Dessert Riceballs: Mango and Banana
Hi there everyone! Welcome back! Now last time I spoke about making traditional rice balls and promised that the next article would be about dessert rice balls. Now, I know most of you were wondering to yourself, “How does she plan on pulling this off?” Well, to be honest, so was I. It was rather ambitious of me to declare that I would turn a classic favorite into something completely different. Since then, I have been thinking just to accomplish this. All I talked about was “Dessert Rice Balls” and probably made my family think…just temporarily…that I had indeed gone mad. But fear not my fellow otaku’s, for I have indeed accomplished the unbelievable and it’s something rather yummy 🙂
To start, here is what you will need:
Ingredients:
1 Cup Sushi Rice
1 1/4 Cup of water (plus 1/4 Cup)
1 tablespoon of Sugar
1 teaspoon of Salt
a can of whip cream
1 banana cut in half (save other half for garnish)
1 half of Mango
4 Creme de Pirouline (chocolate hazelnut)
Orange Blossom Honey (Optional)
Equipment:
Rice cooker or Medium sized Pot with lid
Medium sized Bowl
Measuring Cup
Teaspoon and Tablespoon Measurements
Cutting board and parring knife
Presentation plate/bowel
Fork to drizzle honey
A large spoon
To start, measure out 1 cup of sushi rice, do not rinse. If using rice cooker, follow directions according to manufacturer for cooking short grain rice. If using pot, pour rice into pot followed by 1 1/4 cup of water ( Personally, I found that if you do it that way, the rice doesn’t really come out as soft as I want it to, so right here, it’s optional to add the extra 1/4 cup…or less. The rule with liquids…”You can always add but you can never take away” so use your best judgement here). Turn the heat up high and wait for water to boil. Once it boils drop the heat down to low and place the lid on top. Cook rice for about 25 minutes (maybe a minute or two longer if you add extra water, again, use good judgement and check for readiness at the 25 minute mark). Rice is ready when you see no water at all. Use a large spoon to “Fluff” up rice, set aside to cool a little. Don’t let the rice get cold though, keep it warm.
In the meanwhile, while rice is cooking, prepare fruit as shown in picture. In the picture, the mango is a little too ripe in my opinion When picking out mango, to check for ripeness, it shouldn’t be hard and it should have a nice red color all around, when you smell it, it should have that nice mango scent. When you press your thumb against the skin, it should give a little….it shouldn’t resist. When you cut into the mango, it should be soft, not mushy. If it’s too hard, the mango was not yet ripe. Peel off the skin of the mango. That part is not edible. If you aren’t comfortable with using mango, any other fruit combination is fine. Banana and Pineapple (I would use the canned pineapple in juice and just drain the juice and use the pineapple), you could use strawberry and kiwi, honeydew and melon, etc., just make sure it’s not too juicy.
Take your medium sized bowl along with Sugar and Salt. Place both sugar and salt in the bowl and add water half way up the bowl ( enough to cover your hand as shown in picture) mix your hands in the bowl and scoop up rice (about a half hand full). flatten rice and make a “Well” big enough for fruit. Dip hand in water and scoop up more rice to cover fruit. Form rice into a ball, add a litte more rice if you see the need to do so. Set rice ball aside and continue to make three additional rice balls.
When you’re done, it’s fine to eat it as it is. But say you want to step it up, maybe you’re having guest over or you want to surprise someone with a yummy dessert. Take a rice ball that you had just made and place it into a serving dish (glass would be perfect to show layers, but use what you have…just make sure it’s big enough to hold rice ball as well as garnish). Layer down the mango slices first then add the banana slices (or what ever fruit combination you choose). Shake can of whip cream before spraying it on top of the rice ball. Break off half of the Pirouline and stick it to the side. Follow up by drizzling honey over the rice ball and fruit. Eat the rice ball right away and if there are any left overs, cover with plastic wrap and set aside on counter top. DO NOT REFRIGERATE! It will become hard and just not edible.
So there you have it folks, a fast and easy twist to a classic. I hope you all enjoy and please let me know what you think. I will be attending a restaurant expo here in NYC. Look out for my review and pictures of the event. Until then, Bon Appetit!!
