Birthday bento

My quick bento made with whatever was in the fridge;

inari filled with rice mixed with furikake
aloe vera segments in juice
pickles
tofu with shiso and soya (soya not added yet)

jum-jum!

Quick dinner and homemade furikake

A quick sunday dinner, maybe not entirely Japanese, but we try... Sake shiso - salmon with fresh shiso baked in the oven and served with rice, pickles, miso soup and salad.
Here's the lovely salmon ready for the oven: Topped with sweet soya, salt and shiso:









And for the rice I've made homemade furikake (rice topping):
Nori (in strips)
Black and white sesame seeds
Salt
Sugar
Shaved bonito (fish)

Mix together and put on top of your cooked rice!
Or mix with rice inside onigri or inari...

More planting..

Oh boy, I do enjoy having a small garden! Well, at least a large terrace and a small piece of soil next to my kitchen wall..
Last week I received my parcel from Oriental Vegetable Seeds (fast service, good selection). I've ordered seeds of shiso (3 types), daikon (4 types), a bok choi variety and Japanese cucumber.
This week I've planted baby bok choi, aka-shiso (red shiso) and one daikon variety called Daebu summer. Daikon and bok choi surfaced after 2-3 days, I'm still vaiting for the shiso to sprout.

Both daikon and bok choi grow easily, just plant them right under the surface in moist soil, keep it fairly moist and warm and they'll grow fast.

Pictures coming!

Hijiki no nimoto

Today I've made hijiki for the 2nd time, this time I included konnyaku as well. It came out good, half was for dinner, the other is for bento box tomorrow, with rice, ume, egg and chicken. What a nice start to the week!

I'm including the recipe and some action shots:

Hijiki no nimoto (simmered hijiki sea vegetable)

1/3 cup dried hijiki (rinse and soak for 20 minutes in cold water)
1 piece abura age (oil removed and cut into small strips)
1/3 block of konnyaku cake (cut in slices)
1/2 large carrot (in julienne)
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

stock:
1 1/2 cups dashi
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tbsp soya
1 tbsp mirin or sake with sugar

Prepare everything while the hijiki is soaking in cold water for at least 20 minutes.
The abura age needs to be rinsed with boiling hot water and rolled on a clean towel with a chopstick to remove excess oil.





Fry the carrot strips in the vegetable oil until tender. Add konnyaku and abura age and cook for another 2-3 minutes, without burning the vegetables.







Add hijiki (without soaking water), fry for a minute and add the stock. Simmer everything in the stock until it has boiled down to aprox. half of the quantity. Serve hot in a bowl or cool down and add to your bento box.

Happy shiso

My happy, little shiso is growing... and soon it will come out in the garden! Notice the daikon in the background - growing way to fast!

Shiso replanted

The shiso is coming along and today it was replanted in larger pots. I expect them to grow faster now, hoping for sunny, warm days to come... This is the 3 pots I'm keeping, I've got another 5 for friends.

I also test-seeded some daikon today to check seeding dept, how long it will take for them to surface and so on. Because daikon needs deeper pots (it grows downwards..), I'll have to wait until weather gets good enough to plant them outdoors. My kitchen is already crowded with shisoplants!

My window

sugar, wakame, tempura flour, shiitake, bonito, sesame seeds, tea

Stocking up on necessities!

Sauteed chicken and tamago yaki

One of our everyday Japanese meals; chicken marinated in soya, mirin, sake, salt and sugar.

It's about 500 gr of chicken thighs with skin on, marinating in a tbsp each of the above mentioned ingredients. Fried in wok with the excess marinade, and that's it!

Served with shredded cabbage, rice, soup, pickles. The soup is chicken stock from the chicken bones with a bit of white miso, wakame and shiitake mushrooms.

As a starter we had salmon sashimi with ponzu dressing and carrots.

Oh, and for my sister I'm posting recipe for tamago yaki:
This is for a large omelet, feel free to halve it, I usually do, as I have a small pan:

Tamago yaki

6 eggs
1,25 dl dashi (Japanese fish stock)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin (or replace with sugar)

1 tbsp oil

Mix eggs with the other ingredients, heat a pan. Oil the pan with a paper towel dipped in oil.
Pour in 1/3 of the mixture. When it sets, fold the omelet as a roll towards one end of the pan.
Pour in another 1/3 of mixture, lift the rolled omelet to let mixture under, let it set. Repeat with the last part of mixture. Leave to cool and cut in shape if you're using a circular pan.

Growing shiso (perilla)

Good news... the first shiso shots have surfaced! I guess it's about 30-40 sprouts that have surfaced now. It looks really good, just like last year.

Soon I'll replant them in individual pots and they'll grow nice and big. Happy times for me and the other 3 that are waiting for their plants.

If the nice weather continues and spring really is here, I'll try to plant daikon next week.

Hang in there for exciting updates!!

Various cooking this week, bento and lotus root

Yum! Lotus root chips.....

This week has included two days of bento at work, tonkatsu and making lotus root chips. My daughter went crazy for thoose chips! Will do them again now that I've found fresh lotus root here in Oslo. It wasn't so large, but it made great chips!

Bento with rice, tamago, pickles, chicken, carrots and cabbage.
The day after I had rice, pickles, bok choy, chicken and some aloe vera segments as well.








All wrapped up in my furoshiki and ready to go!








Slicing lotus root on my newly bought mandoline. I peeled the root and left it in water with some vinegar to prevent it from colouring.









Cooking lotus root chips in sunflower oil.