Crunchy Roll from YOI: After Hannibal and Before American Gods - we still have to eat!

While we wait for H4NNIBAL and until Spring 17 when American Gods premiers, I've been having a bit of a break from blogging.

Fannibals at NYComicCon gathered to get their Feeding Hannibal cookbooks signed by Bryan Fuller and myself

Ushering the Feeding Hannibal cookbook has kept me busy but when I saw Yuri on Ice, (how could I miss it - my @FeedingHannibal TL is full of YOI) I thought I had better pull together a few recipes so my Fannibals On Ice can have some snacks to take to the rink.

Pork Cutlet Bowl vs Katsu Piroshki

Of course, the Pork Cutlet Bowl is the most important dish in the series (Katsu also means "victory" in Japanese) but Katsu Piroshki is a joyful kind of food that made me laugh out loud when I saw it. Double carbs! Great for figure skaters who need to carbo-load before competitions. Deep-frying! Always improves everything. Baked in bread! What could be bad about that?

The four-hour version: DELICIOUS!

You can make Piroshki Katsu according to the recipe given by Emily Bushman on her YouTube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboVVRlutzg  

Her recipe is written out in full here:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2016/12/07/feature-cooking-with-anime-katsu-piroshki-from-yuri-on-ice

This is a really great recipe discovered by my literary agent, Monica Pacheco – and the video makes the instructions clear. I made it and here it is:

Here's the Long Program version. They're quite large - one makes a big lunch.

 

Vegetarians could substitute sautéed breaded Portobello mushroom slices for the pork and those who don’t eat pork could of course substitute chicken cutlets.

The recipe takes about 4 hours to make start to finish and is well worth the effort.

Well that’s great but it’s the holidays…who has the time to make this????

Feeding Hannibal to the rescue!!! Here’s my quick and easy version:

High Speed Crunchy Rolls

For 4 snack-sized rolls you’ll be eating in under an hour:

First: to the shops for frozen cutlets, ready-to-bake bread dough and cooked sushi rice. OK shuck your own peas if you must...

You could get regular-sized chicken cutlets but I like the smaller size (for snacks that fit in your purse) To speed things up – or if you don’t have sushi rice at home – get a large Take-away order of steamed rice from the your neighbourhood sushi restaurant – and ask for a pack of soy sauce while you’re at it in case you don’t have a bottle of that in your kitchen.

Ingredients:
1 pkg crescent roll dough (the kind where you smash the cardboard container and the dough explodes out - making baking fun again)
4 strips frozen breaded chicken “tenders”

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/3 cup frozen peas

2 cups cooked sushi rice (or Thai Jasmine rice but not Basmati and not Uncle Ben's)

Method:

1. Bake chicken according to directions on package.

2. Prepare the egg layer: beat the eggs and soy sauce together in a small bowl and add to hot pan in which you have heated the oil. Over medium heat, stir the eggs as they thicken and add the peas. Continue cooking and stirring until eggs are solidified and slightly dry. Set aside.

3. Chicken should be cooked by now so remove them from the oven, turn the heat down to 350° F and prep the rolls for baking.

4. Tear off a sheet of plastic wrap about 12 inches long and lay on working surface. 

 Onto the plastic wrap, spread a thin layer of rice that is about 1 inch larger than a chicken strip all around. Press firmly with fingers to flatten. Moisten fingers with water to prevent sticking.

 On the rice, spread a layer of egg, top with a chickens strip add another layer of egg and a layer of rice.

Press down with moistened fingers. Bring plastic wrap up around the chicken strip and squeeze together so the rice gets packed firmly around it and it all stays together in a nice little rice-y log.Set rice-wrapped chicken aside and repeat with the remaining 3 chicken strips. 

       

5. Remove crescent roll dough from package and gently unroll, taking care not to tear the dough into triangles. Separate along the vertical and horizontal perforations into four rectangles. Gently stretch the dough to even out the thickness and to get it to a size and shape that will wrap evenly around the rice-chicken.

5. Remove crescent roll dough from package and gently unroll, taking care not to tear the dough into triangles. Separate along the vertical and horizontal perforations into four rectangles. Gently stretch the dough to even out the thickness and to get it to a size and shape that will wrap evenly around the rice-chicken. 
6. Wrap each rice-chicken  strip in dough and pinch dough to completely enclose the rice-chicken strip. Repair any holes in the dough by pinching dough together. Place on baking sheet seam side down.

7. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!!! If you have any Katsu sauce (or HP or 57 sauce) a little squizzle of that would go nicely.

Yes, yummy and in your tummy in under an hour!

Hope you all have a lovely holiday and happy new year full of joy and love and all the good things of the season. 

Thank you Fannibals for embracing my Feeding Hannibal cookbook and making my 2016 so memorable!!!!