I have an exam in the morning tomorrow and I am on the verge of freaking out. Not my favourite module so my usual confident self is mentally shattered and a little panicky about everything. But by half twelve tomorrow, I’ll be able to say “2 down, 1 left!” so a little patience and perseverance should put me through our darned spring term exams. After which massive barbeque parties and lying in the sun are in order.

A little step at a time I say.

To give myself a boost of confidence (and luck!) and to get my mind off cramming of critics and quotations, I had to feed myself well. Oyakodon is one of the best comfort foods ever. It must be something about the egginess of it all and the sweet savoury sauce. It’s a pretty warming dish too - perfect for today when the sky is grey as heck and the house is a little chilly.

This is a very popular and easily found dish in restaurants but it’s so easy to make, you don’t need to make a trip out to the restaurant to have it. And the ingredients are all very basic things you should always have in your fridge, with maybe the exception of spring onions if you don’t use them too often, but that in itself isn’t like searching for a needle in a haystack. So thank the Lord, I was so relieved to have everything around and whipped this up in like 20min. Now that it’s all been gobbled them and nicely settled in my stomach, it’s back to work for me and an early night.

For anyone else who’s cramming for papers, struggling to meet a research deadline, bored with work or just pretty much stressed out with daily life — take a chill pill and have a bowl of Oyakodon. Nothing beats the comfort of having a bowl of hot, tasty, fragrant rice.

With no tricks up my sleeve, this makes a generous portion for 1 so make sure you’ve got an empty tummy for this!

Oyakodon
Ingredients

50-75g Japanese rice, depending on your preference
1 chicken breast, diced
1/2 cup onion, roughly sliced
1 spring onion, chopped into longer slices and little rings
2 eggs, beaten
olive oil for cooking
4 tsp soy sauce
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp mirin
2 tsp sake
1 cup/240ml water
beans, cooked and sliced for garnishing
white sesame seeds, for garnishing

Timing here is quite essential so be sure to have a watch on you or a clock in the kitchen.
In a saucepan, cook the rice. Depending on the type of rice used, you should start work on the chicken about 7-10min (depending on whether or not you’ve prepared the vegetables and chicken beforehand) to the end of cooking time.
Heat a wok with some olive oil. Add the chicken and sautee. Add the onions and let them cook a little.
In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sugar, sake, mirin and water.
You won’t be needing all of it. Pour 3/4 of this into the wok and let it cook on medium heat. As it starts to reduce a little, lower the heat and let simmer until the onions become translucent.
When there’s about half of the sauce left in the wok, pour about 3/4 of the beaten eggs and the long slices of spring onion into the pan. Give it a a little mix, cover. Remove the pan from heat and let it sit like that for a few minutes.
Remove cover and pour the rest of the beaten eggs over the mixture. Cover for another minute.

Place hot cooked rice in a bowl. Pour the chicken and egg mixture all over the top of the rice. Garnish with the spring onion rings, cooked beans and sesame seeds. Breathe in all that yummy steaming smell of the oyakodon. Now tuck in like a real girl (or guy).

15 MAY SHOUT-OUT

The deadline for Beauty & The Feast Challenge is just around the corner on 2 June 08 Monday. There’s still loads of time to take part and join in the fun of seeing what others are going to whip up with their beauty/cosmetic/skin-body-haircare products as inspiration. For more details & challenge requirements, click here.

Till the next post, Diva out!

xxx