Onigiri

There's certainly tens of different ways to make onigiri, the Japanse rice balls consumed as snacks or incorporated into meals. If you've had that kind of sushi that is not rolled up (makisushi), but which instead consists of an elongated ball of rice with something on top, you are no stranger to nigiri - you've had nigiri sushi.

To me, onigiri is like comfort food: the delicious chewiness of rice, slightly salty on the outside, blander on the inside until you stumble on some kind of filling, possibly. Today, I made this version on the left with my 8 year old dude, at home.

Simple cooking: we made a couple of cups of sushi grade rice in a rice cooker (no salt or other seasoning) and left it to cool down a few minutes. Then we shaped the rice balls with triangular molds, which I picked up at Liberdade, the Japanese neighborhood in São Paulo. You can use your bare hands, if you don't have a mold.

We prepared a bowl of salty, cold water for us to dip the molds in (if using hands, guess what, we'd have dipped our hands in it). We filled half the mold with rice, put a few pieces of umeboshi on top and filled with more rice. Then we pressed the lid of the mold on the top just to firm up the rice ball (we wouldn't want to hard pack the rice into a heavy brick!) Out of the mold it comes for a sprinkling of furikake, which have found at Wegman's and at oriental food stores in Calgary, AL, Washington D.C., and Gaithersburg, MD, among other places. Furikake comes in different flavors, so you can get creative with your choice. Before making another onigiri, dip the mold or your hands in salty water again.

You can find several other tutorials online for variations on the theme, here is one of them.

All Tongue and No Cheek

I used to gag at the thought of eating bovine tongue. Grandma used to make this with all tender loving care and I wouldn't even come close it it. Then one day, I was ravenous and it was all there was to eat the university cafeteria (UFRJ in Rio), back when there was almost no other option. I went for it and became a fan (hunger is the best of spices!) Of course it wasn't an upscale version, such as what you see in the picture before the glass of Merlot, but it tasted great. It's a very tender meat with outstanding flavor; throw a good sauce on it and it's a sure winner.

Today, I made it at home for the first time, under mom's supervision. My picky-as-hell 6 year old gobbled it down licking his chops all along. And if he can enjoy it, so can you.

So here it is, step by step, for your delight:

"Língua ao Molho Madeira", or "Tongue in Madeira Sauce".

Start out with a fresh bovine tongue, hopefully bought from a local, reputable butcher. It is probably going to look nasty as in the picture on the right. There's a very rough skin over the muscle meat and it has to come off before you prepare it. Cut off any of the fridge burned flesh at the end, any hanging fat, or attached tissue. Rub some lemon or lime juice in it. In order to remove the skin, you have to boil the tongue for a while. So, put a pot of water on the stove at high heat, throw in a couple of bay leaves, two chopped cloves of garlic, half a medium onion finely chopped. When the water is boiling, put in the tongue and leave it there for about 10 minutes. Reserve all the cooking water for later.

Then, take it out and bring its temperature down by running it in cold water. When it is cool enough to handle, using a sharp knife, remove the white skin that covers the tongue. Some people are lucky enough to be able to pull the skin off, I had to run the knife under it to remove it. It's like filleting fish: you want the skin off without cutting into the meat. You can see two different areas in the picture: a lower one done right (only skin came off) and an upper one done wrong (slices going into the meat). You have to be careful and patient to get this skin all off, but keep breathing and get through it.

When you are done, what you will have is a good chunk of muscle, as in the picture on the left, below. That is the last of the "scary look". Again, looking at this picture, you can see that I went too much under the skin with the knife; my excuse is that I'm still developing knife skills. You can also see the ugly remains of skin in the back of the photo.






Next, slice the tongue across into half inch chunks. Season with lime and lemon juice, salt, and pepper; leave it to rest while you get set with the ingredients for the preparation.

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 large cloves garlic finely minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions
• 1/2 cup green pepper diced small
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 bay leaves

Set up your pressure cooker on high heat with the oil (lid off for now; you'll do some prep work before you pressurize it). Give it a minute and then throw in the onions, garlic, and pepper. Sautee until it loses most of the water that will come out of the vegetables, then toss in the chunks of tongue to brown. Add the tomato paste and stir it around gently, cooking until it starts to get dark (be careful not to burn the tomato paste or else your dish will get very bitter). Add the parsley, scallions, and bay leaves; cook for a minute and then add the wine. Stir to mix, add enough of the cooking water reserved from before so that you have about one inch of liquid above the meat, then cover and cook under pressure for at least 20 minutes. Depressurize the cooker under cold water, remove the lid, and test the meat for softness. If not fork tender, put it back on the stove for a little longer. With a large spoon, skim off the fat on the surface (you won't need it). The liquid should have reduced to a somewhat thick sauce. Now, you can get to work on the sauce to finish the dish.

Ingredients (to finish the sauce)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
• 1 cup Madeira wine
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

In a clean pot, melt the butter with the flour and stir on medium heat until it the color turns to dark blond. Add the cooked tongue with its sauce, the mushrooms, and the Madeira wine. Cook it on medium to high heat until the sauce thickens, then add the cream and stir to incorporate well.

You're done! Serve this dish with white rice and garnish with parsley, if you like.