Onigiri with a spinach side dish

I will never ever again buy the Onigiri that get sold in supermarkets here in Germany. Once I bought some that had been frozen, they were the worst - and they even came from an Asian supermarket 🙄 No, the best ones are 100% made at home and that way you also get to choose your favourite fillings!

Thanks to a great Onigiri shaper that my friend brought back from Japan and gave to me already a year ago, today I made the shapeliest Onigiri ever. I had been wanting to try the tool out but somehow never got round to it. The contraption makes six in one go and once I had figured out that it helps to make it slightly wet before filling it with rice, the Onigiris came sliding out quite easily. I made one set of six with tuna mayonnaise and another one with chopped pickled plum and toasted sesame seeds.

As eating just Onigiri seemed a bit incomplete, I also made a spinach side dish. I blanched the spinach and then seasoned it with a little sesame oil, soy sauce, shio konbu (salted algae) and katsuobushi (smoked, dried, and shaved skipjack tuna). This was absolutely perfect with the Onigiri!

Recipe used:
https://norecipes.com/onigiri-japanese-rice-balls/

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Annatto, I love you! 😋

My husband had just come back home on Friday from a work trip to Budapest that needed a detour via Riga to get there because of the Lufthansa industrial action. On the way back things were more straightforward with a stop in Zurich that wasn’t on the original itinerary. On Saturday I made him cook a dish that he had suggested a couple of weeks ago, Achiote Chicken with Potatoes. This one was with homemade achiote, and while cooking the Annatto seeds (that are essential to Achiote) they once again exuded their earthy yet somehow flowery aroma that I love so much.

Yesterday we added broccoli with oyster sauce as a side and our offspring all of a sudden was waxing lyrically about how well the sauce went with this type of broccoli, for him even better than the broccolini that I usually use for this dish. I agree it’s a match made in heaven but I’m definitely not as good as our child in describing a taste despite being so much into cooking. We suggested becoming a food critic would be a good career choice 🧐

In the afternoon trying to fix some minor problem in the kitchen sink cupboard I discovered that one of the pipes under the sink looked odd, very dirty, and seemed to be somewhat leaky. On inspection I found that the top ring that fixes it to another part had come loose and water was able to come out. Luckily nothing too major had happened yet; tightening the ring back in position and cleaning everything did the job.

This morning my husband had to leave again for his next work trip and the child and I had the leftovers for lunch. As today’s side I made a tomato feta cheese salad that fit quite well with the chicken dish too.

Recipes used:
https://www.notquitenigella.com/2018/06/14/achiote-annatto-recipe-chicken/
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-broccoli-with-oyster-sauce/

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“Bavarian rice” with roasted beets and carrots

Last weekend we had this interesting dish from the Fork Ranger website. It was lovely, featuring beet root, carrot, mushrooms, brown lentils, walnuts and yogurt. The one thing I found a bit weird at first was the fresh mint in the yogurt but after a while I got used to it. I’ve eaten minty yogurt many times before but usually with dried mint, that’s apparently somehow different to my palate 🤨

We used pearled spelt instead of bulgur but the rest was pretty much as per the recipe. Pearled spelt is something I came across in my life in the UK and I was trying for quite a while to find something like that here. Eventually I did, and to my surprise it’s marketed as Bavarian rice. Yes, it’s spelt - but polished -, and it really is quite a bit like rice. You can even cook it just like rice.

https://recipe.forkranger.com/roasted-beets-and-carrots

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Unagi Kabayaki don style

Several weeks ago I bought frozen Unagi Kabayaki sushi slices. I decided to have them don style: everything in a big bowl with rice, rather than proper sushi. I decided to make some extra Unagi sauce, and also added chopped spring onion and toasted sesame seeds. I gently heated the eel slices up in the oven, they were absolutely delicious!

All of this was served with some quick pickled daikon slices and an easy Napa cabbage salad. So good! 😊

https://www.justonecookbook.com/homemade-unagi-sauce/
https://www.copymethat.com/r/celxlydq0v/quick-pickled-daikon-slices/
https://www.copymethat.com/r/NojicTP3s/lillians-cabbage-salad/

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Rice with tinned fish and three kinds of vegetable dishes

Today’s Japanese/East Asian style meal was so easy to prepare that I was really surprised at how quickly it was ready to eat. I’ve also tried something I never had before.

On social media I had seen a Japanese person (living in Germany) try “Dorschleber” from a tin and recommend it - but I had never tried it unlike many other kinds of tinned fish. I’m not sure I would have bought it if I had known it’s cod liver in English as that makes me think of the much loathed cod liver oil which in German is known as Lebertran.

When I just looked up the translation I realised that Dorsch must be the same fish as Kabeljau which is what the word cod so far meant to me. Both translations are right: in principle Dorsch is a cod that lives in the Baltic Sea and Kabeljau is a cod from the Northern Atlantic Ocean. However, sometimes young Kabeljau is also called Dorsch, which obviously can be confusing. And I never knew that the hated Lebertran comes from this fish. We learn something new every day!

In any case, the cod liver was very mild, soft and somehow buttery. I liked it!

We had:
🥢 Mackarel in XO sauce from a tin (for the guys)
🥢 Cod liver from a tin (for me)
🥢 Okra with ginger soy sauce
🥢 Chinese broccoli with mushrooms and oyster sauce
🥢 Kimchi (from a tin)
🥢 Japanese rice

Recipes used:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/okra-with-ginger-soy-sauce/
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-broccoli-with-oyster-sauce/

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We're going vegetarian — so why are they pushing insects as the future of food? Follow the money. My new essay on conscious eating, Ayurveda, and thinking for yourself.
https://medium.com/no-time/were-going-vegetarian-so-why-would-we-eat-insects-c2e3b546092d
#ConsciousEating #Flexitarian #FollowTheMoney

Linguine and King Prawns in a Lemon Cream Sauce with Fried Courgette

I dug out this old recipe as I need to use up some of my emergency storage supplies, in this particular case soy cream. I’m using soy cream as I can’t handle too much lactose at once (and cow milk cream seems to be a big offender). On top of that it has the advantage of not needing to be put into the fridge as long as it’s unopened, therefore being perfect for storage. I also find it perfectly inoffensive tastewise.

Whenever I made this dish in the past I would get complaints from my family members about king prawns being part of it (which I love), so it’s rare that I make it. Today I thought I’ll simply not give them as many king prawns and take most of them for myself - since I’m the only one who really appreciates them. Guess what, they complained! I can’t win 😅

Anyway, this is fast and easy and therefore a perfect meal for busy days:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/al1Fq72MN/linguine-and-king-prawns-in-a-lemon-crea/

I also pan fried some green asparagus and it complimented the pasta really well.

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Achiote chicken

It’s been a whole year since we tried this dish for the first and second time and I’ve been thinking about it ever since but somehow never prepared it again. Why on earth did it take us so long?!

My husband made it this time and it really is so, so good with the Annatto aroma and copious amounts of lime juice 🤤 It looks spicy because of the vibrant red colour but that is misleading, any heat comes from black pepper (or any other hot spice you would add to your taste).

We used a ready made Achiote paste (contains Annatto seeds) but it’s probably worth it to go the extra mile of making your own Achiote paste as suggested on the recipe website.

If you can’t find Annatto seeds or ready made achiote paste in your local shops, try an international supermarket or look online for Mexican food items to order.

Recipes for reference:
https://thenovicechefblog.com/achiote-chicken-recipe-mexican-marinade/
https://thenovicechefblog.com/achiote-paste/

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