Macaroon Rice Balls

Thinking about dinner tonight, in the wake of a weekend filled with Korean Fried Chicken excellence, left me uncertain of anything other than I did NOT want to go to the grocery store.

A strange realizations because I love grocery stores. They are the ultimate in perusing possibilities. What could I do with a quarter pound of chanterelles (or an pound of them, like the dude I saw on Sunday in line in front of me- I found myself smiling at him in some unanswered anticipation of what recipe he might be diving into) or fresh turmeric and tomatillos.

A busy day at work murdered any desire I had to stop so instead I wracked my brain for something in my pantry that didn’t involve roasted chickpeas- again. In recent months, the cool evenings settling into my bones, I’d taken to roasting veggies and beans alike.

Fried rice!

Fried rice raced through my brain and then back out again. I didn’t have any leftover rice and the one thing I’ve learned over the year is that fresh rice makes a mess when you try to fry it, sticking to the pan, burning in places, turning soggy and unappetizing.  My mind drifted to other things, macaroni and cheese or maybe chimichurri over quinoa- and then I remembered the “pickled shitake mushrooms” from the other night still waiting to be devoured. Unimpressed with the recipe I used, I struggled to figure out how to avoid wasting them or subjecting myself to eating them simply to avoid wasting them.

Rewind to a quick stop over the weekend into a dim sum shop in Oakland’s China Town. My friend ordered a rice ball- I presume made with glutinous rice – with bits of pork and herbs speckled throughout. Not a rice lover, let alone cold rice, I wasn’t impressed by that specimen of grainy goodness but even so, could see the value in the attempt. Something about that dish was promising even if that execution wasn’t.

Now of all the different kinds of rice I have floating around in my cupboard- jasmine, basmati, brown version of both, short grain sushi grade rice – glutinous is not one of them, still, improperly made sushi rice seemed

a perfect substitute. Too much water in the pot let to stickiness that heaped on a plate would have inspired me to sing “it’s a hard knock life” but instead I assembled the same ingredients I would have used in fried rice and mixed them in with my gooey rice:

• Kale 
  
•  “Pickled shiitake mushrooms"
• Small carrot sliced or shredded
• Green onions
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Toasted almond slivers
• Toasted sesame seeds
• Two eggs
• Three tablespoons of miso mixed with- 
• A tablespoon of toasted sesame seed oil
• A tablespoon of soy sauce
• A splash of rice wine vinegar

Once I mixed it all together it resembled fancy jook/congee - thicker but in the same vein. I shaped my rice, leveling off ramekins and placing the mixture on parchment paper lined baking sheets and baked the entire thing at 375 for between20 and 30 minutes.

They emerged brown and crunchy on the outside and steaming and moist on the inside. My friend called them macaroon style rice balls.

I finished them off with a dipping sauce of: soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, red pepper flakes, and a splash of mirin- and sprinkled a little furikake on it for good measure.