Food Art "Love caterpillars"

Food art is "painting" with food. On Instagram, I watch some food bloggers who enthusiastically "paint" food, creating, at times, pictures of stunning beauty. The plot of my picture is simple - two caterpillars met in the forest and, of course, love broke out between them :) My daughter really liked it, and she ate this lunch with great pleasure :)

Ingredients

• for meatballs with broccoli and ricotta: broccoli 350 g
• ricotta 250 g
• cloves of garlic 2 pcs.
• dill 1 bunch (s)
• eggs 2 pcs.
• bread crumbs 2 tbsp
• salt, pepper 2 pinch (s)
• for minced chicken and rice "hedgehogs": minced chicken 300 g
• onions 0.5 pcs.
• salt, pepper 2 pinch (s)
• Basmati rice 150 g
• and also: quail egg 1 pc.
• dry seaweed (nori) 1 pc.
• green beans 0.25 cup (s)
• bell pepper 0.5 pcs.
• carrots 1 pc.
• curly pasta 0.5 glass (s)

Directions

1. Cooking meatballs with broccoli and ricotta. First of all, I'll tell you how to boil green vegetables so that they retain their natural green color (this also applies to broccoli and green beans used in the "picture"). You need to cook vegetables as quickly as possible in soft water for a short time. To soften the water, you need to put half a tablespoon of salt in boiling water and continue to boil the water for another 5 minutes. Only then send the vegetables to the pan. Boil broccoli for 2-3 minutes. Beans 3-5. Immediately after this, drain the vegetables in a colander and place in a container with ICE water. You can even add ice to cold water - your vegetables will remain emerald green. Thus, boil broccoli, disassembled into inflorescences, and dry well.
2. Grind the broccoli inflorescences not too finely - they should be like small cubes. Place in a bowl, add ricotta, eggs (by the way, 1 egg was enough for me - look at the consistency), chopped garlic and dill, a little salt and pepper, bread crumbs. Replace "minced meat". Form small meatballs, place in a steamer bowl and cook for 30 minutes. You can also bake these meatballs in the oven.
3. Minced chicken hedgehogs with rice. This is a hit !!! Agree, no child will refuse such cool needle-shaped meatballs. And they are preparing in no time.
4. You need to prepare the rice in advance: rinse it, leave it in cold water for 2 hours, then drain the water and leave the rice to dry. The rice must be absolutely dry! Knead the minced meat. Form a meatball with wet hands. Next, roll the meatball in a bowl of rice - the entire surface should be covered with rice. In this way, form the meatballs from the whole minced meat and put them in the steamer bowl. Steam for 30 minutes. You yourself will be surprised how, at about 20 minutes, instead of smooth meatballs, you will see such fluffy hedgehogs. Such hedgehogs will turn out only when steamed - in the oven - no.
5. Well, now I'll tell you how I assembled the picture. The herb is boiled green beans, the flowers are pieces of multi-colored bell pepper. Green trees - boiled broccoli, orange - boiled carrots, tree branches - nori. Cloud and sun - quail egg scrambled eggs. The girl is broccoli meatballs, the girl's head is a slice of carrot, eyes, eyelash, nose and smile are nori. The villi are dill. Bow - bow-shaped macaroni. Boy - chicken meatballs with rice. The head is a slice of a hard-boiled chicken egg. Eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows - nori. Legs - carrot slices. The cap is a carrot. Hearts - multi-colored heart-shaped pasta (green - with spinach juice, orange - with carrot juice). All elements of the painting are edible.