Episode One: As the Egg Turns

 Welcome to another installment of Nippon in my kitchen, today we will look into some egg dishes and then my bento for the day.

Being an avid culinary graduate and foodie at heart I found Japanese/Oriental cooking to be much to my liking. I started collecting books like the one to the left and right.

Japanese Cooking has many recipes from Sukiyaki (one of many hot pot meals), Odin (a soup with konyaku jelly), and even sweet potato balls with a candied nut in the middle as a small sweet treat. Japanese meals on the go also has a nice selection of recipes, some of which I've tried already.But today were going to look at a versatile ingredient, the egg.

There are many ways to utilize this delicious protein, a few ways we Americans use it is egg salad, in potato salads, or just regular salads. Hard boiled and eaten on its own, over easy, scrambled, parboiled, poached, and much more. At times eggs are even used as emulsifiers and binders.

I like the way the Oriental use the egg the best, rolled eggs are my favorite and they are just as they sound layers of egg rolled on top of each other to make a pretty layered effect and boy are they fun to eat. ^o^  Another way they use eggs is called a Donburi bowl, where whatever protein is used gets put into the egg in the pan and stays there for about two to three minutes so the egg is cooked but still a little runny; sometimes veggies are used in this as well. Then its put over rice to be used as a main dish.

One recipe I have tried, thanks to YouTube and Cooking with Dog is Omurice. Its a ketchup based fried rice with whatever protein you choose to use and its wrapped up into an oblong shape with a thin egg resembling a crape almost. Its kind of like our version of a savory omelet but with a sweet ketchup taste that is out of this world.

It can be used as a wrapper, a topping, mixed into rice, or just enjoyed over a salad.

Today's bento I wanted to talk about is called Triple Colored Rice, usually a flaked freeze dried protein is used with these style dish so it can be made into tiny pieces and organized into a pretty presentation. Usually accompanied by small pieces of eggs done much the same way with a few adjustments in seasonings, usually beans are used but you can use whatever green veggie you'd like. All this is arranged in a design to make the whole meal appealing to look at since we eat with our eyes first.


The picture to the right is out of one of my books, this is Triple Colored Rice with fish fakes, egg  sprinkles, and sauted spinach.

 This one here is mine ^-^ with a few alterations of course. Instead of grinding up my meat or using dried sprinkles I did a veggie type deal. Carrots, cucumber, and egg sprinkles. They kind of turned out a little more darker then I would have liked but it was my first time making them, so experimentation is always a good thing. Underneath all that is a cup of sticky rice.

The bottom has a simple salad, tomatoes and a half a piece of lemon margaretta chicken.

Bento doesn't have to be a hard thing to put together, just remember one simple rule of thumb; veggies are your friend.

When you put together a bento if you have say a piece of fried chicken, you make sure everything else is cooked a different way. Like parboiled spinach, coulliflour, or even broccoli. You can even put raw veggies in a bento as well and in doing so you balance out the fat content you eat.

So, the skies the limit with a bento, whether you enjoy pasta or sandwiches you can put anything in it. As for our special ingredient the egg, it can used in many applications in a meal.

Thanks for stopping by for Nippon in my kitchen. Join me next time when the next bento feature is basic Japanese items for making Teriyaki sauce.

See you next time. =D