Om.. nomnom.. rice?

No, it's Omurice!
According to "Japanese women don't get old or fat" by Naomi Moriyama, the Japanese LOVE eggs, and hopefully so will you after you taste this dish.
Omurice is basically a type of omelette that conceals a mound of fried rice. It can be either eaten with ketchup, or my favourite, wasabi paste. Some even make their own sauce to go on top.
Omurice is something of a national favourite in Japan. I've read in many blogs that it is something people connect to their childhood. Originally this delicious dish was a restaurant dish for children, and it falls into the genre of Western influenced Japanese dishes. Nowadays, Omurice is a part of Japanese home cooking.
I can't claim a very authentic connection to Omurice, and have never tasted one that wasn't made by me myself.

The first time I saw Omurice, was in an anime called Aria the Natural. I admit to being a hopeless anime and manga fan, (not to the stage of being an obsessive fan like some people I know), and anime and manga tend to be the places where I get my cravings for Japanese food.
I looked up the recipe for Omurice on the internet, and made it for myself one afternoon, as a vegetarian version. It was so gorgeous! The rice was nice and juicy from the tomatoes I used, and soaked in wonderful dark soy sauce. And the eggs on top were cooked just right, so that the omelette was thick, but still moist and some of the yolk still a bit runny. It was bliss.

After I first encountered Omurice and made it for the first time, I have been noticing it in nearly every manga I read or anime I watch. Along with several other dishes which I either have tried or want to try. If you think you love food, you just need to watch a couple of episodes of anime, to know that the Japanese love it more.

Every time I go to London, I nearly clean out the Japanese corner store near my sisters house. So if anyone lives near Ealing Common, I'd suggest you stock up before May, because that's when I'll be decending upon it again. In London I frequent a restaurant chain by the name of Wagamama (selfish in Japanese), and while I love their foods, I must insist it upon you all, that restaurant food differs so much from Japanese home cooking. If you're interested in trying it, I warmly suggest "Japanese women don't get old or fat". It's a great book!

The original recipe for Omurice contains chicken, but as I am a vegetarian, I tweaked up the recipe to accommodate my personal tastes. When making the Omurice, remember one rule: The Japanese want an Omurice to be pristine. In other words, if you tear up the omelette by accident, try to cover it up somehow. There are two ways to make Omurice, the first and most popular one, is to put the fried rice on a plate and the omelette on top, so that it covers all the rice. This is the option where you can use lots of fried rice. The other option is to fold the rice inside the omelette, but since all the rice needs to be covered, you have to use less rice so that it won't come out of the omelette. Another great feature about Omurice is, that you can make it from leftover rice!

Vegetarian Omurice. (Serves 2 people)
1 cup Boiled rice. (Traditionally white rice, I use whole grain).
1/2 yellow Onion, finely chopped.
2 large Mushrooms, sliced.
2 Tomatoes, cut into cubes.
1/4 cup of Broccoli, shredded into small buds.
2 cloves of Garlic, minced.
1/4tsp of Red Chilli, finely chopped.
Soy sauce for seasoning.
A handful of shredded Basil leaves.
Some oil for cooking
4 Eggs




If you boil the rice, you can use the time it cooks to prepare the other ingredients.
1. Chop up the onion, chilli and tomatoes, and slice the mushrooms. Shred the broccoli and the basil leaves. Use a garlic presser to mince the garlic cloves.
2. Once you have the boiled rice, heat up a pan and pour in a little oil. Add the rice, and the onions and stir-fry until the onions have softened slightly. Add in the mushrooms and stir until the mushrooms have softened. Add in the tomatoes and stir for a few seconds. Then add the broccoli, chilli, garlic and soy sauce and stir-fry for about a half a minute. Divide the fried rice on two plates, and add the shredded basil on top.
3. Heat up the pan again, and drizzle in a little oil. Break the eggs into two separate glasses, two into each glass, and break the texture with a fork. Pour the contents of one glass into the pan and wait for it to get firm enough to remove from the pan without breaking it, but so that it is still slightly runny on top. Flip the omelette on top of the mound of rice, the fried side up. Repeat to make another omelette for the second plate.

Enjoy!

The apple Witch in the oven.

This is my first post in my new blog. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for crappy photography and my lack of coherent writing skills. ;~; <3

I used my oven quite a lot on Tuesday. I had a few friends come over, and I promised one of them I'd make us dinner. As it's currently snowing heavily outside, I wanted to make something warming and filling, and since this is a student flat, I love to use the oven whenever possible, since it can get a bit chilly. We Finns tend to be very fond of casserole dishes, so I decided to make a casserole I once came up with, when trying to decide what I could cook for dinner without bothering to go out to the shops. This recipe is a rather versatile one, as you can change some of the ingredients to suit your own tastes, or the current insides of your fridge. Later on, you may find a slight theme in the ingredients I use, but hoping that maybe not everyone will notice, I won't tell you what it is.
Another good feature of this food is, that it is a lovely, heathy dish to eat during the winter, but also a great dish for summer, since that is the time most of its ingredients are in season.

However, possibly to make up for not using the oven for weeks, I also whipped up a big patch of apple crumble. One of the friends who came over, is absolutely insane about apples, and when she heard what I was making she demanded we should have some vanilla ice cream with it as well. Apple crumble is another dish Finns absolutely adore, eventhough I must admit that it tends to be a more of a autumn dish than a spring one. But it's apples, right? Who could resist!


Mediterranean Casserole (Serves about 4 people)

5 large, firm Potatoes; Washed, peeled and cut into thin wedges.

4 juicy Tomatoes, cut into wedges.

4 cloves of Garlic chopped into large chunks. (You may use more or less according to taste)

200g of fresh Spinach, washed, the hard stalks cut off and gruffly chopped.

200g of salty Feta Cheese, cut into cubes. (I hear that tofu works well too)

A large handful of torn Basil leaves.

For seasoning:

2tbs Lemon juice
2tbs Olive Oil
1/2tsp fresh Red Chilli, finely chopped
1tsp Black pepper

This is possibly one of the easiest things you'll ever make!
1. Heat the oven to 200C.
2. Prepare all the ingredients as instructed above and put them in a large bowl.
3. Add the seasonings, and mix the contents of the bowl with your hands. Pour the seasoned ingredients in a large casserole dish. The one I use is about 18cm x 30cm.
4. Remember that the spinach shrinks in the oven, so even if it seems like an awful lot, it won't be that much in the end. You don't need any salt, as the feta cheese is salty. You don't need any liquid either, because the tomatoes and the spinach will make it moist as they cook. Put the casserole dish in the oven for about 30 - 45 minutes. It's done when the potatoes don't offer resistance, when poked with a fork or a knife. In fact, this recipe is so easy, I feel like I've explained this wrong!


Other ingredients that work well with this dish:
Mushrooms
Chinese cabbage
Courgette (Zucchini)
Tofu (soaked in salt water)
Goat's Cheese (with added salt as a seasoning)




Apple crumble with coconut (Serves about 8 people)


For the Apple-mix:

6 sour Green Apples, peeled and cut into cubes.
(I used Granny Smith apples)

4tbs of Dark Syrup

1tbs of ground Cinnamon

1tsp of ground ginger

For the covering:

1 cup of Oatmeal flakes
1 cup of Coconut flakes
3/4 cup of melted butter
1/2 cup of sugar

1. Heat the oven to 175C.
2. Peel the apples and cut them into cubes. Place the apple cubes in a large casserole dish or a large pie dish (diameter for a pie dish should be about 25cm). Pour the dark syrup and the spices over the apples and mix them in.
3. In a bowl, combine the oatmeal flakes and coconut flakes together with the melted butter and sugar. Mix well until the butter has been absorbed and the mixture is slightly moist. Spread the oat and coconut mixture evenly all over the apples. Be sure that it covers everything. If necessary, make more covering mixture.
4. Put in the oven for about 45mins to 1h, or until the apples have gone soft and the crust is a crispy golden brown colour. This dish is best served warm with vanilla ice cream or custard.

I was thinking of trying out strawberry and raspberry versions of this during the summer, when you start to get them summery fresh. Should be yummy.