Broad Beans Recipe 2: Rice

Broad beans and oriental sticky rice is a perfect combination. Just add cooked and peeled broad beans into warm rice with some salt.

It is very nice in rice balls.

Seasonal fresh green colour of broad beans entertains the dinning table.

Better to be consumed within the day as the fresh colour doesn't stay long. 

Alternatively broad beans rice can be  stir-fried.

I added a tablespoon of curry sauce (left over as well) to stir-fry and topped with fresh tomatoes for toddler bento.

Baby event "Okuizome" and "Taimeshi" Sea Bream Rice: Celebrating the First Solid Food for the New Born

Japanese people hold a custom "okuizome" to celebrate the 100th day of the baby's birth. 

Okuizome signifies the baby's growth to introduce solid food. It involves a full dinning menu consisting of fish (usually sea bream), rice with red bean, clam soup, some veggies. In particular in okuizome, it also involves pieces of stone known as "hagatme" as it represents the strong teeth. 

Of course new born baby cannot eat these foods at this stage. 

The adult mimics feeding by carrying pieces of food and the stone to the baby's mouth.

Though belated for the 100th day, given the opportunity to hold okuizome together with my parents visited from Japan. I decided to make Taimeshi, Sea Bream Rice.

Sea bream represents happiness in Japanese food culture

The Japanese dinning setting is: rice (on the lower left, soup (lower right), main (usually in the middle), pickles (on the right above).

Decorating the head of the sea bream is a metaphor for the success: taking the head and getting to the top.
The top middle is the hagatame stones given from a shrine.

Ingredients of Taimeshi for 4-5 people:

• One medium sized fresh sea bream
• 540cc of rice
• 760cc of cold water
• One tablespoon of sake
• One tablespoon of mirin
• One tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1/2 teasoon of salt

Directions

1. Scale and slice the sea bream into three layers. I removed the head. Remove the bone throughly.

2. Grill all pieces of sea bream in oven at 200c for 20 mints or until the skin gets nice brown. This process helps to remove the extra grease as well as the fishy smell.

3. Put the rice, water and the seasonings in a large pan and place the sea bream pieces on the top. Close the pan with the lid and cook at the strong frame till it sounds boiling. Then turn the heat into small. Leave it for 15-20 mints.

4. Put the head of sea bream aside then crumb the fish meat to mix the rice throughly. Serve the rice with chopped spring onion on the top.

Total time to prepare: 1 hour (including slicing the fish and removing out the bone)

Total cost: around 10 pounds (8.6 for sea bream)

In Japan, there are numbers of events to cerebrate children's growth annually as well as in certain stages apart from their birthday. These customs have been practiced since old time. I presume that it was backed by the fact that at that time, infant mortality rate was very high. Albeit that the rate is very low in present, people still practice these customs. I think it is good.

Baby food from leftover rice

Japanese baby usually start their solid food with rice porridge called Okayu.

Ingredients of Okayu for baby

• Cooked rice
• 2-3 times of water from the volume of the rice

Direction

1. Add the rice and water in a pan and start to heat them up till they get boiled

2. Make the heat small and keep boiling till the rice gets sticky and starched. This condition is known as Okayu for adults.

3. Turn the heat off and blend the Okayu to smooth

4. Once it gets cool, it's ready to serve for baby.

Time to prepare: 15 mints

As the starch is converted into sugar, it is very tasty and smooth.

Tempura Rice, geeking out (Brunch, 2 Sep)

Got some leftover from yesterday's tempura. Seasoning tempura with soy-based sauce and topping it on the rice is a typical dish of next day of tempura, known as "ten-don".

Directions of tendon

Add 100cc of dashi (Japanese soup stock), mirin and soy sauce (1 tablespoon each) in a small shallow pan. Once it boiled add tempura and keep boiling for 1-2mins. Top tempura with remained sauce on warm rice in a bowl to serve.

I also made miso soup with chinese chive and egg. 
Boil 400cc soup stock, dissolve 1.5 tablespoons of miso, bring it into boil then add chopped chinese chive and beaten egg.

Mr. Husband is celebrating his final day of holiday with his favourite computer game and ten-don. 

Timte to prepare: 10 mins
Total cost: ?? very cheap

Grilled rice ball "Yaki-Onigiri" 

(Saturday brunch, 11 August)

Rice ball is called "Onigiri" and a typical Japanese dish for lunch box. Put handful portion of cooked rice over damped palms or a cling film and then shape it with both hands. The shape is different to family to family but the most typical one is triangle. 

Grilling onigiri is the way to enjoy leftover rice. Crispy surface with slightly burnt soy-sauce flavour is very enjoyable.

Directions

1. Heat up the oven in 250c.
2. Place onigiri on the grill net (not tray) and grill it for 5 mins
3. Put soy-sauce and mirin, 1 tablespoon each in a flat, small plate
4. Take onigiri out from the oven and damp the both triangle surfaces with soysauce with mirin
5. Place onigiri back to the oven and grill it further for 3 mins.

This is a great snack!!

Time for preparation: 10 mins

Total cost: ?? too cheap to calculate