Chişcă - Romanian traditional Christmas sausage (with pork and rice)

Every Christmas, although spent far away from home, gives us the opportunity to explore (in our own kitchen) some of our traditional meals that our grandparents used to prepare.
This year I am going to prepare (for the first time ever) a special kind of sausage, made of meat and rice. I tried yesterday a simple recipe (adapted to be baby friendly) and in the next days I am planning to make another version, just to see which one is closer to the taste I know from childhood (that one I will also prepare for Christmas).

Ingredients:
- 500g minced pork;
- 4-5 Tbsp short grain rice;
- one large onion;
- 3 Tbsp oil;
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper;
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika;
- 4 bay leaves;
- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds;
- 1/2 tsp dry thyme;
- a few pepper corns;
- sausage skin (I used pork intestine, very well cleaned)
* if you are not cooking for babies, add 1tsp salt.

Method:
Finely chop the onion and place it in a pan, over medium heat, with 6 Tbsp of water and 3 Tbsp of oil. Stir continuously. Once the onion is soft add the rice (washed and drained) and 150 ml of water. Let ot boil until all the water evaporates (the rice should be partly boiled). Set aside and let cool.
Add the minced pork, ground pepper, thyme and paprika (and salt, if using) to the rice and onion mixture.
Using a sausage accesory or a funnel fill the sausage skin with the meat and rice mixture. Make tight knots at both ends of the intestine or sausage skin and form more sausages (at the preferred length).
Pierce the sausage skin a few times using a toothpick (so that they won't swell while boiling).
Place the sausages in a pot and cover them with cold water (plus 2cm above). Add the pepper corns, coriander seeds and bay leaves. Boil over low fire for 1/2h. Remove the sausages from the water and let them cool.
Before serving, fry the sausages for a few minutes in a pan (no oil) or on the grill. They go perfectly with fresh onion and polenta.
Enjoy!

Fruit sushi (vegan)

I saw this fruit sushi idea a while ago, on Tasty (the original here) and it seemed brilliant (it looked really good and seemed pretty easy to make). So, when I saw sushi rice in our local supermarket (they don't always have it), I bought it and I made the recipe.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of sushi rice (or another short grain rice); 

- 1/2 cup coconut cream;

- 1/4 tsp vanilla powder (or the seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean);

- 2 kiwis;

- 2 mandarins;

- 1 ripe mango.

* this recipe contains no added sugar! If you like sweeter taste, add to the rice a sweetener of your choice.

Method (detailed photos of the method can be found at the end of this article):

Add one cup of rice to 1 and 1/3 cups of water, bring to a boil then reduce fire and let it simmer over low heat for 15-17 minutes. Do not stir! When the rice absorbed all the water remove from fire (taste it and if it's not completely cooked you can add a little bit more water and continue to boil or, if it didn't absorb all water you can leave it a bit more on the fire so the mixture gets pretty solid. Add 1/2 cup of coconut cream and the vanilla bean and stir. Let the rice mixture cool.

Cover a bamboo mat with cling film and spread about 1/2 of the rice on it, in a rectangular shape (if you don't have a bamboo mat use just the cling film). Place inside a row of kiwi sticks and a row of mandarin slices. Roll it and cover the roll with thin slices of mango. Wrap in cling film and let it cool in the fridge for 1/2h.  

Repeat the process with the remaining rice or form little rice balls and cover them with fruit slices (like nigiri).

Slice and serve.

Enjoy!

    

Risotto with vegetables

Risotto with vegetables has always a huge success with our kids. It's delicious and goes well either alone or as a side dish to a steak.

For this recipe you will need:

- 1 cup rice ( I prefer integral);
- 1 onion;
- 2 carrots;
- 2-3 red bell peppers;
- 3 very ripe tomatoes (or 1 can tomato paste);
- 3-4 Tbsp oil;
- a handful grated Parmesan or nutritional yeast;


Put the rice in water, to boil, and in the meantime prepare the vegetable sauce. The rice has to be only partially boiled in water (check the boiling time on the pack, if using white or pre-boiled rice there is no need to boil it in water; if using integral rice, it might need even 15-20 minutes of pre-boiling).

Cut the veggies into cubes and place them in a deep pan, with 150 ml water and 3-4 tbsp oil. Cover with a lid and let boil until the veggies are soft. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth.




Put the sauce back into the deep pan or into a pot, add the pre-boiled rice and let simmer some more over low heat, until the rice gets the optimal texture. If the sauce gets too thick and the rice needs more boiling, you can add some water.



Top with grated Parmesan or nutritional yeast and serve alone or as a side dish (we had some oven baked beef).

Enjoy!

Rice and fruit pudding

When I was a child, my mom used to make rice and apple pudding, which was a major delight. A few days ago I thought I would make a similar recipe for my girls.

You need one cup of integral rice, 2 cups of milk (you can use vegan milk as well), some bourbon vanilla, cinammon and at least 3 apples +/- any other fruit (I had some peaches that were really ripe and I needed to get rid of them :))).

*you can add sugar, if you wish, I avoid to give it to my kids, for us the sweetness from the fruit is enough.

The integral rice takes pretty long to boil, so boiled it partially in water and then (while it is still al dente), drain it, add the milk and boil it again until the milk evaporats, the rice becoms soft and the mixture gets a bit sticky. Turn off the heat and add some vanilla.

In the meantime, grate the apples / chop the other fruits.
In a Pyrex pot thinly coated with butter, put a layer of rice (1/2 of the quantity), then add the apples (no need to drain them, the resulting juice adds some sweetness to the rice) and other fruits, sprinkle with cinnamon and top with the remaining rice. Bake in the oven until it forms a crust.

Let it cool down and then store in the fridge. You can serve it with homemade whipped cream or coconut cream.

Enjoy!