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

Just as predicted, the nice weather didn’t last and this week has been awash in shades of gray and just literally washed with buckets of rain.

I’ve spent several days feeling a bit moody at being trapped indoors with the memory of sunny walks into town that took place such a short time ago. I’ve used the “opportunity” to practice a few extra-long yoga sessions in the dining room, trying not to fall out of pose onto one or more curious cats.

But sometimes you just gotta get out of the house!

We hit up Garlic Thai again this week for a spicy little reminder of approaching spring. I got the fruitiest, springiest cocktail I could find on the menu; one with lychee, ginger, and sake. It was fruit-tastic. The maraschino cherry makes it fancy. 😉

Jeff got a barley shochu that was a bit lighter than he was wanting, but it was still good.

We both shared a plate of the prettiest spring rolls I’ve ever seen.

Love the basil leaves pressed perfectly between the layers of soft and chewy rice paper.

I got a miso soup. This one was pretty salty and inauthentic. Pretty sure it was a powdered mix or something and it had the wrong kind of seaweed in it; tasted like thick lettuce.

I got a glass noodle salad called Yum Woon Sen that had minced chicken and grilled shrimp all in a spicy lime-flavored sauce.

Unholy gates of hell! This was the single spiciest thing I’ve ever put in my mouth! Jeff asked for his curry to be Thai hot, and my dish was listed as mild on the menu. I think they got switched because I was sweating and breathing hard and my lips were huge and painfully red.

Jeff’s panang curry, on the other hand, was sweet and delicious. It had some heat to it but not nearly as much as my little salad did!

Still love Garlic Thai though. I can’t wait until it’s warm out again so we can drink fruity cocktails on their nice patio.

Tonight we got out again for sushi at Sushi Avenue. It’s not the best sushi place ever but it’s only a mile from our apartment so I can’t complain.

I had an Asahi Black beer which I love. It’s so roasty and malty, tastes a bit like toasted buckwheat or roasted barley. We both got seaweed salads to munch on. I was telling Jeff how much I like the sound it makes in your head when you crunch on the seaweed! Yeah, he thought that was weird.

Of course we ordered takoyaki, and it was just as awesome this time as it always is.

For sushi we got 2 inari, a crunchy eel roll, a spicy tuna roll, and a scorpion roll. Sushi Avenue is bad about cutting their pieces too large and packing too much rice around the rolls. It all tastes great though.

And here’s something I made at home earlier this week…

Miso-glazed salmon with stir-fried bok choy and shiitake mushrooms. It was so, so, so good! I love this dish, it takes so little effort to prepare.

Well, the weather is supposed to perk up a bit for this weekend, so maybe we can get out a bit and not feel so cramped up in the house.

I’m excited that I’ll get to attend an Atlanta blogger meet-up at 5 Seasons this Saturday!

What are your weekend plans?

March 10, 2011 Alayna Discussion 7 comments

I wanted to take a moment to formally introduce you to a staple of my spice cabinet that I’ve mentioned here a few times and tell you a little bit more about it.

Furikake. So, what is it?

Furikake is a popular Japanese condiment used mainly as a seasoning for rice. There are dozens, if not hundreds of varieties of this stuff available and there are really no rules as to what they should be made up of. The usual suspects include toasted sesame, bits of nori, bonito flake, dried vegetables, dried egg or other proteins, puffed and toasted rice, and usually salt and spices.

The two we have currently are a noritamago flavor and a katsuo mirin flavor.

Noritamago is a combination of the words “nori” and “tamago.” You know nori as the dark green seaweed sheets used to wrap maki sushi. In this furikake, the nori is cut into tiny pieces and serves as the salty element. Tamago is the Japanese word for egg, and this furikake contains lots of dried egg bits. There is also toasted sesame and a tiny bit of bonito flake in there too.

We like to eat this on top of plain rice, on fried rice, and sometimes mixed into plain rice and pressed into a ball to form what is known as an onigiri.

That one is definitely Jeff’s favorite as he isn’t as in love with bonito as I am.

But for all you dried and shaved skipjack tuna fans out there (anyone?) this is the one I recommend for you!

Katsuo is the Japanese name for the fish known in most other parts of the world as bonito. We call it skipjack tuna in the states, I don’t know why it has so many names. In Japan, katsuo is dried whole and then shaved into a product called katsuobushi. It looks a lot like sawdust and smells like dried mushrooms with a faint oily fish smell. It’s a critical component in making dashi, the popular seaweed stock used ubiquitously throughout Japanese cuisine.

It is also a popular ingredient in furikakes. The one above is mostly katsuo flavored with mirin and soy sauce and accented with toasted sesame seeds and just a few flakes of nori. The flavor is a balance of salty and savory, with the soy seasoning the earthy dried fish.

I eat this on plain rice or in an onigiri, but every once in a while I’ll sprinkle it on a bowl of noodles too.

So, if you ever come across this stuff on one of your grocery shopping ventures, now you know what you’re looking at. With so many variations out there, I’m sure there’s at least one that fits your tastebuds exactly. Give it a try, it beats plain rice any day!

What is your favorite seasoning or spice?

February 23, 2011 Alayna Discussion 5 comments