Some prep for Week 3; microwaved rice & falafels.

Rice

I always cook basmati and jasmine rice in the microwave, and have been wondering for a while if it was possible to cook sushi rice in it. Last night I did the experiment.

I prepared a cup of rice as per usual for sushi rice, but instead of cooking it in a pot, I put the rice, with a cup-and-a-little-bit of water, in a lidded bowl and cooked it in the microwave. I cooked it on high for 10 minutes. It overboiled a bit, but the rice was fine! I think next time I'll cook it on high for a couple of minutes, then on medium for 8-10 and see how that goes.

Anyway, that meant I had 2 cups or so of cooked sushi rice to deal with. I try not to eat rice too often, because it hasn't much fibre and does have quite a lot of calories. I decided to freeze it in the shape of one of my bento box bottoms. That way I can just unwrap it and put it in my box straight out of the freezer.

I lined the box with gladwrap and pressed 1/4 of the rice into it:


wrapped the rice in the gladwrap, leaving one side unfolded:


I used that unfolded bit of wrap to pull the rice out of the box:


Then finished wrapping it:


Now I have 4 bento box-shaped rice blocks in the freezer:


Falafels

I pulled out my broad bean plants today (I should have done it a couple of weeks ago) and found quite a few over-ripe beans on them. The skins were as tough as old boots, so after I podded them I boiled them up and squeezed the soft interiors into the processor:


added the chick peas I'd been soaking all day, some tahini, salt, baking powder, garlic, onion, parsley, cumin, coriander, & cayenne pepper, and whizzed it all up:


After rolling it into little ball shapes, I gave them a light spray with olive oil and put them in the oven to bake. I had two trays like this:


I love falafels, but they are very fattening if you deep fry them, and not so nice cold either. These will go into the freezer when they've cooled down.