Multigrain Rice - A Healthier Change

Chew, chew, chew.  That's what you got to do when eating multigrain rice.  For someone who eats very quickly, sometimes wondering if I've even chewed my food, this took time.  It's not actually a bad thing.  When you slow your eating down, your body has time to tell your brain you're full, thus preventing you from overeating.  And it really forced me to take a break and enjoy the meal instead of rushing to start my next task.

I enjoyed the chewiness and texture as well as the slightly nutty flavour.  This rice can hold it's own as a side dish and really be great incorporated into main dishes!  Definitely healthier than white rice but white rice is currently the staple in my family and multigrain the fancy change.  I've had this small bag of multigrain rice for awhile now (similar bags can be found at Asian supermarkets like T and T, Foody Mart, P.A.T., Galleria, and H-Mart to name a few).  I only recently cooked it up after reading the book The Tastemakers (review here), it reminded me that the bag was just sitting at the back of the closet!

Kingo Brand of multigrain rice from California

The mixture includes the following six grains:

Short grain brown rice
Hulless barley
French red rice
Rye berries
Purple barley (or Black barley)
Black China/Japonica rice

The colour looks gorgeous against the white of steamed chicken and the vibrant green of sautéed snow pea sprouts!  Fish would be another great complement visually and taste-wise.  I actually didn't mix it with white rice which is commonly done in Korean restaurants, but only cooked the mixture 1 part rice to 1.5 parts water, in a rice cooker.  If you like your rice mushier, you can try a 1:2 ratio of rice to water.

In most parts of Asia, white rice is the staple and multigrain is just not popular.  In my family, the thinking is the same.  Chinese food is already quite flavourful that the rice is truly the side, soaking up the sauces and acting as a canvas. White rice is also inexpensive and readily available while multigrain can be 4-8 times as expensive; a big decision making factor.

The health benefits of eating multigrain rice are there, but is it enough to motivate people to switch?  For most, it's not.  Eating happily (with the foods you enjoy) can also be good for you're health.  But it would be nice to see more people enjoy multigrain rice occasionally.  This made me think, what would it take to motivate a household into eating a little more multigrain rice?

For many, seeing it at restaurants or on cooking shows would help.  Lowered cost is another.  But health benefits are probably still the strongest factor.  Fibre and the abundance of nutrients to reduce a whole range of disease risks would be up there.  But as a new parent, switching the focus from me to feeding my child healthier foods such as whole grains will probably be mine and many other parents' strongest motivator.  Children will start to get used to eating multigrain rice and thus breeding a new generation of multigrain rice eaters!

I'm looking forward to eating it more often in place of white rice or maybe in a salad since we are in the midst of summer fruits and veggies!    

Oh, Those Lovely Green Leaves! A Simple Kale Side Dish

Kale, thick vibrant green leaves packed with vitamins and antioxidants such as vitamin C and beta carotene , it became the new "superfood" a few years ago and made it's way onto the menus of so many restaurants.  I remember eating an awesome kale salad at Gusto 101 in the King West area of downtown Toronto.  Dressing was citrus-y with the right amount of sweetness.  Because the leaves are quite thick, it also held up really nicely too.  Oh, and just a quick mention, wine on tap here for $1/oz was also pretty decent!  Anyway, back to kale...

Inspired by this spinach and walnut recipe over at Humble Bean, I made it with kale and substituted the mirin with PC brand Splendido "White Condiment with Balsamic Vinegar of Modena" (Ingredients include: wine vinegar, concentrated grape must, balsamic vinegar of modena, sulphites).  Because the vinegar was on the sweet side, I also cut down on the sugar by one third.  I would have rather used mirin but didn't have any in the house; in the end it still tasted pretty good and was easy to make. Again, easy to make, very key these days!

So, try out the spinach and walnut dressing or use kale like I did!  If using kale, boil the kale for about 5 mins.  You do lose quite a bit of nutrients by boiling so you could steam it or chop into shreds and consume raw to retain the nutrients.

Minced Pork Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms - a simple old-fashioned recipe

Weekday meals are always hard to prepare. We get home from work, maybe had a long commute and still have work ahead of us...making dinner.

Recently, I made minced pork stuffed in shitake mushrooms. This dish just reminds me of simple home cooking and is one that I remember my mom making every so often. For special occasions she would top it with carrots cut into the shape of old Chinese coins or modify it using black moss seaweed. Usually there is no written recipe so I had to experiment and come up with my own proportions. This dish does require some planning as the dried shitake mushrooms have to be soaked either the night before or early in the morning. But, the recipe is fairly quick and can be modified to make it a little more simplier or more detailed depending on how much time you have.

The final dish took a little more time than I'd like (just over 1 hour) because I added the carrots and peeled extra waterchestnuts, but here is the recipe and I'll make notes of where time saving can occur.

Minced Pork Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms
Makes 24 stuffed mushrooms

Ingredients

12- 24 Shitake mushrooms (small to medium sized)
1.5 lbs Ground pork
80g or 6 Water chestnuts
1 1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Soy sauce
4 dashes White pepper (ground)
1-2 stalks Green (spring) onion
2 tsp Sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp Corn starch
1/2 - 1 Egg white

For the sauce afterwards

3/4 cup Reserved mushroom water
Liquid drained after steaming stuffed mushrooms
2-3 tsp Oyster sauce (depending on how salty you prefer the dish)
2-3 tsp Corn starch
2 tbsp Water

Instructions

1. Soak the shitake mushrooms overnight or at least 8 hrs in cold water. If you want to make every meatball with mushroom, use 24. I only decided to stuff 12 so didn't soak as many. TIME SAVING: stuff less mushrooms, remaining meat can be rolled into a ball which is faster.
2. If using fresh water chestnuts, peel water chestnuts. TIME SAVING: use canned. Mince the water chestnuts and add to pork.
3. Add salt, sugar, soy sauce, pepper to the pork and chestnut mixture.
4. Chop the spring onion and add to the pork mixture.
5. Add sesame oil, corn starch and egg white.
6. Let pork marinate.
7. Squeeze out the water from the shitake mushrooms and cut off the stems. Reserve some of the liquid for the sauce.
8. Dust the inside of the mushroom cap with some all-purpose flour.
9. Fill each mushroom cap with the pork mixture and shape into a ball.
10. Steam in steamer on high for 15-20 mins depending on the size of your stuffed mushrooms. TIME SAVING: Use this time to make a side dish of vegetables or wash dishes.
11. Drain the juices from the steamed stuffed mushrooms and add to a small saucepan. Add the reserved mushroom liquid (about 3/4 cup). TIME SAVING: Omit making the sauce (steps 11-14). The stuffed mushrooms should have a enough flavour on it's own but the dish looks less polished without a thickened sauce.
12. Heat liquids and oyster sauce until boiling.
13. Mix the cornstarch and water.
14. Add cornstarch mixture to mushroom liquid until sauce is thickened. You might not need all the cornstarch mixture. Once thickened, pour over stuffed mushrooms and serve with a side of rice and your choice of vegetables.

Ingredients

Modifications

I had a carrot in the fridge so I decided to "pretty up" the dish by cutting out some flower carrots to add to each stuffed mushroom.

How to:1. Peel the carrot.
2. Microwave for 1 minute (to slightly soften).
3. Cut into coins (thin slices).
4. Use cutter to cut each slice or several slices at a time. If you're skilled in vegetable carving, you can carve the carrot into desired shape and then cut into slices.
5. Top each stuffed mushroom with a carrot slice before steaming.