Oh, my friends raved about them. Everyone touted them as a new, low calorie food. I think the food part was a stretch.
I tried them plain, salted, popcorn flavor, carmel flavor, with toppings, with chocolate chips, hot, cold, almost every possible combination. They tasted like paper to me. I can only surmise that my friends preoccupation with them was a mind-over-matter matter.
I think the good people at Quaker and the other companies that made them had a lot of leftover stuff, that at one time came from rice, and they decided to smoosh it together and sell it. Wikipedia told me that dieters use rice cakes in place of bread, when making a sandwich. I hope Wikipedia is wrong, terribly wrong.
So, when I came across the Parmesan Rice Cakes recipe in the book - I stopped. Bleh. Savory pancakes made with rice? Really? I have never been a fan of sweet foods that are made savory. Pancakes should be sweet with syrup, lobster cheesecake should NEVER have been allowed to happen, don't even get me started on aspic.
But I had just bought a bag of Brown Rose rice, and was dying to use some. Brown Rose rice is rice that is slightly sticky (think sushi rice) and slightly like long grain rice. It is a nice blend with a hint of sweetness. And I'll cook with any ingredient that has the name rose in it. So, out came the rice steamer, and 1 hour later I was in business.
This was a pretty quick and straightforward recipe. Make a batter like pancakes, add rice and parmesan cheese and cook on a griddle. In went sorghum flour, lots of cooked rice, egg, shredded parmesan cheeese, milk, loads of fresh minced garlic and a splash cream. Fry them in melted butter. I love butter, and cream. They make everything taste so much richer. Hey, I never said I was vegan.......
So, I poured them into a hot skillet and hoped I wouldn't have to eat anything too disgusting. They smelled wondeful! And they cooked just like pancakes, bubbled up, browned and flipped with ease. The smell of melting parmesan and garlic filled my kitchen. I had to try them, couldn't even wait until the batch was done. And then I had another. And another. Wow, these were good. Moist, and they had body to them.
The rice cakes by themselves were lovely. Because the rice still retains a little bit of "pop" in the mouth, they had a nice soft crunch to them. Kind of like steel cut oats. They had a slight pancake-y taste to them because after all, they did have milk and eggs in them. Topped with roasted vegetables, and more cheese they were a complete meal.
These definately made me change my mind about sweet/savory foods. Maybe not about lobster cheesecake, but you never know.
Onto dinner. Quinoa and Sweet potato Salad.
OK, here's another example of a sweet food that I used as savory. Good thing I had the rice cakes to open my mind about using sweet potatos. To me, sweet potatos are to be baked and topped with brown sugar and butter for lunch, or delightfully topped with a bazillion marshmallows at Thanksgiving. I already had the quinoa in the frig, so I boiled some diced sweet potato and threw it in with the quinoa. I dumped in liberal amounts of scallions, garlic and balsamic vinegar. Done. That was it.
Yuh-hum!
Didn't even wait for it to chill. Couldn't. Too yummy.
It had the flavor of my mom's potato salad - but with a little crunch. My mom makes the best potato salad. Honestly. It's not the least bit soupy - I can't stand soupy potato salad - but it takes a lot of work. This took almost no work or time. It had that familiar "pickle" aroma from the onions and vinegar, and at the risk of sounding snobby - it had a more mature taste. I let my daughter try it. She agreed. It was for mature audiences only.
She promptly rinsed her mouth out.
She has never cared for potato salad. Good, more for me. This morning it was even better when it was cold.
I decided today to combat this flu/cold thing that my daughter and I have by making some French Onion Soup. Not the cheese laden, Texas Toast topped soup that food places serve these days. Oh, I love that version too. Just not at home. French onion soup always puts people off as too hard. I think the French try to make food seem more complicated to cook than it really is, so you won't try to do it. Just leave it to professionals. I know, I have been trying to cook it since I was about 12. Always made it harder than it had to be.
So, not feeling well, I decided to just let it cook, and I would eat whatever came out. Now, this is a vegetarian version, so there was no beef. This could be great, or terrible.
Once again, I threw some butter in a really big stock pot and melted it until it was almost browned. Smelled good already. Added several thinly sliced sweet onions and let that simmer for 30 minutes. Easy so far - right? Then I threw in whole garlic cloves, a carton of vegetable stock, several cups of water, and left it there while I cleaned house. OK, I cleaned the playroom. Sort of.
My son asked me to get rid of that "smell" that was in the house. He does not like onions. At all.
Gradually the strong onion smell went away and it was replaced by that hearty aroma that onion soup produces when it is almost done. It thickened up nicely, and I let it cook wayyyyy longer than the recipe suggested. I like a dark onion soup.
Finally.
I threw some grated swiss cheese on top of my soupbowl and dug in. Just what the doctor ordered. It was everything I hoped it would be, and more. No fuss, no real work, just good soup.
It was a good food day, my friends.
Now onto planning my food for watching the royal wedding. If my daughter and I are going get up at 5 in the morning, I need to make it tasty........
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