Homemade Spiced Rice Cakes

Last time I posted something was 2 years ago... I shall shameless ignore that fact and share a recipe/technique I recently discovered.

I love the rice cakes with flavorings on top. They are called differently around the world. Here they are called Snack-a-Jacks. Quaker seems to produce most of them around the world. I love the ones I can get in the supermarket, but the only savory flavors I can get here are cheese or BBQ... and I want more for less! So after a bit of experimenting I figured how to get the spice blend to stick to the rice cakes and it is rather simple: water.

Wetting the rice cakes with water will make the surface slightly sticky. Just sticky enough for a fine powder to stick to. I personally enjoy making a spice blend with some nutritional yeast for a nutty, cheesy flavor and also added nutrition.

Ingredients:
Rice cakes
Your own favorite spice blend

What you will need:
Spray bottle for water
Some foil or other something to cover your baking tray

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Line your baking tray with foil or something else to cover. I prefer foil, because it does not get soggy during the next steps.

3. Line up your rice cakes on the foil.

4. Use the spray bottle to evenly spray all the rice cakes with water.

5. Sprinkle your spice blend on them. I use an old paprika powder container.

6. Spray some more water on top of the spices.

7. Bake the rice cakes for 8 to 10 minutes or until completely dry.

8. Let cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

Tuna Salad

I mentioned my favourite tuna salad in a previous post and promised to share with you my recipe. So I finally decided to make a batch!

The recipe is based on a tuna mixture a Dutch deparment store uses. I'm not sure what is exactly in their mix, but it tastes very similar to me. It is also a very easy recipe. There is no real set amount, you can adjust the amounts to your own liking.

Ingredients:

Canned tuna, doesn't matter if it is tuna in oil or tuna in water

Tomato

Onion

Apple

Mayonnaise

Salt and Pepper

1. Strain the tuna until all moisture is gone.

2. Meanwhile dice the tomato, onion and apple finely, or as large as you like.

3. Mix the tuna, tomato, onion, apple and mayonnaise. Adjust the amount of mayonnaise as you mix.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put the tuna mixture on sandwiches or baguettes. It goes well with any kind of bread. I topped this sandwich with some rucola (aka arugula, or salad rocket) mix and some tomatoes for some extra vegetables, but the tuna is also delicious on its own.

Ramen Review #19+20: Nissin Demae Ramen Tonkotsu and Miso Tonkotsu Flavours

Ramen Review #18: Nissin Demae Ramen: Spicy Seafood flavour

Ramen Review #17: Yumyum Oriental Style Instant Noodles Chicken Flavour

And while I am on the tour of brands of ramen I have never had before: I present to you Yumyum!

Ramen Review #16: Mi Sedaap Special Chicken Flavour

And while I am on a "something different" trip, might as well do this one too!

Ramen Review #15: Toya Onion Chicken Flavour

Now for something totally different!

Ramen Review #14: KOKA Chicken Original Flavour

I remember eating this brand when I was younger, but didn't remember much of it. KOKA is healthier than most brands because they do not fry the noodles and do not use any MSG in their products. For more information you can refer to http://www.tathui.com/.

Matcha White Chocolate Brownies/Greenies?

Can't really call them brownies, since they aren't brown. White chocolate brownies are called blondies, because of their white/yellow colour, so should these be called greenies?

Ramen Review #13: Doll Instant Ramen: Chicken Flavour

It is funny how this brand is actually called Doll. In Cantonese instant ramen is called tsik sik mien, which translates literally to instant eatable noodles. I grew up calling any kind of instant noodles kong tsai mien, which translates to doll noodles. I think this is related to Nissin having a little boy holding a delivery box with ramen in it, as kong tsai can also be translated as a drawn figure.  But today there will be no good old Nissin ramen.

Ramen Review #12: Nissin Demae Ramen Spicy Flavour

I apologize for having even worse quality photos than usual. My phone broke and it is getting repaired, but won't be back for awhile. Very upsetting.

Ramen Review #11: Saimin Chicken Flavour

It is time for something different. Something new, something frog has never eaten before!

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes

The sudden craving for cake hit me at 10 pm today and who am I to turn down a cake craving? So I set out to make a cupcake that is light, but has a dense crumb and then I opened my fridge for the butter and found apples. Apples do not show up often in my fridge and these were bought for the tuna salad I made earlier. Someday I will share with you all the recipe of my favourite tuna salad, but today there will be cake.

Ramen Review #10: Nissin Demae Ramen: XO Seafood Flavour

Today I had the urge to try this ramen flavour. Sometimes I have a craving for a certain flavour and today the the flavour of XO sauce fit my craving perfectly.

Mushroom and chicken rice

I remember I went to KFC once with my grandparents. I think I was 8 years old and on vacation in Hong Kong. The whole trip has mostly faded away from my memories, but I remember that meal in particular, because of two things: the chicken was served in plastic baskets and there was a side dish of rice topped with mushrooms in a gravy like sauce. I remember it was very tasty, but that is probably nostalgia speaking.

Ramen Review #9: Master Kong's Beef Ramen

 Frog is very excited to write this review! Of all the Master Kong's Ramen flavours I like this one the most. Master Kong has other kinds of instant ramen, but in this particular line of ramen there are only three flavours: pork ribs, spicy beef and normal beef. I have tasted and reviewed the other two and those two are good, but this one is definitely my favourite.

French Onion Soup

My sister came over for lunch, so Frog decided to make a soup to go with some bread. As my sister is not fond of dairy products I decided to not make a creamy soup, instead I remembered how much crying it takes to cut up all the onions one needs to make onion soup. 

Ramen Review #8: Nissin Demae Ramen: Black Garlic Oil Tonkotsu Flavour

Frog likes black or used to like black. Many can probably relate to the period in a frog's life where everything seemed so bothersome and black... But now i'm green!

So in today's spotlight: Nissin Demae Ramen Black Garlic Oil flavour. I didn't know it was a thing, but black garlic can refer to two things: Black garlic the plant: allium nigrum, but that is an ornamental plant and I doubt that Nissin would feed people a flower. And then there is black garlic, which is caramelized garlic invented in Korea. Whole garlic bulbs are slowly heated over a course of several weeks to achieve a black colour and a a special taste.Head over to wikipedia for more information.

Fan Guo: Chinese dumplings (Chinese dumplings folding)

Yes, an actual recipe! I decided I need to post more actual recipes and less ramen reviews. Also eating that many instant ramen is not good for froggy stomach. Apparently there is a scary story about a man that only ate ramen for years and got stomach cancer... doesn't stop me from eating ramen three times a week though!

Ramen Review #7: Nissin Demae Ramen: Beef Flavour

Its a new year! and I have a test tomorrow... Procrastination means ramen review! Today I'll be tasting the normal beef flavour of Nissin Demae Ramen.