Nori Bon Bons- Guest Blog from Mom!

Elyse-mom here....so honored to be guest blogging again. Seaweed is my favorite superfood, and always a crowd pleaser. Versatile, gorgeous, and fun to work with, I fell in love with seaweed long before the sushi craze of this millennium.

Obsessed with the many varieties, all colors, shapes, and sizes, I started buying packaged seaweed in local Asian food markets and Essene in center city Philadelphia back in the 70s. I love long, thick sheets of kombu, useful for making broth (dashi, the chicken stock of Japan), translucent but sturdy wakame leaves or thin sweet-tasting arame strands, soaked and seasoned with roasted sesame oil and rice wine vinegar for a delicious seaweed salad, and tangles of kelp, a great gluten-free pasta substitute.

Nori sheets, dark emerald green and shiny, are a delicious snack and fabulous wrap for other foods (e.g. sushi). In this recipe, I use them to wrap balls of sticky rice, as a snack, appetizer, or party food.

What makes seaweed a superfood, in addition to its extraordinary antioxidant properties, is the fact that it contains all the minerals required by the human body....calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, iodine, and zinc. Any kind of rice can be used, although high starch varieties (basmati, short grain, or sushi rice) will hold together best and make the neatest and prettiest bon bons.

While I seasoned my purple sticky rice (from the Whole Foods bin) with only sea salt, feel free to add a bit of oil (sesame or coconut are particularly delicious), vinegar (white or rice wine recommended), or fresh lemon or lime juice. I garnished my bon bons with fresh lemon zest, but sesame seeds or finely chopped nuts would also lend a beautiful finish. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 package roasted nori seaweed (I use Trade Joe Seaweed Snack, $.99 per package

1 cup uncooked rice (brown or white Basmati or purple sticky rice are my favorites)

2 1/2 cups water

1/2 t. sea salt

lemon zest for garnish

Directions:

1) Rinse rice in three changes of water, and cook in salted water until tender (20 minutes for white or purple rice, 40 minutes for brown rice). 

2) Let rice cool slightly, then form into small balls and wrap in nori sheets. 

3) Garnish as desired.

*Recipe makes about 25 bon bons