Sushi and Roux Frosting

Nancy and I went to a Sushi-Making Class in DC a while ago. I made a bunch of sushi the Sunday afterwards. Fun! I need a lot more practice but man, I made like $40 worth of sushi! No fish or anything fancy. Maybe next time. But here's the recipe for the rice.

SushiRice

2 c. Sushi Rice

2 1/2 c. water

1/3 c. Rice Vinegar

2 Tbsp Sugar

2 tsp Salt

In a sauce pot, bring the vinegar, sugar and salt to a simmer. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved. (This smells a bit icky. fyi) Cool this liquid. In a strainer, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs mostly clear. This will take a few minutes. Place the water, rice in either a pot with a lid or in a rice cooker. Let sit for 15 minutes and then bring to a simmer. Simmer on low heat for 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. Or prepare in a rice cooker. Once the rice is finished cooking, turn the rice into a glass or wooden bowl. Using a wooden spoon, gently fold in the vinegar seasoning. You want to spread the rice out evenly to allow to cool without breaking the grains. If not using immediately cover with damp paper towels.

Here's are sweet Sammy on his 5th birthday. He wanted a lemon cake so, with Stephanie's suggestion, I made the Tina's awesome Lemon Bundthead cake in to 2 circular pans, did the glaze on the two cakes. I used this great frosting to cover it. I just made it a second time just yesterday. This frosting I could stick my face in and lick the bowl clean. It's SO good. It's from Pioneer Woman. Here's a link but I'll put in on here as well. She calls it "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had" but I'll call it a Roux Frosting because you cook some flour and milk for it like a gravy or macaroni and cheese.

Roux Frosting

5 Tbsp Flour

1 c. Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

1 c. granulated sugar (not powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

*Some personal notes: I'm still not good at coloring any frosting. I think I'm going to try powered coloring. Also, this frosting gets firm in the refrigerator so you'll want it at room temperature when using or serving. I tried to soften some leftovers in the microwave and heated it up too much. It totally messed up the texture but still tasted good so don't heat it up.