by : Reiko Air Fryer, Japanese Food, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Tofu Karaage Onigiri Lunch
豆腐唐揚げおにぎり定食

It was a busy week, and I was glad that I decided to give myself a day off today.

You need to listen to your mind and body, right?

Instead of working, I decided to make a nice lunch for myself and my hubby.

This salted Kombu seaweed is one of my favorite things to keep in my pantry.

It’s not always easy to find in the U.S., so when I find it, I always buy it.

The salted Kombu and chopped pickled beets were added to freshly cooked Japanese rice.

Taste it first and then add salt if it’s needed.

The salted Kombu is quite salty, so you want to make sure if additional salt is needed first.

These Onigiri turned out so pretty with the pink color from the beets.

But they are also super tasty!

Kombu Onigiri is one of my favorites.

I also made Karaage with the extra firm tofu from Costco.

The Costco tofu is so firm, firmer than the regular extra firm one I buy from other stores, and it works great for this dish.

Karaage is a Japanese fried chicken.

You marinade the chicken first, and I do the same with my tofu.

I used my air fryer to fry the marinated and floured Tofu.

It works every time.

Also found the lunch tray are miso soup, kimchi, and curried chickpea salad.

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by : Reiko Rice/Grains, Tofu

Rice with Bean Sprouts and Ground Koya-Tofu
豆もやしと高野豆腐そぼろでごはん

I love bean sprouts, but they are usually served as a side dish, never a main dish.

I had such a large bag of them, and I was in a mood for eating a lot of it with my rice.

So I made this yummy dish with thick rich sauce.

It’s sweet, sour, and spicy, all in one!

I got this freeze-dried tofu, Koya-Tofu, at the same Asian grocery store where I bought my bean sprouts.

This tofu was marked down because the use-by date was near.

The freeze-dried tofu is very unique.

The texture is firm, so it can be used in place of meat.

This time I made them into small pieces by using the food processor to make them resemble ground meat.

The bean sprouts were topped off with the Koya-Tofu ground “meat”.

Itadakimasu – Thank you for the food.

Generously place the bean sprouts-koya-tofu mixture on top of the rice.

Yum!

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by : Reiko Beans/Lentils, Japanese Food, Rice/Grains

Natto Fried Rice
盛りだくさん納豆チャーハン

I think this was my first Natto fried rice, but it’s a popular dish, so I may have made it before (I just don’t remember).

One of my Instagram friends gave me some ideas regarding what to put along with natto, so I was prepared.

-Natto

-Garlic

-Mushrooms

-Butternut squash

-Shungiku

-Capers

It turned out great!

I will definitely make it again.

I loved all the flavors coming together, sweet, salty, bitter…

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by : Reiko Rice/Grains

Dinner with Buckwheat from a Friend
いただきもののロシア?そばの実でごはん

A friend of mine gave me this.

She thought I would like it.

We cannot read what it says on this side of the box, but we suspected that it’s from Russia???

Thankfully, a different side of the box did say “Buckwheat” and there were English cooking instructions too.

It’s portioned and bagged individually, and you just need put the whole bag in boiling water to cook.

It looked like this when cooked.

I simply served it with Tofu cubed steak, sauteed broccoli, and kale-red pepper salad.

And I drizzled my onion-sesame-ginger sauce over the whole thing.

It was super tasty!

My friend was right.

I did like the buckwheat.

Nice texture and flavor.

Did you know buckwheat is a good source of protein, too, as well as broccoli?

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Rice/Grains

Yearning for Spring… Veggie Sushi Rolls 春待ちきれず、薄桃色ごはんでベジ巻き

You would think that there should be some signs of spring in March, but it’s snowing again in the Twin Cities.

I wanted to make the sushi look a bit spring-like, so I added a light pink color (from radish) to the rice.

Apparently, the color was too light, and unfortunately it’s hard to see in the pictures…

This (pickled radish), on the other hand, shows a beautiful pink color.

Itadakimasu – Thank you for the meal.

Hot green tea to complete the meal.

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Rice/Grains, Soup/Stew

Onion Chutney from Neighbor & Onigiri Lunch
ご近所さんからのサプライズギフト、玉ねぎチャツネと、おにぎりお昼ご飯。

This year we picked Spain and Portugal for our vacation.

We visited Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, and Madrid in Spain, and in Portugal we visited Porto and Lisbon.

It was an amazing experience, and I enjoyed a lot of local foods, but when we got back I knew I wanted a simple Japanese meal like Onigiri and miso soup.

So, that is what I had for lunch today.

The neighbor I talked about in my last post got this jar of onion chutney for us along with all the fabulous homemade food.

He said he tried it himself and liked it so he got one for us, too (he is the best!).

I know this is not the conventional way to use it, but I thought it would make a great garnish for my Onigiri.

Today’s Lunch…

-Onigiri with Onion Chutney

-Sesame Miso Soup

-Radish Sweet Pickles

-Sauteed Bean Sprouts with Japanese Worcestershire /Ketchup Sauce

-Green Tea

Itadakimasu – Thank you for the meal.

The onigiri was so tasty!

The sweet onion chutney went very well with the salted rice.

The miso soup turned out great too.

My little secret it to add a little sugar.

Green tea is the best way to finish a meal like this.

The unique-shaped cup is from https://washoki.jp/ .

This cup is beautiful to look at, but also feels great in my hands.

＊Follow me on Instagram if interested.

https://www.instagram.com/culinarytribune/

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by : Reiko Fish and Seafood, Rice/Grains

Griddle Chan-Chan-Yaki
ホットプレートちゃんちゃん焼き

Today, the last day of 2022, I realized that I still have pictures of dishes I made and wanted to post.

This is one of them.

A lot of vegetables as always.

It was fun to cook this dish, especially with the use of the griddle.

Rice and salmon were added.

We decided to put fish and seafood back into our diet this year, but we make sure they are “wild caught” and never been fed with dye (unfortunately many stores sell dye-fed fish).

Served with sweet miso sauce.

It was delicious!!

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Crispy Tofu Temaki Sushi for One
かりかり豆腐で、おひとり様手巻き寿司

It’s been really cold the past few days.

Yesterday it was only 5 F degrees and snowed all day.

So, I stayed home.

Luckily, I had enough food plus some fun ingredients to try.

A friend of mine was recently back in Japan, and she brought some fun gift for me.

I’ve never seen this mini bag of rice.

It’s so cute!

I wanted to try, and I decided to cook it for lunch.

The “Shiso” and Yuzu are from the Kaiseki chef.

He is always so generous and kindly shares Japanese foods that are hard to come by here with me.

The Yuzu zest was added to make pickled radish.

The Yuzu has such a refreshing flavor and takes the pickles to the next level.

It was a one-person lunch yesterday, so this is all I prepared for myself.

Well, that’s pretty much everything I happened to have at hand.

Inside the roll you’ll find Shiso, Yuzu radish pickles, air-fryer crispy tofu, and mashed avocado.

These were super tasty!

Since you don’t have to tightly roll or slice (if you make regular rolls), “temaki” is so easy.

This way you can enjoy the roasted seaweed still crispy this way too because you roll it when you’re ready to eat.

I had a dish of soy sauce ready for dipping, but I didn’t have to use it.

They were delicious without any extra sauce.

By the way, it’s cold again today.

It’s only -7 F degrees onw.

I’m staying at home.

By the way, this is what I’m reading right now.

I liked another book (The Pillars of the Earth) written by this author, so that’s why I decided to try this one.

So far so good.

I have a long way to go.

But time is what I have right now : ) .

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by : Reiko Japanese Food, Leaf Vegetables, Rice/Grains, Soup/Stew, Tofu

Nabe Hot Pot – Miso
味噌豆乳鍋

Nabe, hot pot, is the ultimate winter comfort food in Japan.

You can add pretty much anything, from meat, fish, seafood, to vegetables.

But these you see here are some of my favorites.

It’s sold as “Tongo” at the local Asian grocery store, but we call it “shungiku”.

It’s one of my favorite things to add to Nabe.

It has a fresh mustard-like flavor, and I absolutely love it.

I’m not a chef, but I do enjoy making these 3-D carrot flowers.

I found them at the Asian grocery store too.

They were not only adorable but also delicious.

We’ve recently started adding fish back into our diet.

It probably consists of 5 % of what we eat.

We really enjoyed this meal.

It’s nice to sit at the dining table and share a meal like this, which Nabe requires you to do.

At the end, you add some kind of carbs, rice, noodles, which is almost obligatory.

The soup is delicious, and the rice (or noodles) soak it up.

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