If Kilton existed in the real world, he would love the Halloween season. A holiday devoted to monsters would be right up his alley. Conversely, the Halloween season is the perfect time of year for some monster dishes!
Kilton’s monster extract can be used to spice up a number of common Hyrulean dishes. Simply adding this spice derived from monster essence to a dish adds a new and interesting flavor profile. One such dish is the monster rice ball. Flavoring Hylian Rice with Monster Extract adds an interesting flavor twist to the common Hyrulean rice ball.
"Rice balls flavored with monster extract. Their unique aroma is not for everyone."
This is a pretty simple monster dish to make. We will simply cook rice in water colored purple using ube powder. This will add a mice vibrant purple color to the rice as it cooks. Once the purple rice is fully cooked, we will season it with a little salt, mold it into balls, stuff them with pickled plums (to add a little monster flavor), and then shape them into the triangles. Simple and monstrously fun. The perfect snack for a midnight walk through the Hyrulean forests.
Ingredients
2 ¼ cups Japanese rice
3 cups water
1 tbsp purple ube powder
1 tsp salt
3-4 small sheets of nori (seaweed)
8-10 pickled plums, deseeded
Bring a pot with 3 cups of water to simmer over medium heat. Once the pot reaches a simmer, remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the tablespoon of purple ube powder. The powder will dissolve into the water and turn it a purple shade. This is the water we will use to cook the rice and add the purple color.
Rinse the rice to remove excess surface starch and then prepare the rice. If you are using a rice cooker, add the 2 ¼ standard cups of rice (which is 3 full rice cooker cups) and then fill it to the 3 cup line with the purple ube water. You will likely not use all of the water. If you are cooking the rice via stovetop, follow the directions on the package, using the water-to-rice ratio recommended on your rice package, measuring the purple ube water in place of plain water.
Once your rice has finished cooking, you will notice the cooked rice has turned purple from colored water. That’s all there is to it! Allow the rice to cool just a little bit and then pour your finished rice into a bowl and stir in one teaspoon of salt. You are now ready to assemble your rice balls! Make sure your hands stay wet through pretty much this entire process so you can mold the rice balls and keep the rice from sticking to your hands. Scoop ½ cup of rice into your hand and mold it into a ball.
Press a deep divot into the rice ball with your thumb, insert the deseeded pickled plum, and then fold the rice back over the plum to close up the divot. Once the rice ball is reformed back into a ball, with the plum secured inside, we can shape it.
Now it’s time for the fun part. You want to mold the rice ball into a triangle with rounded corners. There are two ways to do this: by hand or by onigiri mold. To mold by hand, push the front and back to flatten it out, push the bottom against a cutting board and then push down on the sides at opposing angles. Lastly, push the front and back one more time to flatten more. This seems to do the trick for the most part. To use an onigiri mold, place the ball of rice into a ½ cup size onigiri mold, and then slowly press the lid firmly back into the mold. Press until you cannot press any further, and then remove the lid and gently pop out the rice ball.
If you are using the smaller snack sized nori sheets, cutting these in half will produce two seaweed strips of the perfect size. If you are using full sheets, cut them into strips that are roughly 1 inch wide by 3-4 inches long. Wrap the nori strips around the bottom of the rice balls and your rice balls are complete. Enjoy!
Learn more about the Monster Rice Balls dish from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at Zelda Dungeon.