Asian Rice Bowl

If you ever cook any grains, you need a rice cooker. Cooking rice without a rice cooker is problematic.

Make sure to rinse your rice until the water is clear or foggy buy not milky. No one likes mushy rice! Also, note that rice from the southern USA is particularly high in arsenic. It is recommended to dump off the water a few times while cooking it (it will be mushy but at least you won't get sick from arsenic).

Alternatively, skip the rice and use frozen or make fresh cauliflower rice. I have tried it in this recipe, and though I don't like food fads and disagree with their ideas, it is simply delicious. Is cauliflower rice better than actual rice? It just might be!

You will want to precut everything and keep it separated.

Start by frying the diced garlic and diced jalapenos (with seeds) in a little sesame oil in a hot pan or wok. Beware that the cooking chilis might burn your eyes a bit.. so turn on a fan or crack a window.
Once the jalapenos are cooked a little, you can add your thinly sliced shitakes. They need to be cooked well or they will be chewy. A way to enhance this process, is to add a tablespoon of rice vinegar (or sake or just water). This helps soften them.

Once the shitakes are soft, you can add the kale (or any green leafy vegetable). Once again, add some moisture with rice vinegar/sake/water.

You want the kale very lightly cooked. Just softened enough to be easier to chew.

I cut my salmon as wide or twice as wide as it is thick. These are small slices, like you have in Japan. Not a huge slab of meat, like here in the USA. If you want more, eat multiple small slices. The reason is that it leads to better cooking consistency and more surface area for flavor.

While the pan is heating, coat the salmon in sesame oil, sesame seeds, furikake and a sprinkle of salt.

Drop the salmon into the hot pan, fry until browned and flip, add a tablespoon of rice vinegar/sake/mirin or plum vinegar.

Cook until inside is not transparent.

When cooking fresh salmon, it is better to undercook than overcook. Note that wild, but not farmed salmon, can have parasites in it ( *1 and *2.) So its better to cook wild salmon more thoroughly. The same is true for land meat such as pork/chicken or beef.. though the risks are even higher.

If you are using frozen salmon, so its better to flavor it more. I recommend adding a little tamari to help balance it in case there is any fishy flavor.

Instead of fish, you can substitute shrimp/prawns/tofu or Tempe. With soy, its generally a good idea to go organic. With shrimp/prawns it is better to avoid wild shrimp unless it is domestic wild shrimp (they kill less dolphin and turtles due to regulations). Farmed shrimp can be tricky to source but I generally trust the buyers from Costco and Whole Foods to only source from upstanding shrimp farms.

If you are using tofu or tempe, I recommend marinating it in tamari, orange juice, grated garlic and grated ginger for at least 30 minutes (more or even overnight is better). Drain off the marinate, then fry in oil slowly until browned on all sides.

This is the fun part!

The best part about this dish is that each person an assemble their bowl however they want to!
I use a scoop of rice with some sushi rice vinegar mixed it, topped with salmon on one side and a scoop of veggies on the other. Then I squirt Sriracha around the edge of the bowl and sprinkle Furikake and toasted sesame seeds over the top.

I also add Kimchi to the side of my bowl. I love to make my own Kimchi using this recipe:
https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/easy-fast-kimchi-mak-kimchi-recipe/
Its important to use real korean chili powder in this recipe (I buy mine online). I add diakon radish to mine and use less ginger ( so my daughter still likes it).

I usually add cucumber too.. and sliced avocado if I have a ripe one.

The nice thing about using chopsticks on rice is that is forces you to eat a little slower and more consciously!