Halloween-Onigiri ^-^

It's Onigiri, again! Halloween Edition ♥

Recipe:

You need:

• 400 g rice (round gran rice! I always use the one for ricepudding)
• 450 m water
• 1-2 carrots
• 1 can tuna
  
• mayo
• Nori (seaweed)
  

1. First, wash the rice, until the water stays clear. You may have to repeat the washing for 4 or 5 times, but this way, the rice won't be slimy.
2. Cook the rice. Keep it covered with a lid! When it starts boiling, and foam is rising in the kettle, turn off the heat.
   
3. While the rice is cooking, peel the carrots and cook them, until they are a bit soft. Squash them with or fork or rasp them.
   
4. Wait 15 minutes until you take the rice out of the kettle and put it into a bowl. Wait some more minutes, until it's a bit cooled.
   
5. Mix the carrots with the rice, until the colour of the rice has changed.
6. Mix the tuna with mayo, until you have a smooth paste.
   
7. Place some of the rice in your (wet!) hand, and press it ito shape. (Or use a Onigiri-shaper!)
   
8. Put some of the tuna paste in the middle of the rice, and use some more rice to cover it.
   
9. Again, press your Onigiri into shape. Make sure your hands are wet, so the rice won't stick on your fingers.
10. And that's your Onigiri! To decorate, simply cut out whatever shapes of Nori you want and press them on it.
    

Okaka + Tuna Mayo Onigiri

Lately, I just can't get enough of Onigiri! So today I made bearshaped Okaka Onigiri and Tuna Mayo Onigiri.



When I ate Okaka Onigiri in Tokyo for the first time, I didn't even know what the filling was. It's Bonitoflakes with soy sauce, and it's really easy to make, but sooo delicious!

Recipe: Sweet pumpkin + Couscous

Now, that the streets in Germany are covered with red and golden leaves, I felt like it's time for more seasonal cooking



A few days ago, I stumbled upon this delicious recipe on kawaii-blog.org.
Even though I changed it a tiny bit, it was really, really good and easy to cook.

My version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin)
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
  
• 2 garlic cloves
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 teaspoons brown sugar
• salt + pepper

1. First, clean the pumpkin and cut it into bite-sized pieces. You don't need to peel kabocha.
2. Chop the garlic into really small pieces or use a garlic press.
   
3. Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a big bowl and add the pumpkin. Mix well, and let it steep for at least two hours.
4. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and spread the marinated pumpkin on it.
5. Heat the oven on 180°C and bake the pumpkin for 15-20 minutes.
   

In the original recipe, wild rice is recommended as a side dish, but as you can see I used couscous, which was also very tasty

Miso Ramen & Onigiri

Yesterday we had delicious Miso Ramen (my favourite) and Tuna-Mayo-Onigiri.



This was the first time I just a Onigiri shaper, and it was really worth it's money. It's really easy to use and the rice will stick even better.



This is the seasoning I used for the rice. おいしい！



This is the pork I used for the Ramen. It's called Chashu. You can not only use it for Ramen, but for many different dishes. Plus, you can use the stock for a special kind of Ramen, called Chashumen. So if you make Chashu, don't pour the stock away after cooking, you can keep it in a freezer bag in your freezer.

To make Chashu, you'll need:

Ingredients:

• 400 g pork (neck or belly)
• a medium piece of ginger
• 2 spring onions
• 170 ml soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Mirin
• 75 ml Sake
• Pepper
  
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tablespoons Honey
• Water
• Frying oil

1. So, first of all you have to clean the meat. You don't have to cut off all of the fat, because it will help to keep the meat soft and moist.
   
2. Pour some oil in a pot and heat it to frying temperature, using medium heat. Sauté the pork in the pot. Make sure every side of it is evenly sautéed.
3. Take the pork out of the pot and put it aside. Clean the pot (or use a new one, if you like dishwashing ^.~) and heat it with medium heat again. Pour in the soy sauce, mirin, sake, pepper and honey and stir well.
   
4. Peel the ginger and the garlic. Cut the ginger into thin slices and the cloves into half. Clean the spring onion and cut them along into halves.
5. When the miture in the pot starts to boil, put in the pork, ginger, garlic and spring onions.
   
6. Fill the pot with boilng water until the pork is covered. Keep the heat low and stew it for one and a half hours.
   

This is the finished ramen, it was super tasty

Please tell me if you try cooking the recipe and how it came out ^-^