Takikomi Brown Rice

When I was growing up, we didn't have takikomi rice. We had maze gohan. I have since learned that takikomi rice is rice cooked with the vegetables and flavorings, and maze gohan is rice with the vegetables and flavorings added after the rice has cooked.

This Takikomi Brown Rice is surprisingly easy to make!

 I found this package of dried vegetables while perusing the shelves at Marukai the other day.

 Although I don't read Japanese, the little information on the back of the package was what made me decide to try this. It's got dried burdock--gobo--dried carrot and dried radish, all of which I'd use in making takikomi gohan.

 My first thought was that I should have asked someone in the store to translate the instructions for me--so this is going to be my best guess as to how to use this package of dried vegetables.

I know that if I put the dried vegetables as-is into my rice cooker, they would soak up all the water, so I added 1 cup of water to rehydrate them.

I added 2 tablespoons of hijiki, thinking that it would add nice color to the dish.

 You can see the vegetables are plumping-up nicely.

As it turns out, the vegetables need more water than just one cup. I ended up adding 1 1/2 more cups water because the rice was still hard after cooking was done in the rice cooker.

Add 2 1/2 cups water to the vegetables and hijiki while you're getting the rest of the ingredients.

Takikomi Brown Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice, rinsed and drained

1 package dried vegetables, soaked in 2 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons dried hijiki

4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon dashi--bonito or kombu 

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon shoyu

2 tablespoons mirin

3 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt, optional

1/2 cup julienne cut cooked green beans, peas, edamame or other green vegetable

 Add all ingredients to the rice cooker pot, along with 3 cups water. Be sure to add any additional water left from the soaked, dried vegetables.

Stir gently to evenly distribute the curry powder, close the lid and cook!

When the rice is done, let it steam for 15 minutes, then add the green beans and mix well.

If you're using frozen peas or green beans, thaw them in the microwave or under warm water a little first, and mix well.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

Itadakimasu!

***

Remember my friend Sue?

She has been a guest cook a few times here on FOODjimoto.com.

She made German Chocolate Cake, Grandma Kimbro's 2 Layer Cheesecake and The Best Caramel Corn.

 Sue's grandchildren visited a few weeks ago and I was asked to come and take some photos of their family. What a treat!

Remember the Sour Cream Apple Muffins I made for the baby shower at Sue's?

Meet Avery.

 He is such a DOLL!

Payton is now a big sister!

I just LOVE that lip!

 Baby teeth! I love baby teeth too.

 Bobby and Jen were in town for Rick & Jessica's wedding and for a nice visit home. They live on the East Coast.

It doesn't seem that long ago that Bobby & Bryan were playing soccer with my son Rick. Now they're both grown and Bob's got a family of his own.

Thank you, Sue, for asking me to come and take some photos of your beautiful family!

It was a lot of fun.

***

Takikomi Brown Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice, rinsed and drained

1 package dried vegetables, soaked in 2 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons dried hijiki

4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon dashi--bonito or kombu 

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon shoyu

2 tablespoons mirin

3 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt, optional

1/2 cup julienne cut cooked green beans, peas, edamame or other green vegetable

1. Soak dried vegetable package and hijiki in 2 1/2 cups water and set aside.

2. Slice mushrooms.

3. Put 2 cups brown rice, 3 cups water, sliced mushrooms, 1 tablespoon shoyu, 2 tablespoons mirin, 1 teaspoon dashi, 1 tablespoon curry powder, dried vegetables and hijiki plus any leftover water from soaking, into rice cooker pot. Stir gently to mix evenly and cook. Let steam for 15 minutes when rice cooker is finished cooking.

4. Stir in cooked green beans or peas.

5. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Bachan's Cheese Macaroni

Bachan is the nickname commonly given to Japanese American grandmothers.

O-Baachan is the correct term for grandmother in Japanese, but our family fondly calls my mother-in-law Bachan.

My mother-in-law's signature dish is Cheese Macaroni--thus I've given it the name

Bachan's Cheese Macaroni.

Cheese Macaroni--that's what she calls it.

It's different from Macaroni and Cheese, as this dish doesn't have a creamy sauce.

I haven't quite figured out if calling it Cheese Macaroni instead of Macaroni and Cheese has something to do with Bachan mainly speaking Japanese and the order of the words translating to how she interprets Japanese to English or if that's actually the name of the dish as she learned it.

My understanding of the Japanese language is weak, even though I went to Japanese language school when I was little.

As she gets older, my mother-in-law speaks more and more Japanese and less English, sometimes I get a little confused with what she tells me.

 

Cheese Macaroni is fast and simple to make and everyone in my family loves it!

 

My niece Hayley and my mother-in-law (her name is Tomiko but I call her Bachan too) came over the other day to cook.

We had a lot of fun cooking together.

We learned something new about Bachan that day!

 

She told us the story of how she learned how to make Cheese Macaroni.

I'll tell you that little story at the end of this post.

 

Ingredients:

1 lb. macaroni

1/2 lb. grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion

2 - 3 tablespoons butter

3 slices bread

milk

Bachan's Cheese Macaroni is simply macaroni and cheese layered in a casserole dish with a little bit of onion and a topping of bread soaked in milk. The bread topping gets crispy in the baking from the dotting with butter.

Simple and delicious.

 

Cook the noodles al dente according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Chop onion and grate cheese.

 

Butter a baking dish and dot the bottom with butter.

Here's a video of Bachan and Hayley putting the casserole together.

 

This is the second layer of macaroni, onion, salt, pepper and cheese.

You make 3 layers.

 

For the topping, you use about 3 pieces of bread, tearing them into small pieces then soaking them in milk to soften them.

 

Bachan says you make a "hedge" around the casserole first, then add the bread to the middle.

Here, you can watch the bread topping being applied to the Cheese Macaroni.

 

Dot with butter to finish the casserole.

 

Place into a 350 degree F oven for 25 minutes.

To brown the bread on top, turn the oven to 400 degrees F and bake for another 10 minutes.

This is the finished Cheese Macaroni.

It's one of our family favorites!



Itadakimasu!




***

 

Tomiko came to the US when she was 26 years old, about 1949.

She came to visit her sister who was married and living in San Francisco.

This is not a picture of her on the boat she came over on, but I think it's a nice idea of what it could have looked like.

When she came to San Francisco, Tomiko lived with a family on Vallejo Street--The Thompsons.

Tomiko was a 'School Girl'--living with the Thompsons and helping Mrs. Thompson with some cooking and light house work--and going to school to learn English.

It was Mrs. Thompson that taught her how to make Cheese Macaroni.

This is a picture of Tomiko (on the left) and her sister from San Francisco, circa 1970.

This is Tomiko with her dog Cha-Cha.


Hayley and I loved cooking with Bachan and listening to her story about how she learned to make Cheese Macaroni!

***

Bachan's Cheese Macaroni

 

Ingredients:

1 lb. macaroni

1/2 lb. grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion

2 - 3 tablespoons butter

3 slices bread

milk

Cook macaroni al dente according to package directions and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a casserole dish and put dots of butter on the bottom of the dish. Layer macaroni and onion, salt and pepper the macaroni, and add cheese. Do this three times.

Break bread into small pieces and soak with milk until soft, then make a 'hedge' around the top of the casserole with the bread first then fill in the center.

Bake for 25 minutes, then turn the heat up to 400 for 10 minutes to brown the topping.

Camping Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Bacon

Sometimes I don't know what to cook, I'm wracked with indecision over the simplest thing--

What to make for dinner?

When you're camping, you'd think it would be easy--just make what you brought and have planned.

But what I have planned doesn't always suit me at the time.


I have issues, I know.

We had a few slices of bacon left from the 3 lbs. we brought along.

I got to talking with Mitchell about what to make with the bacon.

Mitchell loves bacon.

He said that maybe we could fry it up, then crumble it onto some mashed potatoes.

That sounded so good!

Only problem was--I didn't bring a potato masher.

In comes Keith to the rescue!

Keith said he had just made some mashed potatoes at home using a slotted spoon, and that's what he and Karen did.

They made mashed potatoes with a slotted spoon and slotted spatula.

When you're camping, you have to improvise!

It was so much fun watching the two of them mashing the boiled red potatoes with the improvised utensils, adding butter and milk, salt and pepper.

They also added the leftover roasted garlic cloves from the night before--which Rick and Jessica removed from their husks and painstakingly trimmed all the burned parts off.

When it was done, they tasted the finished product and adjusted the seasonings.

Mitchell fried up the remaining slices of peppered bacon and crumbled them.

These were some of the best mashed potatoes I've had--they had really nice texture, with a bit of chunkiness, but still creamy--and topped with just a sprinkling of bacon bits for a blast of flavor and saltiness.

I wish I would have gotten photos of everyone helping put this together--that's what makes it all so much fun for me--everyone helps.

I think that's what makes the meals taste so good!

The night before, we used one of the steaks to make bacon wrapped camping kebobs, and cut the remaining rib eyes into thirds, which was plenty for everyone.

Robert barbecued them over the campfire perfectly.

We made a quick citrus marinade with lemons and limes I brought along with sliced onions and cilantro.

I added some Tapatio hot sauce and Keith added some shoyu.

Connie sliced the chicken breasts and thighs into strips, which made the grilling fast and easy.

The result was delicious!

Connie, Keith & Emily roasted the squash perfectly.

Robert roasted the peppers and Rick & Jezzie peeled and sliced them.

Yum!

There was especially a lot of fervor around the food table that night.

Beeto doesn't eat much, but she said she ate two platefuls that night.

Robert and Connie are always the last in line.

Thanks for suggesting the mashed potatoes, Mitchell, they were delicious!

Thanks, Keith, for working hard to make them!

Karen and Connie, too!

The kids went on a hike around the lake and up to a patch of snow.

Is that the patch of snow you walked to?

It looks far!

Jessica took her camera and got some nice shots on the hike.

Thanks, Jessica, for sharing your photos!

Time to pack up and go home!

Thanks, everyone, for such a fun trip!

No printable recipe.