Takikomi Gohan

This is one of my favorite kind of flavored rice! Takikomi means to cook with rice in a rice cooker. So you just need to prepare what you want to add to the rice and add it as you cook rice. Gohan means rice in Japanese.  You could put more ingredients, but this is what I had at home so it is a little less than how my mom usually makes, but it is very tasty!


Takikomi Gohan

2 cups rice
150g chicken tights
30g carrots
1 tsp vinegar
A small bowl full of water
30 gobo (burdock root)
*2 cups dashi soup - you can use fish flavor dashi powder
*40cc soy sauce
*40cc mirin (rice wine)

Preparation: Wash rice and leave them in a strainer to let it dry until all the other ingredients are ready to cook.

1. cut chicken tights, carrots really small.
2. Peel and Shred gobo. It gets brown very quickly so add a little bit of vinegar with water in a bowl and soak shredded gobo to prevent changing its color.
2. Mix all the " * " ingredients in a pan. Add the chopped ingredients and bring to boil for 2-3 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat, let it cool down to the room temperature.
4. Put rice in the rice cooker. Use a strainer to separate the cooked ingredients and the soup.
5. Pour in the soup over rice. Make the rice flat, and add the cooked ingredients. DO NOT MIX.
6. Cook in the rice cooker like normal.

Easy Tandoori Chicken

This tandoori chicken doesn't require too much spices but tastes really good! Right when my husband came home and open the door, he could smell the yummy tandoori chicken and told me how much he appreciates me for cooking for him. So that made me happy as well :)


Easy Tandoori Chicken

[Season]
1 chicken breast
1/2 salt
1 clove grated garlic
1 tsp grated ginger

[Marinate]
6 TBS plain yogurt
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp paprika powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 TBS lemon juice



1. Cute the chicken and season them in the plastic bag. Leave it for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add all the marinating ingredients and leave for at least 30 minutes - 2 hours in the fridge.
3. Heat the oil in the pan. Get rid of extra marinate sauce and cook the chicken both sides on the pan.

Roasted Ham Pie Rolls

We bought a big roasted ham for Christmas party and had a lot of left over. (it tasted so good but it just was so much!) We ate it itself but thought we should try something else with it as well. My husband loved these pie rolls and it is very easy to make because I used the pre-made pie crust!


Roasted Ham Pie Rolls

1 sheet of pre-made pie crust
2 cups shredded roasted ham
1/4 can Tomato paste
1 cup cheddar cheese
Mayonaise to taste
Pepper to taste


1. Defrost the pie sheet if it is frozen
2. Shred the roasted ham with fork
3. Spread tomato paste on the pie crust sheet, then topping with ham, cheese, mayo and pepper
4. Roll it and cut them
5. Bake at 400°F for 40 minutes

Chicken & Egg Nimono

This is one of my favorite that my mom makes. This is salty and sweet, and so soft! chicken meat comes off from the bones and has good flavor. Goes perfect with some rice. I was going to serve this for dinner but Josh couldn't wait so we are going to eat it for lunch :P

Chicken & Egg Nimono

6 chicken tights with bones
6 boiled eggs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1 cup water

1. Boil eggs, peel off the shell
2. mix soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and water and bring it to boil.
3. Add chicken and eggs, cover with drop lid, boil with low heat / until the sauce is reduced to half.

Zucchini Bread

When I was in Hokkaido, one of my friend (she is my mom's age) baked some Zucchini bread for me. It was my very first time to try it, and I totally fell in love with it! Ever since, I wanted to make one but never had a chance. But today, I finally did!! Zucchini bread.


Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini - I chopped finely this time

1. Grease and flour pan. Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into the pan. 
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Sunday Morning Bagel - Bake with Oven Toaster

I know this one looks a little fat, but yes! It is homemade bagel! And it's so easy!! This is perfect with butter and honey for Sunday breakfast. Very filling.


Sunday Morning Bagel (4)

2 cups bread flour
1 tsp dry yeast
4 tsp brown sugar
140 ml warm water (50℃/122°F)
1/2 salt


1. In a large bowl, put bread flour and make a dint. In the dint, put sugar, yeast and warm water. Mix a little bit and add salt. Then kneed the dough for 5 minutes until smooth.
2. Divide the dough unto 4, wrap with saran wrap and leave it for 5 minutes.
3. Boil water. While boiling water, shape the dough into rings.
4. Boil the dough on both sides, 1 minutes each.
5. Preheat the oven toaster 1000w (250℃) for 3 minutes. Then put the bagel in the oven toaster and bake for 10 minutes.
6. Put aluminum foil over the bagel (to avoid burning the surface) and bake 5 more minutes.