Day 29: Japanese Chicken-Scallion Rice Bowl

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups instant brown rice

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon mirin

2 large egg whites

1 large egg

8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

Preparation:

1. Prepare instant brown rice according to package directions.

2. Pour broth into a heavy medium saucepan, along with sugar, soy sauce, and mirin. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium low.

3. Stir egg whites and whole egg in a small bowl until just mixed. Add chicken to the simmering broth. Gently pour in the egg mixture, without stirring. Sprinkle scallions ontop. When the egg starts to firm up, after about 3 minutes, stir it with chopsticks or a knife. (The chicken will be cooked by now.) Divide the rice among 4 deep soup bowls and top with the chicken mixture

Note: Mirin is a low-alcohol rice wine essential to Japanese cooking. Look for it in your supermarket with the Asian or gourmet ingredients. An equal portion of sherry or white wine with a pinch of sugar may be substituted for mirin.

What I thought:

This was very easy to make, and smelled wonderful. I did not like the appearance of the meal when it was all said and done, but I really enjoyed the taste. I am really glad I added the few extra scallions, it added so much flavor! Overall, I would rate this as a 7 with taste, but I will knock it up to an 8 because it was so easy to make, and it was healthy as well!

Day 28: Homemade Sushi

I've always wanted to make sushi, but when Bobby Flay had a throwdown with a sushi restauranteur, then I really got in the mood to make sushi. When I visited the grandparent's house, Opa taught me how to make sushi, and it is quite easily to say the least.

Opa had made the rice. Here are instructions on how to make the perfect sushi rice: http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sushiforbeginner/r/sushirice.htm

The second day, I had prepped the vegetables and cream cheese for the rolls. We used: cucumber, carrots, avocado, crab meat, cream cheese, seaweed, and rice. You will want some water to line the end of the seaweed so it will stick when you roll the roll up. I did a different variety of rolls with the ingredients we used. I used the cucumber, avocado, carrot, and cream cheese. When I didn't use cream cheese, I used the crab meat. Then sometimes I used all ingredients in one roll!

Remember:

Opa says shiny side up, but both sides looked shiny to me, but I noticed the shiny side up was also the rough side up. To me, the shiny side was also the rough side.

Squeeze the roll so the ingredients wont escape the roll.

Use a very sharp knife to cut. I did a "saw" motion when cutting the roll. We switched from a smooth knife to something like a bread knife, with teeth. That worked very well for me.

I would dip the sushi roll with wasabi and soy sauce.

What we thought:

I think everyone came to a conclusion that the sushi was a 10/10. We will make this again for sure!