Bento: one pot beef-yaki

I found some flank steak on sale and thought it would make some fantastic beef bento dish (which I can't remember the name of - probably something-yaki which means something-fried).

The recipe is from the book 10 Minute Bento. I don't normally eat beef because it gives indigestion, however, when it's cooked this way with sake, something changes in the beef making it easier to digest.

I put some more of those daikon pickles (really starting to like them), but there was still something missing.  So I put some tiny tomatoes on it, and look, a lovely christmas coloured lunch.

Allergies:  I substituted the mirin for vinegar, the sugar for honey and the soy sauce for rice based soysub.

Affordable?  This is about 2 oz of beef, so basically you are getting a lot of flavour for a small portion of meat - my favourite kind of meal. It also tastes good with other red meats like goat or lamb, depending on what you have at hand.   But make sure to slice thinly and across the grain or things get tough to chew.  Other ingredients include frozen peas, onion, veg, rice... although I don't remember how much the cost of the beef was, the rest of the ingredients were about $1 to $1.50.

What I really like about this recipe is that it is fast food.  The book suggests we can make this in 10 minutes, however, that's only if you are super-mum.  Prep took about 5 min, cooking and assembling, 15 min.  But 20 minutes for a complete and completely delicious bento is well within my happy range.

As for Healthy: I'm going to go with yes.  Meat is full of all sorts of things that are good for your body, and having it in small quantities like this is great.  Though I thought while eating it, I wish I had put a bit less rice and a lot more veg in it.  Next time I'll try a different way of assembling the dish that includes more veg.


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Radish Leaf Rice Spice (Furikake) Recipe (no soy)

In Japan, they have this amazing thing.  It's a mixture of random things, dried and put in packets or jars, that you sprinkle on top of rice.  It's called Furikake and it is exceptionally delicious.  It transforms a regular bowl of rice into something extra-ordinary.

You will find these highly addictive rice spices in just about every grocery and convenience store in Japan, and it comes in a huge assortment of flavours from seaweed, to shrimp, to desiccated egg, to my personal favourite, salted salmon.

I don't know how old the idea of Furikake is, but in the book Black Rain, a book describing the events of a family surviving Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War, the woman cooked up something very like this using an assortment of ingredients.  If I remember correctly, radish leaves were one of them.

Most people in the West don't consider radish leaves a food, many go so far as to say they are toxic, which I suspect they may be if you eat too much of it - but that's true of just about anything, including water.  In small quantities these greens are delicious and nutritious.  But using otherwise discarded veggies like radish and carrot tops as a garnish is an affordable way to add flavour to a dish.

The problem is that most commercial made Furikake is full of ingredients like soy and MSG, and other things that aren't necessary good for a person.  Thankfully it's quite easy to make at home, and by doing so you can change the ingredients to accommodate different allergies or other dietary needs (like low salt or veganism).

My recipe changes each time I make it, depending on what is in the cupboard and how I'm feeling.  I seldom make a vegan version, but if you like, there is a great vegan radish leaf rice spice recipe here.  It comes from my favourite blog, Just Bento, and my rice spice is heavily inspired by her Furikake no. 1 recipe.

Radish Leaf Rice Spice (Furikake) Recipe

A large bunch of radish leaves (about 2 cups after blanching)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup bonito flakes
1/4 cup dried mini sardines or shrimp
1 super-hot chili (fresh or dry) or 1/2 tsp of dry chili flakes
2 Tbs Fish sauce (or to taste)

• Chop the chili as fine as possible and put to one side.  If you like, you can finely chop the sardines/shrimp at this time. If you cannot get very-tiny sardines, you can get the dried larger version, and chop them fine.
• Wash the radish leaves really well.  Bring a large pot of water to the boil and blanch the leaves for about 3 minutes.  Strain leaves, rinse under cold water, and squeeze the leaves to remove as much moisture as possible.  Chop leaves fine.
• In a large skillet or wok, dry fry the leaves on medium heat until most of the moisture is removed.  Stirring almost constantly.
• Add the sesame seeds, bonito flakes, dry sardines/shrimp, and chili, mix well.
• Mix in the fish sauce and continue to fry and stir until things start to dry out.  
• At this stage you can cool completely and wrap into individual size bundles to freeze... or you can do what I did and dry them in the dehydrator or oven. 

Just added the fish sauce
I'm making a lot more than two cups worth today

to dry on a dehydrator, I covered half of each try with tinfoil
Each try was 1/3 turn from the last,  to encourage airflow

If you are going to dry them and keep them at room temp, then make certain they are completely dry, cool completely and add one of those 'do not eat' packets you sometimes get in food - silicon or some such in them, that absorbs moisture - I found mine in packets of seaweed.  Keeps in the freezer for about 6 months, or at room temp for about 2 months.

I usually make this recipe if I have a crop of radishes that didn't bulb up for one reason or another.  Maybe the weather was too wet, maybe worms got in at them, whatever.  I harvest them just as the first plants are starting to bolt.

Fall Fair Bento

Every year for the local Fall Fair I spend a day demonstrating fibre arts.  It's a whole day surrounded by excited people, barns full of animals, colourful exhibits, the sound of fair rides, and the smells of food stalls.

It always starts with the smell of frying onions, about 10 o'clock in the morning.  The international food stands arrive first, as most of their cooking is from scratch on site, with a few dishes made the night before at home.

Next is the smell of things frying in oil, I know the more 'traditional' - or should I say more modern - cooking has arrived.  Frozen food heated in deep oil, or sometimes fresh food heated in deep oil like my favourite smell, the doughnut stand.  He has a gooey mess of fresh batter and this antiquated machine that transforms gooey mess into fried mini doughnuts, for sale by the half dozen.  Sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

Then the smell of spices compete with the smell of charred meats on the BBQ.  A deep breath and I can just about feel the crunch of the grilled Bratwurst break open in my teeth, the juices running down my chin, the toasted bun sopping up the juices, and the sauerkraut....mmmm, sauerkraut on hotdog!

All these wonderful smells are pure torture for someone with food allergies and sensitivities.  There are days when I would rather have my toenails pulled out with a pair of pliers than to have to walk through a food court - especially one with good quality, freshly made food like the stalls at the Fall Fair.


The only way to tolerate this torturous tantalization is to bring a lunch just as delicious as anything that can be bought at the fair.


This is a three layer Bento, well actually a Tiffin container from India.  Bottom layer contained rice, ume, and a cute little chicken container filled with Spicy Rooster (I don't know what it's actually called, but it has a picture of a rooster on the bottle and is exceptionally spicy) sauce.  The next layer, some boiled broccoli, a cherry tomato from the garden, and chicken Kara Age.  The chicken is marinaded over night, coated in cornstarch, fried in about half an inch of oil, then marinated again.  It's exceptionally yummy!

The top layer is fruit:  Apples, grapes, and a selection of cheese.

Everything except for the fruit layer, is packed hot and allowed to cool - this way the moisture can evaporate and the lunch will keep from spoiling in hot weather.  Of course, the chicken always gets eaten first, as it is so delicious.


Affordability?  It's about $1 worth of chicken plus everything else, I would say about $2 for the entire lunch.  Maybe less if you can find some of the items on sale.  All in all, not too shabby.

Sam gae tang - or Korean chicken soup

I found this nifty looking packet in a Korean grocery store the other day, and I just knew I needed to find out what it was for and cook it.

Okay, maybe it looks a bit messy here, but trust me on this one, it was delicious. The dish is something like a cross between pottage and chicken soup.  The soup itself is quite mild, with garlic, dates and chestnuts providing splashes of texture and taste sensations.  The kimchi (home made by the way) is necessary in my opinion.

In the packet is roughly 1 cup of sweet rice, one chunk of dry ginseng, 5 dates and 5 chestnuts.

Traditionally it is washed and mixed together and stuffed into gamecocks, put in a pot with water and cooked on the stove till done, adding more water as needed.

First I washed the package ingredients and put them to soak while I dealt with the chicken.

I didn't have a single serving chicken, so I used a regular size fryer.  I used the neck, wings, legs and breasts, in nice big chunks, bone in (the carcass became stock later on), put the pottage ingredients in the bottom of the pan with half a dozen cloves of garlic (peeled), lay the chicken bits on top, then added water to cover everything.  I brought to boil and then simmered on very low till it was done (stirring frequently).  Took about an hour and twenty minutes, but would make a nice slow cooker meal I think.

You can serve the chicken with the bone in, but I don't like to think too much while I'm eating, so I removed the chicken, skinned it (I left some of the skin on for flavour while cooking), shredded it with a fork, then placed it on top of the soup.

Tastes good, reheated the second day too.

Apparently this is a traditional summer meal in Korea and is good for keeping one cool during a heatwave.

Allergies: the ingredients were simple enough, no extra stuff like soy in this package.  Should be fine for most diets.

Affordable?:  Chicken is going up in price here the last five years or so, and the quality is going down.  The affordable chicken in the supermarket is repulsive to me, too fatty, too chemically, too much added water injected into the meat after it's been processed...  I use to eat two or three chicken a week, but now I maybe eat one or two a month, because the poultry I like, is a bit expensive.

To save money, instead of just buying chicken pieces, I bought a whole chicken and cut it up.  The link I just gave you is from the handsome boys at Sorted Foods.  It's the video that gave me the confidence to actually cut up a chicken.  I must have watched it at least 10 times before trying it on my own.

Note - did you know that when you cut up a cooked chicken, you don't carve it, you spoil (not unlace like I first wrote, that's what you do to rabbit) the chicken - English has so many beautiful and specific words that are dieing out, it makes me sad.

Locally a whole chicken costs a little under what two breasts cost in the store.   But with a whole chicken, I get the wings, the neck, the drumsticks, the thighs, the carcass and the breasts... With the price of poultry on the rise, I can no longer justify buying just chicken pieces.

After all that long rant, is it an affordable dish to cook?  $15 for a chicken, another four for the filling, another dollar for the kimchi as it was homemade, makes it $20 for the whole dish.  It made 8 bowls full of yummy, yummy soup that's not bad.  Roughly 2.50 per plate, but keep in mind, it is yummy and most people will want seconds and thirds.

Transitioning Back to Solid Foods - recipes

Bread soup, looks disgusting, tastes yummy

After a week on a clear liquid diet, it was time to begin eating solids again.  My stomach is still very grumpy, so I decided to make a slow transition back to solid foods by starting with some stomach-mild mushy foods.

The nice things about these recipes is that it helps to use up all that extra broth left over from the previous week.

Bread Soup

This is a very British food, traditionally fed to the very young and sickly.  Also makes a good breakfast for the healthy.


A couple of bread crusts, or slices of bread.
A teaspoon of butter  (not Marg unless you are vegan or can't eat butter for some reason. I use goat butter because it's easier to digest.  I can't remember the specifics, but there is something in butter that helps wake up your digestion system, when taken in moderation)
some broth
optional broth cube

• Cut or crumble up the bread into bite size segments and put in a bowl with a tsp of butter.  Optional, add a crumbled up broth cube.
• Bring the broth to a boil and pour over the bread.  Stir and add more broth if you need it.

pretty simple.

Rice Mush

About 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rice

roughly 2 cups of dashi stock (or just water)

• Wash the rice in cool water at least three times
• If you have a rice cooker, follow the instructions for rice porrage that came with it.
• Otherwise, combine washed rice and dashi stock in a pot, bring to boil, cook covered on low for about an hour or until mush.
• Serve with ume boshi (pickled plum) if you can, as this helps aid digestion.  Wakame seaweed and nuka pickled veg are also great additions to this dish and help wake up the gut.

A word about rice.  As tempting as it is, stay away from brown rice the first day or two.  High fibre foods can really set back your recovery.  Rather, stick to low fibre foods, lots of moisture, and whatever your doctor recommends. 

Affordable cooking: yes.  most of these use up leftovers, but even cooking from scratch, it's still pennies a bowl.

Vegan?  Could be if you use vegan broths and marg instead of butter

Healthy: there is a lot of nourishment in these recipes, but I would be leery of having a restrictive diet of just mushy stuff without a doctors consultation and monitoring.   

Possible allergy conflicts: if you are using commercial made broth, there will most likely be soy and lots of yeast, both common allergens.  

Recipe for Ketchup Kimchi Fried Rice plus more homemade kimchi

Kimchi ready to go in the pot to ferment

Whipped up a fresh batch of Kimchi this week.  The green grocery had some really nice looking su choy cabbage and excellent green onions.  I followed the recipe in Wild Fermentation more or less.  This batch includes 2 Su Choy cabbages, 3 bunches of green onions, 2 buds of garlic, 4 carrots, 6 to 8 chilli peppers, a couple of Tbs of chilli powder, tsp ginger, half a daikon radish... I think that was it.  It's going to be good!

Although it is possible that I make my kimchi a bit too spicy.  But I don't mind because it goes great in fried rice.

This is the recipe for Ketchup Kimchi Fried Rice that The Capitan invented.  There are at least half a dozen ways I like to cook kimchi fried rice, but this is what I'm in the mood for these days.  It is Vegan Friendly (provided you use vegan kimchi and ketchup).  It goes great with eggs or a hunk of cheese, or if serving to your vegan friend, a side of tofu.

Ketchup Kimchi Fried Rice

Cooked rice (leftover rice is fine) about 2/3 cup per person
Kimchi
Sesame Oil
Ketchup

• Poor some sesame oil in the fry pan and add the rice.  Fry at medium-high until the starch in the rice starts to crackle and burst but don't let it get too crunchy.

• Add the Ketchup, as much or as little as you like.  Stir it in real well and cook until the sugar in the ketchup starts to carmalize.
• Add the Kimchi.  Cook the kimchi until warm.  Try not to cook the kimchi too much as cooking it destroys the active enzymes that aid digestion.

• That's it.  If you like, at this stage you can crack an egg on top of the rice.
• Serve and enjoy.

Goes really nice with Korean Nori

This is very much comfort food for me.  It's surprisingly calming on the digestion due to all the lovely enzymes and stuff in the Kimchi.


 

Recipe for chestnut sweet potato rice cooked in a Korean stone pot (dolsot)

Rice cooked in a Dolsot has a really magic taste to it that you can't get any other way.  It is also surprisingly easy to make.

Chestnut and Sweet Potato Rice

1 cup rice (Japanese or American cup, it doesn't matter, just choose one and stick with it)
1 small sweet potato
400g chestnuts, roasted
1tsp soy-sub or soy sauce
1Tbs sake
dash salt
optional - small bit of kombu
Sesame oil for the Dolsot

• oil the dolsot with the sesame oil.  This is an important step to maintaining your stone pot.
• Wash the rice really well.  Add water to the rice.  You can use the measurements on the rice package, or you can use an electric rice cooker to measure out how much water, then put the rice and water together into the stone pot, or you can put the rice in the stone pot and make it so the water is about 1/8 to 3/16th of an inch above the rice.
• Chop the sweet potato, add to the rice
• Shell if necessary, and loosely crumble the chestnuts.
• Add the soy-sub, sake, kombu and salt.  Mix together well.
• Cook on medium low heat for about 45 min or until rice is done.  Feel free to check and stir the rice after half an hour.

After you have scoped the rice out of the bowl ad boiling hot water, green onions, and miso paste to the pot for a healthy soup.

Clockwise from top left: carrot & gobo kimpira, kimchi,
miso paste and green beans for making the soup

This is vegan friendly.

Emergency bento filler recipe and cute foil wrap for onigiri

There are times when I need a bento in a hurry, but had no chance to plan the day before.  When that happens, there is usually a lot of rice, and whatever veg I can find in the fridge and garden.  Of course it doesn't hurt to fry the veg with bacon!  

white rice, emergency bento filler
and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds

Emergency bento filler

-Some bacon cut up thin (usually one rasher per person - rasher is English for slice when talking about bacon)
-About half a carrot per person
-Other veg. Cabbage, chard stocks, broccoli stems (pealed first of course), peas, or whatever
-Soy-sub (I use the coconut based one for this as it makes a nice glaze, but fish sauce with sake tastes good too) or soy sauce
-Cooking oil (sesame is my favourite)

• Cut the veg into match sticks
• Cut up the bacon into match sticks and fry it on medium heat with a few drops of oil.  Be skimpy on the oil as the bacon will make its own as it cooks.  Cook until almost done, but not crunchy
• Add the veg to the bacon.  If you have a quicker cooking veg like cabbage, then add the carrots first and cook part way before adding cabbage.
• when the bacon is cooked and the veg are somewhat tender, add the soy-sub.  About a table spoon per person.  Simmer until the sauce is reduced, stirring frequently.  

It will keep up to 3 days in the fridge, maybe longer, but it never lasts more than a few hours in my house.  Should keep well in a bento so long as the weather is not too hot and you have allowed the bento to cool before closing the lid.

Purposely didn't put precise quantities here because I usually make this in a hurry and it depends entirely on what I have in the house.  When I'm in a rush, I don't want to fumble around for the scales and measuring cups.

I don't worry about the bacon fat, in fact I encourage it.  If you are too busy to plan your bento, you will probably need the extra energy to get through the day.

And now, for a cool way to add onigiri (rice ball) to your lunch.

onigiri with wakame furikake (seaweed rice spice)

A friend of mine just came back from Osaka and brought me a few bento toys to play with.  The same products that cost an arm and a leg to get on this side of the Pacific, are sold in the Japanese equivalent of the dollar store there.  Only problem is, most of my friends feel bad about sending such inexpensive gifts.  Thank goodness for my friend Y-.

The foil is a quick way to cute-en up your rice.  You make a circular rice ball (either flat or globe shaped) and then wrap it in the foil.

ume boshi, spicy cucumber pickles, and onigiri
I told you I didn't get a chance to plan ahead. 

And the picture on the outside of the foil is adorable.


Yummy bento lunch shared on:

How to Cook Rice in a Korean Stone Pot (and how to season it)

A dolsot or Korean stone pot is the latest addition to my kitchen.  A Korean friend of mine taught me how to cook rice in it (from scratch - instead of just adding cooked rice and heating like most people do) and after hearing her passionate description of how delicious it is, I just had to have one.

The pot is made of a single piece of stone, hand turned on a massive lathe.  It's a heavy blighter so you don't want to be dropping it on your finger like I did.

Before the first use, it needs to be seasoned.  You only need to do this the first time or if it's been sitting for a year or more.

How to season your Dolsot

Wash the pot with water and half fill with tepid water.  Add a couple of tablespoons of sea salt to the water and swish around with your fingers until all the salt is dissolved   Leave for a few minutes so that the temperature of the water and the pot can even out, than bring to boil on medium heat.  When the water is boiling vigorously, take the pot off the heat and carefully poor off the water.

When it has cooled a bit, poor some sesame oil on a cloth or paper towel and rub the inside of the pot and lid.  Lave it to cool completely and the oil to seep in.

How to Cook Rice in a Dolsot

1 cup rice
water
salt
Kombu (kelp) - optional

• Coat the inside of the pot with sesame (or any cooking) oil.  Do this every time, just before you cook in this pot.
• Wash the rice really well.
• You can add other grains with the rice.  I often replace one Tbs of rice with  Naked Oats.
• Once it's well washed, add the water.  You can follow the amount of water on the back of the rice package or you can put the washed rice in the pot and cover with water so it's about 1.5cm above the level of the rice.  Or, you can do what I did, and measure the water in the rice-cooker then poor it into the stone pot.
• Add a pinch of salt to the rice (swish it around to dissolve) and if you like, add some kombu.  
• Let the pot stand for about five minutes before you start cooking, this allows the temperature to even out and reduces the chance of the bowl splitting or cracking.

• Bring the rice pot to a roiling boil on MEDIUM HEAT!  

• I repeat: MEDIUM HEAT!
• Once the pot heats up, you can increase the temperature, but the important thing with these pots is not to change the temperature too rapidly one way or another. 
• When the water boils, turn down the heat.  You can tell when it boils as some steam will escape through the lid.  You can even check it from time to time and stir it if you like, but I didn't bother.

• When it's finished cooking (how long this takes depends on your stove and rice/grain - but basically it's when there isn't much steam escaping any more), you can eat it as is or put toppings on the rice, increase the heat until the rice starts to make a crackling sound and goes all crunchy and brown around the edges.  The latter is called Bibimbap in Korea and is extremely yummy.

Clockwise from the top:
 Leaks lightly fried and then simmered in Sake,
Salted Salmon, Cucumber nukazuke pickles, and Kim Chi.  

Of course, mine isn't real Bibimbap, I don't have the correct ingredients or sauces.  Basically I put a collection of things I like to eat on top of the rice.




After you finish eating the rice (toppings or no) there will probably be a layer of crunchy rice around the edge.  Before the pot cools down too much, add some HOT broth, hot water, or dashi.  NOTE: Please try and keep the liquid as close to the temperature of the pot as possible when you poor it in, when it doubt err on the hot side.

Adding the liquid makes a really nice soup (and makes it easier to clean later on).

Tips for Caring for your Dolsot

• Do NOT use soap to clean this pot.  If you are having trouble getting it clean either scrub with coarse salt and water or boil up some water in the pot then allow to cool completely before cleaning.
• Always allow to cool completely before cleaning.  Even though you may be able to handle the outside, the stone retains a lot of heat inside.
• Always coat the inside with cooking oil prior to using (this includes the lid)
• Do NOT change the temperature too rapidly   This includes putting cold water in a hot pot, or hot water in a cold pot, or cooking on too high a heat.  Sudden changes in temperature will crack or even shatter the bowl, and that's the last thing we want.

Some useful dolsot links
Korean Stone Pot Care and Seasoning
Dolsot Problems?
Yeongyang dolsotbap Dolsot Bibimbap recipe

Using South River Chickpea Miso to make yaki onigiri

For a person like me, with soy allergies and an almost obsessive love of Japanese food, finding a soy-free miso paste is a real joy.  Almost as much fun as learning how to use it.

I'm starting to enjoy using this chickpea miso to make soup, but what I really want it for is to make sauces to cook other things with.  Time to try some soy free yaki-onigiri.

The miso pastes is quite chunky.  This can be useful, but not for making a smooth sauces.  So I took a small amount in a bowl and mashed it with the back of a spoon.  Not the best consistency, but smooth enough for my purposes.  

as you can see, the paste includes flavourful chunks
and the occasional whole pea

I put a few drops of sake in with the miso and mixed it very well.  This really intensified the flavour of the miso and added a whole other dimension to the taste.

Next, I made some onigiri with tuna-mayo filling.  I choose two of them for frying and spread the miso paste evenly on the large sides.  Then fried them like cookingwithdog does in her onigiri video.

Somehow, my yakionigiri always falls apart these days.  What a dog's breakfast I made of frying that eh?

The miso paste cooks really fast, so keep an eye on it.  The taste of the South River miso is pretty good on yaki onigiri.  Maybe if I could get the hang of cooking it better, then it would taste better.  This is something I plan to try again, and again, and again, until I get the flavours and method right.

And a mid morning snack for two.  Two tuna-mayo onigiri, two yaki onigiri and some salted cucumbers with a few drops of lime juice massaged in.

Lunch for a little person

I really have no idea what toddlers eat.  I figure it must be something like human food, only cuter and softer.  But I've been watching (very closely) what mummies feed their kids, and I finally decided to take a chance and offer to cook lunch for both parent and tike.

Since most of the adult lunch is pretty simple, tamagoyaki, shio-koji chicken, potato salad (from this Cooking with Dog video, only scaled up a lot!), carrot gobo kimpura, and rice, I figured that he could have mostly what we are having plus a little bit of something special just for him.

So I made him some boiled veg and onigiri.

Only it's never quite that simple, is it?

What has this crazy person done to these carrots?

My friend told me that calcium is important for kids, so I added some goat cheese hearts and a cheddar flower, with a nori centre.  In case you are wondering, kids adore nori.  I haven't met a person under the age of 5 that won't gobble it up given the chance.  I couldn't get the nori to stick to the cheese, so I used a bit of potato salad as a glue.  He didn't seem to mind.

And a cute container to wrap it up in.

For a kid just entering the hight of the NO stage, he sure said yes to this lunch.  Although, to be honest, he liked the onigiri and the potato salad much better than the veg, but *shrug*, what can one do?



This bento shared at...

Cavena Nuda - Adding Naked Oats to Rice

They call it Rice of the Prairies, but it's actually a fancy new kind of oat.  Developed in part by Agriculture Canada (and heavily promoted by said government agency), these oats are hull-less, so they require fewer resources to process and are therefore suppose to be environmentally friendly.  My problem is, I don't know if these are a GM food or not, it was all rather sudden when they started appearing in the agricultural magazines, then a couple of months later they were on the shelf ready to eat.  The big government push behind this grain makes me instantly suspicious, but apparently not enough to avoid eating it.

Because it's so high in trace nutrients and because being on a low-to-no fibre diet means avoiding whole grains as a dietary staple, my Dr suggested I add a bit of this to my rice to help balance my nutritional profile.  For relatively little fibre, I'm able to gain a great deal of nutrients, and it doesn't taste all that bad either.

You can see the little brown specks if you squint and move extra close to your computer monitor.  They are the oats.

The oats add a mildly nutty flavour to the rice and have a similar texture to adding brown rice.   They taste exceptionally good in yakionigiri (fried rice balls).  They are very simple to add to rice.  However, I have noticed that if you don't give them a good wash before cooking, they won't cook as well and tend to stay quite hard.

First I measure my rice, and for each cup of white rice, I remove one tsp and replace it with 1 tsp of oats.  Then I wash as per normal, put in the rice cooker as per normal 'mixed' rice setting, and eat as per normal.  Very simple, very quick, and rather yummy.  

Bento Snack - onigiri with pickles

When it's hot like this, I do all my cooking as early in the day as possible.  Even though I'm home all day, I still make myself a few bento meals.  I find it very difficult to digest solid food when I'm overheated, so I try to make the tastes as mild and appealing as possible.

Today's bento: one onigiri (rice ball) with ume plum and nori wrap, one yakionigiri with tuna mayo filling and a side of Nuka Pickles.

Nice, simple, slightly colourful but not overwhelming.

Just so you know, I didn't eat the tuna-mayo onigiri.  I forgot that both fish and mayo spoil really quickly when stored at 35degrees C.  Just one bite was enough to know this is not safe for my stomach.

These are my first pickles in my new nuka vat.  They are okay and there is a defiantly a nuka favour there, but I think it needs to mature a few more days before it's ready.

I love how the optional inner section of this box has an almost leek proof lid for keeping the flavours separate




And for those of you wondering why it's Friday and I'm not eating pasta: Being a dedicated Pastafarian does not mean that I can only eat pasta on Fridays (our holy days), but rather that we must consume at least some pasta on Fridays (and beer, the beer is just as important).  Besides there are many lapsed Pastafarians who do not eat noodles every Friday.  It's a matter of personal preference.

For those who are super-curious, tonight will be a late night helping of garlic pasta with a side of spicy sausage and any left over veg (mostly fennel kimpura and pickles) that I can find in the fridge.

Bento Lunch salmon with ginger beans

Today's bento is Salted Salmon with Ginger Beans

For the Green Bean recipe, I used a commercial soy-sub made from fermented rice, but it also tastes nice with the fish sauce soy-sub.

The cucumbers in the top are my version of an Indian Pickles and the flower is drawn on with umeboshi paste.  At the bottom of the flower are some tiny anchovies I preserved in soy-sub and honey.  The little fish are very high in calcium and other good things for your body.

An my original sketch:

It never goes exactly to plan, but at least this time, I think it turned out much better.

Turmeric Rice with lentils - cooked in a rice cooker

The turmeric makes this rice bright yellow.  My friend Y taught me how to make it many years ago.  She made it like risotto but I like this no fuss, rice cooker version better.  It tastes almost the same, but is far less effort to make.  Plus, you can prepare the ingredients before hand, then set the timer on your cooker so that it will be ready when you are.

There are basically two kinds of rice cookers, the 'standard North American' style and the 'standard Japanese' style.  (I use quotes because that's how I think of them).  I like the latter better as it has a closer fitting lid and makes a more consistent bowl of rice.  Plus it makes a pleasant tune when the rice is ready.  If you local Japanese food store doesn't have these, you can pick one up at Amazon.

I adore my elephant mark (Zojirushi) make rice cooker.  I can hardly believe how many years I spent agonizing over how to cook my rice before I got this.  Now I take it with me if I have to travel anywhere for more than a day.

I like to use white rice for this as it picks up the colour of the turmeric better.  There are plenty of other things in here like the raisins and lentils to add fibre to your meal, so you needent feel guilty about not using brown rice.  If you do use brown rice, adjust your water accordingly.

VEGANS: this is easy to make vegan friendly.  Either use vegi broth or water for the rice, or you can make your own vegan friendly dashi with a seaweed known as Kombu (kelp).

Turmeric Rice with lentils - cooked in a rice cooker

2 cups short grain rice (Japanese or American cup - pick one and stick with it for the rest of the recipe!)
2 cups dashi, vegi broth or water
1/3 a sweet onion
1 clove garlic
2 table spoons cooked lentils
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp turmeric
olive oil
salt

• Measure the rice and wash it in cold water at least three times, until the water rinses clear.  Drain the rice and set aside.
• Chop up the onion and garlic really fine, so the pieces are little bigger than a grain of rice.
• In a medium to large pan, slowly fry the garlic and onions with the olive oil, on medium-low heat until they start to go transparent.
• Add the turmeric to the onions and stir well.  Make sure the turmeric doesn't form any lumps

• Add the lentils and raisins, stir well, then add the rice.
• Cook, stirring constantly, for a few minutes until the rice absorbs the oils and flavours.  About two minutes, then poor it all into your rice cooker bowl
• Add the dashi/vegi stock or water (dashi tastes best) and mix well.  Add a few pinches of salt or a tsp of soy sauce (this is important, as it brings all the flavours together, don't omit the salt).
• Set you rice cooker to Mixed Rice setting. 

Note: most rice cookers come with their own rice cup measure.  This is not the same size as 1 cup usually used in cooking.  If you want to use the rice cooker cup to measure the rice, use it to measure the water too.  If you use a regular cup, then use that to measure the water.  But please don't mix them up, this will result in terrible rice.