I seldom cook Japanese food at home because a) of less access to Japanese ingredients b) it is pricy c) A is not a big fan of Japanese homemade meal. He enjoys most of the dish I cook, but doesn't get too excited about Japanese meal. For these reasons, I cook it only for the one who loves & appreciate Japanese food....someone like my best friend, B or for a occasional sushi party. B enjoyes her sushi every Saturday and often takes me to Japanse restaurant/ Asian grocery shopping in city centre. Yes, she knows more about Japanese food in this country than I do. We have (fake) 'Kaiten-zushi' called Yo! Sushi here in England where I have never thought of going on my own. She was the one who took me there for the first time and I never go there without her since. (Bless B!)
Anyway, one day both A and B's hubby were away on their business trip so we decided to have Japanese dinner at my place. This recipe is from one of the meals I cooked especially for her... Pea rice.
150g Japanese sticky rice
180cc Water
5g Hijiki seaweed (Dried edible brown algae)
30-50g Frozen Edamame
5-8 Mushrooms (optional)
1tbsp Sesame seeds
1tbsp Light soy source
Salt to tase
5g Dried shrimp (optional)
Direction
1 Soak Hijiki seaweed in covering hot water for about 10 mins. Drain and cover again with hot water for another 10 mins. Drain well and take water off paper towel.
2 Cook rice (follow the instruction of the product. I personally like to have my rice a bit hard so always cook a few minutes less than instruction)
.............In Japan we have this particular saying for the rice cooking tip.
'初めちょろちょろ中パッパ、ジュウジュウ吹いたら火をひいて、赤子泣いても蓋取るな’
This means, first cook it in a low heat --> bring it to medium heat --> Tuen the heat off once it's boiled. --> And NEVER take the lid off (even baby cries & begs you so!). Surprisingly, there are some researches to investigate whether this saying makes any 'scientific' sense (I love being Japanese). According to these 'professionals', seems we should forget the first part, bring it to the boil first and turn the heat down then remove from the heat. It should be covered all the process and let it sit for 15 mins (to steam).
3 Defrost Edamame peas and peel the skin off
4 Slice mushrooms
5 Add Hijiki, Edamame, mushrooms. sesame seeds, dried shrimp and light soy source to cooked rice then mix well. (Add salt to taste)
This recipe is quite basic and useful to remember as you can develop this simple meal to your liking. I sometimes add hair-thin-sliced carrots/ dry scramble eggs/ dill/ grilled Japanese mushrooms/ diced & boiled shrimp etc etc.