Vegetarian Japanese Meal is cute. The rice bowl always comes with a few small plates to accompany it. I bought tatsoi at a farmer’s market and saw a bag of dried daikon (white fat turnip) in my pantry.
Serves 2
Ingredients: 1 cup sweet brown mochi (sticky) rice, 1 bunch tatsoi, 1 clove garlic, 1 bag dried daikon, 1/4 cup dried hijiki, 1 abura-age (thinly sliced fried tofu), sugar, tamari or soy sauce, sake (or mirin or white wine), olive oil, salt
- Cook rice with 1.5 cups of water. If you are doing this in a pan over stove top, heat rice and water in a medium sauce pan (the mixture should be less than the half of the size of pan) with high heat. When it starts bubbling, reduce the heat to low, cover with a tight lid, and simmer for 15 -20 minutes. After heat is turned off, let it sit for at least 10 minutes before eat.
- Boil 2 cups water, pour over the dried daikon. Cover, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Put this and 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp tamari and 1 Tbsp sake in a medium sauce pan. Let it boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 5 minutes until liquid is almost gone.
- Cut tatsoi in 2″ length, remove the roots. Wash them with cold water to remove sands. Drain well. Mince a garlic clove. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, put garlic in, wait for 1 minute, put all the tatsoi in. Cook for a few minutes until it welts. Season with salt.