Fragrant Lime, Pea and Feta Rice Bowl

The tangy creaminess of the feta is balanced by the sweetness of the citrus herby peas, with crunch added by the pumpkin seeds.  The peas are just warmed through in the hot rice, so that they don't lose their vivid green colour.  A high fibre nutritionally balanced dish with around half the RDA for zinc and vitamin C, and around 1/3 the RDA for calcium, magnesium, iron and dietary fibre.  With a rice cooker, this was so quick and easy to make, and really tasty.  May well become a new favourite!

Ingredients (serves 1)
180g cooked Italian brown rice (1/2 cup dried)
50g frozen peas, thawed
15g pumpkin seeds
1/2 lime (zest and juice)
15g mix of herbs (lemongrass, coriander, ginger, garlic, chilli)
50g feta, roughly crumbled

Nutrition Info
Calories:500
Protein: 22g
Carbohydrate: 64g
Fat: 20g
Dietary Fibre: 10g

Method

• Cook the rice according to instructions.  Thaw the peas in a sieve under cold running water, and drain.  Meanwhile, prepare the mixture, so that it can be stirred in the hot rice just as it has finished cooking.
• Dry fry the pumpkin seeds for a couple of minutes until they smell nutty and start to pop.  Set aside.
• Put the zest and juice of half a lime and mixed herbs into a saucepan and quicklywarm for a couple of minutes, until the herbs absorb the juice.  Mix in the peas and feta cheese.  
• Stir into the rice with the pumpkin seeds.  
• Serve immediately.

Notes

• I use Sainsbury's Easy-Cook Italian Brown Rice as this is the closest I can find to brown sushi rice or sticky rice (at a reasonable price).
• Waitrose do a Thai frozen herb mix, which is what I use in this recipe.
• This is best eaten hot and immediately, as the peas continue cooking in the hot rice and quickly lose their colour.  However, although it doesn't look as visually appealing, it's also delicious cold.

Warm Brown Rice Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Grilled Halloumi Cheese

This is a lovely colourful salad.  Halloumi and pomegranate seeds are a classic summer combination.  The honey balances the saltiness of the halloumi and the sharpness of the red onion. 





Ingredients (serves 1)
70g brown rice (dried)
1/4 red onion (about 50g)
50g pomegranate seeds
1/2 red apple (about 50g)
60g reduced fat halloumi cheese, sliced
30g rocket/rucola leaves
1 tsp honey

Method

• Change into an old T-shirt and prepare the pomegranate!  Quarter the pomegranate and break away the seeds from the skin into a bowl.
• Cook the brown rice according to instructions.  Leave to cool slightly.
• Dice the red onion and rinse under cold water to get rid of some of the juice.
• Dice the apple.
• Grill the halloumi slices one side only until they turn golden in colour.
• Put the rocket, onion, apple, pomegranate seeds, honey and rice into a large bowl and mix together.  (If the honey is the set kind, then melt it first for a few seconds in the microwave.
• Serve on a plate and top with the grilled halloumi cheese.  Eat whilst still warm.

Alison-style Malay-ish all-day breakfast

Malaysian food is fantastic!  In the week I was there, I barely scratched the surface, but I loved everything I tried.

One of the most popular dishes in Malaysia is Nasi Lemak.  This is kind of an all-day breakfast for Malaysian people, so popular there are Chinese and Indian versions of it too.  Of course it was what I had for breakfast every morning, but it was sold at street stalls, cafes and restaurants too.  At its most basic it seems to be coconut rice, with boiled egg, cucumber, fried dried anchovies and peanuts and a powerful sambal which is a chilli condiment.  I often ate it with a beef or chicken curry too.

For the last week or so, I've had Nasi Lemak cravings ;-)
Of course, I know I could make a much more authentic version than this, but wanted to try and limit myself mostly to using up what is in my kitchen (just had to buy coconut milk and peanuts)...  So my version has Thai, Japanese and Korean ingredients too, but misses out the fried anchovies.  Best not to think about the calories too much in this, just enjoy it!  Nasi Lemak actually means 'fat rice' in Malay...

I made this today.  It's my day off so I could afford to spend an hour cooking breakfast (and generate an awful lot of washing up for one person!), and 'twas so filling and tasty it'll definitely serve as lunch too.  I'll have the other portion for lunch at work tomorrow, so that's sorted too!

Ingredients for the rice (1 portion)
75g dried rice
60g coconut milk

Ingredients for the sambal (2 portions) - not so powerful
one medium onion, sliced into quarter rings
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp anchovy paste
1tsp ginger paste
juice of one yuzu
1-2 tbsp kimchi base
1-2tsp Thai sweet chilli sauce


Ingredients for the chicken curry (2 portions)
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp Thai curry paste
1 large chicken breast


Ingredients to serve 
Chopped cucumber
Natural shelled peanuts
Hard boiled egg



Method

• Cut the chicken up into pieces and marinate overnight in the Thai curry paste in the fridge.
• Boil the egg until hard-boiled and then cool under a cold running tap to avoid a grey yolk.  Peel and quarter.
• Chop the onion.  Chop the cucumber.
• Cook the rice as normal with a fraction less water.  When the rice has almost absorbed the water (after about 40 minutes in my rice cooker), stir in the coconut milk and continue to cook.
• Make the sambal.  Fry the chopped onion and anchovy paste in the olive oil until cooked.  Add the yuzu juice, kimchi base and sweet chilli sauce.
• Make the chicken curry.  Fry the chicken for 5 minutes until browned and sealed.  Put in a saucepan, cover with water and a lid and continue to cook for 10 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed.  Add 2 tbsp coconut milk.
• To serve, put the rice on the plate with the boiled egg, chopped cucumber, peanuts, chicken curry and sambal.  Enjoy!

Chicken and Brown Rice Meatloaf

Nutrition Data (for whole meatloaf, serves 6-8 with a salad or vegetables)
Calories 1094
Protein 101g
Carbohydrate 112g
Fat 25g
Dietary Fibre 11g



Ingredients
400g minced chicken thigh
380g cooked (1 cup dried) brown rice
1 medium onion
1 stick celery
1 egg, beaten
100g non fat yoghurt
1 tsp nutmeg
good grating black pepper

Method

•  Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
•  Dice the onion and celery.
• In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients thoroughly.
• Pack well into a loaf tin; I use a silicone loaf tin, so don't need to grease it.
• Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes until golden brown on top.  Drain off the fat and cooking juices.
• Let it stand for 10 minutes, then slice. Serve hot or cold.

Tips
This can be frozen.  Once the meatloaf is cold, finish slicing it and wrap the individual slices in greaseproof paper and put in a freezer bag.  Freeze on the same day.

Gooey Scrambled Egg and Spam on Brown Rice

Hmmm.  This is my semi-healthy answer to McDonald's absolutely delicious Sausage and Egg McMuffin breakfast set!  On Saturdays I have an early start, and got into a habit of treating myself to a sausage & egg muffin and hash brown from McDonald's.  Delicious, but 600 calories, 36g fat, 45g carbohydrate, 22g protein and 4g dietary fibre for the lot (was surprised it was so high in fibre actually!)

I needed a healthier alternative.  But most importantly, it had to be quick to make.  With this recipe, the rice is set to be ready in the rice cooker just before I go out.  Boil the kettle to heat up the thermos.  Make the egg mixture, spoon in the rice and top with the egg mixture.  Ready to go!

Nutrition Data
Calories 318
Carbohydrate 23g
Protein 17g
Fat 17g
Dietary Fibre 3g 

Still very high in fat, but a better treat! I make double the quantities for my thermos, and eat the rest at lunchtime with a green salad.


Ingredients (serves 1)
85g cooked brown rice (1/4 cup dried rice) 
1 medium egg
14g grated cheese
3g butter
35g spam lite
56g kimchi

Method

• Chop the spam into 1cm cubes.
• If cooking to take to work, pour boiling water into the thermos, and put the lid on.
• About 10 minutes before the rice is cooked, melt the butter in a saucepan, beat in the egg, and stir in the spam, cheese and kimchi.  Keep stirring until thickened but still very glossy and of a pourable consistency.  Take off the heat.
• Pour the water out of the thermos, pile in the rice and top with the egg mixture.  Close the thermos immediately!
• I find that, even after taking half out for breakfast, it is still pretty warm 5 hours later.  Absolutely delicious!

New rice and seasonal gifts

This is the time of year in Japan when rice is harvested. I've just bought some new brown rice (packaged on 12th October so pretty fresh!) New rice (新米） has a little more flavour, contains more water and has a bit more bite. Seasonal food is very important in Japan, and many people send gifts of natural produce that are special to their particular region of Japan.

In Britain and many other countries, it would be too expensive to send fruit and vegetables by post. But in Japan, there is a fantastic network of relatively cheap next day delivery services, where you pay by size and maximum weight. I'm lucky enough to have some very kind students that sometimes give me fruit and vegetables from their families' farms or hometowns, most recently some delicious potatoes from Hokkaido.

Mabo-doufu or Spicy Beef and Tofu on Rice

As always, I am cooking with minimum ingredients so this is my version of mabo-doufu, or spicy beef and tofu. Often recipes include sake, and chicken stock. It's eaten hot, served on steaming rice. This is a Chinese-Szechuan dish, very popular in Japan. This looks to be quite high in fat - I wasn't sure how lean my beef was, although I chose a pack that looked lean, for the nutrition data I probably overestimated the fat content, calling it 75% lean meat, 25% fat.

Nutrition Data (per serving, including rice)
Calories: 658
Protein: 33g
Fat: 34g
Carbohydrate: 66g
Dietary Fibre: 6g

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 spring onions, snipped (reserve 2 teaspoons of green top for a garnish)
2 heaped teaspoon of spicy bean paste (toubanjan）/you could probably use a mixture of chilli flakes and sauce
200g minced beef/ you could use pork or TVP
2 heaped teaspoons red miso
300g of silken tofu, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce
100ml water
2 tsp of cornflour or potato starch mixed with a little water
400g cooked brown rice to serve


Method

• Cook the rice according to instructions.
• Put the olive oil in a small pan, with the garlic and spring onions. Fry over a low heat for about 2 minutes, add the ginger paste and spicy bean paste and fry for another minute until thick.
  
• Add the ground beef and fry until it changes colour. The beef will quickly produce more fat for frying. Stir in the miso paste.
• Stir in the water, soy sauce and tofu being careful not to break the tofu too much; cover and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
• Stir in the cornflour paste and heat for about a minute more until thickened slightly.
• Put the hot cooked rice into bowls, and top with the mabo-doufu. Sprinkle with the reserved spring onion tops.
• Serve immediately.
  

Chipotle Spiced Baked Beans, Rice and Egg

On the trend of Mexican spiced breakfast dishes, but missing my regular brown rice breakfast, I made this for lunch... Very filling! You could add whatever chilli spice you like. The chipotle spice was a present, it has a very smoky taste. I actually cooked double the quantity and then refrigerated the other portion for breakfast tomorrow. Because of my job, I tend to eat a substantial breakfast about 10am and then 3 or 4 much smaller snacks at 2-3 hour intervals! I eat a bit more on days off because I get up earlier...





Nutrition Data (for 1)
Calories 449
Protein 19.4g
Carbohydrate 77.9g
Fat 6.5g
Dietary Fibre 13.5g

Ingredients
1/2 x 420g can of baked beans, drained of most of the tomato sauce
25g frozen peas
1 eggs, beaten
Chipotle chile ground spice, according to taste
150g cooked brown rice
2 plums
1/2 tablespoon sweet jalapeno sauce

Method

• Roughly chop the plums and stir in the sweet jalapeno sauce. Put in a small serving bowl in the fridge.
• Put the drained baked beans and frozen peas in a saucepan and heat. Stir in the beaten egg and continue to heat, stirring until the egg is cooked throughout the mixture. Add chipotle chile spice according to taste.
  
• Stir in the cooked brown rice and heat until hot. Taste again, and add more chipotle spice if wanted.
  
• Serve in a bowl with the plum salsa side dish.
  

Breakfast!

This is my usual breakfast, it is absolutely delicious! It's very much just like a particularly simple risotto.

It's just very hot brown Japanese rice with grated cheese stirred in. I take the rice out of my rice cooker about 5-10 minutes early, so that the rice still has some moisture and is slightly al dente. I use Japanese rice, but I hear that Italian risotto rice works well as a substitute for Japanese rice as it is short grain. You want to use a mild to medium cheese for the best taste. Sometimes I add kimchi to this...

Cherry, Rosemary and Onion Chicken on Rice

I was going to make oyakodon for lunch again today, but realised that I hadn't put anything new on this blog for some time... A quick look at the fridge revealed that I had a large quantity of cherries that I needed to use up...





Nutrition Data
582 calories
Protein 25.5g
Carbohydrate 101.5g
Fat 11.5g
Dietary Fibre 5.5g

Ingredients
12 American cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
50g cooked chicken, sliced and cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon soy sauce
100g brown rice, cooked

Method

• Cook the rice according to directions.
• About 1o minutes before the end, saute the onion and rosemary in the olive oil for about 5 minutes until golden brown, and then add the cherries and the sliced chicken and heat for another minute.
• Pour in the mirin and soy sauce, continue heating for about half a minute until the liquid has reduced.
• Serve over the rice.
  

Mixed Bean and Chicken Green Curry

This is in fact an 'everything' creamy curry! I wanted to make something delicious and easy, in a large quantity to freeze for work. This did the job very well!






Nutrition Data (per portion, excluding rice)
Calories 245
Protein 15.9g
Carbohydrate 25.3
Fat 9.4g
Dietary Fibre 7.2g

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
400g can red kidney beans, drained
400g can borlotti beans, drained (also known as cranberry beans or roman beans)
200g can sweetcorn, drained
130g frozen green peas
140g skinless cooked chicken breast, chopped
210g pack generic packaged green curry mix (I used S&B Green Curry)
150ml canned coconut milk
brown rice to serve
lemon zest for garnish

Method

• Cook the rice.
• Meanwhile, fry the onion in the oil until golden brown.
• In a large saucepan, add all the other ingredients except the green peas. Add the onion.
• Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until hot. About 2 minutes before the end of cooking time, stir in the peas.
• Serve on a bed of rice and garnish with lemon zest.
• This freezes well.
  

Brown Rice and Kimchi Breakfast 'Pancake'

This recipe came to me last night just as I was abut to go to sleep! It was as delicious as I imagined, definitely going to make it a regular!

Nutrition Data
Calories 394
Protein 17.4g
Carbohydrate 57.7g
Fat 9.3g
Fibre 5.1g



Ingredients
70g brown rice
20g soy beans
100g kimchi
1 egg

Method

• Cook the brown rice.
• In a bowl mix together the other ingredients. Add the cooked rice and mix thoroughly.
• Heat a lightly greased frying pan, spoon the rice mixture in and flatten. Cook for about 3 minutes each side until browned.
• Serve immediately.
  

Sesame Fried Tofu with Mushrooms and Salami

This is a very filling and tasty main meal - it will definitely set you up for the rest of the day! It could be made into a vegetarian dish by adding some kind of chilli sauce to the topping.

Nutrition Information
Calories 746
Protein 42.9g
Carbohydrate 73.1g
Fat 34.6g
Fibre 8.5g



Ingredients (serves 1)
1 pack (200g) firm tofu
1 tablespoon each of water, and mirin
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
20g salami, chopped
30g mushrooms, chopped
70g brown rice
30g cooked edamame (soy beans) or green peas

Method

• Start to cook the rice and prepare all the ingredients.
• 15 minutes before the end of rice cooking time, heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a frying pan.
• Meanwhile, slice the tofu lengthwise so that you have two large, but thin slices. Wrap each slice in kitchen paper and microwave on medium high for 1 minute to drain it.
  
• Add the tofu to the pan, and leave on a medium heat for 3 minutes until golden brown without disturbing it. Turn the tofu onto the other side and fry for another 3 minutes.
• Remove from the pan and place on kitchen paper to drain some of the oil.
• Fry the salami in the remaining oil, then add the mushrooms and stir fry until just tender (about 3 minutes).
  
• Add 1 tablespoon each of water and mirin, and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Mix in and heat rapidly until the sauce has reduced.
• Put the hot rice mixed with edamame or peas on a plate, arrange the slices of tofu, and top with the mushooms and salami.
• Serve immediately.
  

Good Friday

Well, today is Good Friday, and you can't get hot cross buns in Japan, so I decided to be imaginative with my rice ball!

Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl (Oyakodon)

Ingredients (serves 1)

This recipe can be multiplied as required.

100g brown or white rice
50g sliced cooked chicken breast
1 spring onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
chopped seaweed for garnish
100ml stock (in Japan dashi stock)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 desertspoon mirin

Cook the rice according to instructions. Meanwhile make the stock and heat. Add soy sauce, mirin, chicken and spring onion. Simmer for about 3 minutes until thickened, but there is still at least 2 or 3 tablespoons of sauce. Add the beaten egg and cover the saucepan for about 50 seconds until the egg is set.

Put the hot cooked rice in a deep bowl, and slip the chicken and egg mixture over. There should be just a little sauce to seep into the rice. Sprinkle with nori seaweed.

Optional: You can also saute half a chopped onion and add it to the rice before slipping the chicken and egg mixture on top.

Chicken and Mango Salad

A light, refreshing salad that can be prepared a few hours in advance to allow the flavours to develop.

Ingredients

· 200g Greek natural yoghurt (or set yoghurt strained through a coffee filter/several thicknesses of kitchen paper)
· 1 tbsp mild curry paste
· 2 tbsp mango chutney
· 350g cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
· 1 large firm ripe mango, peeled and cut into chunks
· 40g naturally roasted cashew nuts
· flatleaf parsley sprigs, to garnish
· 225g mixed wild and white/brown rice, boiled and mixed with chopped herb salad, to serve

Method
1. Mix together the yoghurt, curry paste and chutney in a bowl. Add the chicken and mango and toss gently to mix. Cover and chill in the fridge.
2. Boil the rice and allow to cool. Mix with the chopped herb salad.
3. Spoon the chicken mixture onto a plate and sprinkle over the cashew nuts; garnish with flatleaf parsley. Serve with the rice salad.

Bacon, Avocado and Stilton Kedgeree

Ingredients
· 8 rashers smoked back bacon, derinded
· 110g stilton
· 2 ripe avocados
· 570 ml stock
· 225g long grain rice
· 1 bunch spring onions
· handful of fresh chives
· 4 hardboiled eggs
· 50g butter
· 4 tbsp single cream or sour cream
· pepper

Method

1. Heat the stock, then add the rice, bring to the boil and then stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the rice is tender and the stock has been absorbed. (This can be done in advance, eg the previous night, but mix with a tablespoon of olive oil to stop the rice sticking together.)

2. Halve, stone and peel the avocados. Reserve 4 slices for the garnish and dice the rest. Grill 4 rashers of bacon until crisp, then chop finely. Finely chop the spring onions, cut the chives with scissors and crumble the stilton. Chop the hardboiled eggs.

3. Put the remaining bacon under the grill. Heat the butter in a large frying pan over a moderate heat. Add the chopped bacon, avocado and spring onions to the pan and cook for about 1 minute. Turn the heat down slightly.

4. Add the rice, eggs, stilton, cream and most of the chives (reserve about 1 tablespoon for the garnish). Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir gently until piping hot.

5. Garnish with grilled bacon and slices of avocado. Sprinkle chives on top and serve immediately.

Note: I use brown rice and cook it in the rice cooker. I also fry parma ham instead of bacon in a little olive oil with the avocado and spring onions. The picture shows this version, served on a bed of spinach.