Whew! Cake-bakin’ week is almost complete! I am so done with looking at cake right now.

Jeff and I will be at the wedding today, so I’ll be sure to fill you in on how I finished the cake and how everyone liked it tomorrow. For today though, I thought I’d show you guys a quick dinner that I made earlier in the week that turned out amazing.

Scrambled tamago donburi….or scrambled egg rice bowl!

This was ridiculously easy to make. I started by making some rice in the rice cooker. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can use this method for how to make sushi rice.

While the rice was going, I chopped up half a bell pepper into small pieces and sliced a handful of shiitakes thinly. I sauteed those together while I got my egg mixture together.

I used three eggs and whisked in about a tsp. each of soy sauce and rice vinegar. I mixed in a finely chopped scallion and sprinkled with seaweed flake.

Once the veggies were cooked through, the egg mix was added to the pan and the veggies were mixed into it. It comes together pretty quickly at this point as the egg starts to solidify. Just keep moving a spatula through the mixture to break it up as it cooks, scrambling it.

And that is all there is to it. I think it took about 10 minutes total to make the scrambled tamago topping, can’t argue with that!

Scrambled tamago donburi

Scrambled eggs with veggies over rice forms a quick and simple asian donburi.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• half a red bell pepper (chopped)
• a handful of shiitakes (sliced thin)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1 scallion (sliced thin)
• garnish with seaweed flake, sriracha, toasted sesame seeds
• sesame oil for sauteing

Cooking Directions

1. Saute peppers and shiitakes in sesame oil.
2. Whisk eggs with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and scallions.
3. When veggies are soft, add egg mixture and stir with a spatula until eggs are set.
4. Serve over rice and top with seaweed, sriracha, or toasted sesame if desired.

Served over hot rice with a couple squirts of fruity-spicy sriracha and a sprinkle of noritamago furikake, it was a warm and comforting meal ready in under 15 minutes.

What is your favorite way to eat eggs? (Cake counts!)

April 16, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 6 comments

Today I made a special lunch for Jeff and I, a sweet scallion omelet served over sticky sushi rice. The scallions (negi) added a bright green crunch to the soft and fluffy egg omelet (tamago.) This one is so easy, I just had to share.

My omelet (for two people) consisted of 5 eggs, 2 scallions, and about 2 tbsp. mirin all whisked together. If you don’t have mirin, you can either leave it out entirely or just substitute a pinch of sugar.

I poured the mix into a pan set to just under medium heat.

As the bottom starts to cook and firm up, lift an edge of it and tilt the pan to let more of the uncooked egg run under it to the hot pan surface. Do that several times all around until there is very little wet egg left on top.

I tried to flip it and made a mess! It was just too heavy to flip with 5 eggs.

I transferred it to a cutting board and sliced it up then nestled it atop a hot bowl of rice topped with seaweed flake.

So soft and warm, it really filled us up.

We squirted sriracha all over ours and dug in before I remembered to take a picture! We’re both just suckers for spicy stuff. We really didn’t need 5 eggs though, 3 or 4 would have been plenty.

This turned out so well I can definitely see myself making it nearly every weekend as a special lunch. It’s easy, quick, and super-comforting.

Negi-tamago donburi

A fluffy egg omelet filled with fresh green scallions sliced and served over rice.

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 7 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 chopped scallions
• 2 tbsp. mirin

Cooking Directions

1. Whisk together eggs, mirin, and scallions.
2. Pour into a pan set to medium heat and cook through.
3. Turn out onto a cutting board and slice.
4. Serve over rice topped with seaweed flake.
5. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and sriracha if desired.

January 16, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 2 comments

So you’ve got a handle on making donburis now right? You know, make rice, put stuff on top of it? Yeah, that.

Time to graduate to the next level, which involves cooking by simmering some or all of the ingredients in a flavorful liquid. It’s easy, trust me.

Here’s a simple method to making the Japanese classic, gyudon (beef bowl.)

Like so many dinners I make, it started with sauteing an onion and a red pepper in sesame oil.

While those were softening up, I got to work on making a stock to simmer the beef in. I put one small piece of kombu seaweed in a pan with enough water to cover. Kombu is the seaweed you use to make dashi stock, and while I haven’t seen it at any of the major grocery stores, it’s pretty accessible in any health food store, asian market, and I think I’ve even seen it at Whole Foods before. It’s ok if you don’t wanna track it down though, I’ve found that a small handful of dulse works pretty well and is more widely available, but you can do without seaweed entirely and still make a tasty dish.

I let that come up to a simmer for a few minutes before removing it. Don’t ever boil kombu, it makes the broth really slimy if it gets too hot. Just gently steep it like you’re making tea.

Next, I flavored it with miso.  This “red” miso, as opposed to your standard “white” or “mellow” miso, is just what I happened to have on hand.  Any kind you can get your hands on is fine.

I added a big dollop like this…

…and whisked it into the hot liquid.

It’s like a lava lamp watching the miso roil away in the hot broth.

At that point I took some strips of flank steak that had been marinating for a few hours in soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar, and swirled them around in the broth to partially cook.

This is the fun part. Turn up the heat on both pans to medium high. As the beef gets cooked through, start transferring it to the veggie pan along with a ladle-full of the broth. As the pan of broth boils away getting more and more concentrated, your veggies are soaking up their own broth and quickly about to start burning on the pan. Add another ladle of broth and wait for the meat and veggies to soak it all up before doing it again. When everything is cooked through and coated in a sweet glaze made by the concentrated broth, cut the heat and serve it up!

You can serve this over sushi rice or plain white rice. Don’t forget to spoon over some more of the delicious cooking liquid and garnish with sesame seeds!

Whatever you do, don’t throw out the remaining broth. It makes a delicious soup base to add mushrooms, scallions, and noodles to. I’ve got some in my freezer right now saved up for a rainy day.

This was one of those dishes that had us saying “Mmmm” the whole time we were eating it. Definitely one for the “make over and over again” file!

Beef gyudon

A simple take on a Japanese classic. Thinly sliced beef in a rich sauce with peppers and onions.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 2 portions flank steak (sliced thinly)
• 1 small red bell pepper
• 1 small onion
• 1 medium piece kombu seaweed (optional)
• 2 tbsp. miso
• 1 tbsp. each soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin
• sesame oil for sauteing

Cooking Directions

1. Let steak marinate in soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar.
2. Fill a pan 1/2 way up with water and slowly heat kombu in it. Remove kombu before it boils.
3. Saute peppers and onions in a separate pan until starting to soften.
4. Add steak to seaweed water along with marinade and allow to cook through.
5. Add steak to peppers and onions along with some of the liquid.
6. As the liquid gets soaked up, add more several times until a rich sauce is formed.
7. Serve over rice and top with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

December 8, 2010 Alayna Discussion, Recipes Comments Off on Beef gyudon