotta love Google - this recipe came right up (and look! Welsh website, woohoo!). It's a pilaf, instead of just a colouring/flavouring method, but mmmm, doesn't that look good? And pretty easy. I've got or will have most of the ingredients in the house; I can get POM at most any Publix.
Then... I got a look at this. Homygawwwwwd, will you look at that SUSHI? A cherry tree?
OK, play-with-food mode ENGAGED. Yellow rice is easy, especially in Miami; green would be flavoured and coloured with pesto-like preparations. Black uses sesame, yum. Buuuuut... what about blue rice?
Yes, Virginia, there is blue rice. Really.
There's a 'diet furikake' out there, bright blue, but using rice seasoning alone's a little boring. The one I found is a Malaysian recipe, and traditionally uses a specific flower, carefully collected and dried, to give the dish its unique blue tint. Here's one serving of nasi kerabu; here's another Malay dish using the same colouring agent. Nasi kerabu can also be described as a rice salad, as it uses lots and lots of fresh herbs. Fresh... local herbs. Look, Miami can, theoretically, grow the same plants but we definitely don't do so. So, when I found this simplified recipe in a blog, I was glad. It doesn't mention how to make the rice blue, but I figure if I can get into the flavour ballpark, I'll concede to food colouring.
So! I was going to need herbs and leaves and stuff. And a lime, and... oh, yeah, dog food. [runs out door bare
Fresh Market: yes on ginger, watercress, 'easy-open' coconuts, shallots, cilantro (except it was an awfully big bunch and I don't like cilantro, so I passed on that for now). Never been in there, so I became entranced by the Wall of Bagged Seasonings. I found black sesame and ground turmeric there (might as well try for fresher than what I've probably got hanging around in the cabinet).
Meandered into Pier 1 on the way north — wow... they've really gone boring since the last time I was in. All the fun things have gone away.
Whole Foods: almost on the lemongrass - fresh, I mean, 'cause I found some in a jar - yes on the lime and oooo, look, fancy salt! ($18, no.) I ended up with some dulse sprinkle, dried hibiscus, beet root powder, black organic peppercorns, Irish steel-cut oatmeal (it IS St. Patrick's Day), shouyu (soy sauce)... was that everything? Oh, right - dog food. Rawhides.
I hoped to finish off my list at the PK Oriental Mart, but as I mentioned, missed them by thaaaat much. :( If I hadn't patted the Yorkie and played with the cats and forgot the rawhide and left my keys at the PetsMart counter, I might have squeaked inside. Drat. No real rush, except that I can't seem to get anything done during the week — my rice cooker's scheduled to be delivered the 20th, and yeeeesss, I know I can cook rice in a pot, but everybody says it's better this other way. The pink rice dish's a pilaf anyway, won't go in the machine.
Maybe tomorrow. Got a sewing 'date' with my other-mother, too.
Heh. Appropriately, I was watching Food Network's 'All-Star Kitchen Makeover' while typing this. I whimpered at Alton Brown's work. WANT.
