lemon rice soup

This just in: peas!  Every spring I get a serious case of ants-in-the-pants in anticipation of eating my garden veggies.  You'd think I would know by now that these things take time.  Ah well.

I tried this soup recipe from Martha Stewart in the winter because I was craving lemon.  It was good but I felt that it needed spring veggies in it so I made it today with fresh snap peas.  Much better.  Next time I make this soup I will use some interesting mushrooms instead of the fake meat product because, well, that's more my style.

Ingredients:
8 c. veggie broth
1 1/2 c. white rice
2 Quorn chik'n cutlets (or mushrooms)
2 c. snap peas (or asparagus)
3 eggs
2 lemons
dill
salt
black pepper

In a large pot, bring the veggie broth and white rice to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked.  Heat up the fake chicken per the packaging.  Slice it up so it looks shredded.  Add the fake chicken to the cooked rice.  Whisk the eggs.  Juice the lemons.  Pour the lemon juice into the eggs while whisking.  Slowly pour 1 cup of the hot rice broth to the eggs while whisking.  Pour the tempered egg mixture into the soup and stir.  Add dill, salt, and black pepper to taste.  Cut the snap peas into bite sized pieces and add fresh so they keep their crunch.  Enjoy!

inarizushi

We tried making inarizushi from scratch the other day. Ok, so, we didn't make the tofu from scratch...yet--that will be a future endeavor. But, I wanted to try making the aburaage at home. So, while we were deep frying some zucchini, I tossed in some slices of tofu, then deep fried them again at a higher temperature, rinsed them in hot water, cut slits, and stuffed the tiny pockets with as much sushi rice (rice vinegar, salt, and sugar) as I could cram in there. More detailed directions can be found at Shizuoka Gourmet. Next time I make these, I'd try larger slices of tofu. I think the tofu that comes in a more oblong shape, with a square cross-section would result in nice sized aburaage. These bite-sized inarizushis were great for snacking though...even cold!