Japanese breakfast

Don't ever let anyone tell you kids aren't influenced by things they see "just in passing" on TV. In this case, it was a good thing - Rowan wanted breakfast like Satsuki and Mei from "My Neighbour Totoro". I didn't remember exactly what it had looked like - not that remembering would have helped, necessarily - so I looked up what constituted a traditional Japanese breakfast and found many a site, all listing essentially the same things:

- rice
- fish, usually grilled
- miso soup
- natto
- pickles and/or ume plums

I didn't feel up to the natto. I've heard nasty things about it and didn't feel that breakfast was a good time to deal with a food phobia. So I substituted toasted mochi instead. (BC-vegetarian mochi knockoff, actually, made with brown rice.) Totally not the same thing, but I'm ok with that.

I did make the miso soup from scratch, and finally, with the addition of kombu and bonito flakes (turned into dashi), it actually tasted RIGHT. Apparently few Japanese make dashi from scratch these days, and I have to wonder why, since it takes like 5 minutes - especially if you cheat and boil the kombu for 3 minutes instead of soaking it for half an hour in cold water (it tasted fine). Wierd. Anyway, I had the remains of a tub of shiro miso, fortunately, and vast stashes of seaweed, because I'm weird that way. I didn't have any tofu, unfortunately, so we just had plain wakame soup.

I also found that the Japanese often eat salmon lightly salt-cured, which I tried. I salted the small filet of spring that I'd bought pretty heavily - about twice what I'd put on just to cook it - wrapped it in the paper it came in and left it uncovered otherwise on a plate in the fridge overnight. Then to cook it, I stuck a dry small frypan under the broiler for ten minutes or so, lightly oiled the skin side of the salmon and stuck it skin-side down in the pan. I left it in the oven for maybe 5 minutes and when I took it out I put the pan on an already-hot burner to crisp the skin a little more. It was still slightly translucent in the middle, and it was sooooo good. I highly recommend this method for salmon.

I also steamed some greens (bok choy) and made a little dipping sauce for the mochi out of maple syrup, soy sauce, and miso. The mochi was definitely improved by this.

Overall it took less than an hour to put this together, and if I'd done some minimal prep the night before - put the kombu in the cold water for the soup, put the rice in the rice cooker, chopped and washed the veg - I think I could have got it down to about 30 minutes. Some of it of course is timing practice, too. But I think it's a weekend thing, not a weekday morning rush-breakfast.

Rowan looooved the miso soup and the salmon, though. These are quick and easy and may very well become breakfast staples. (Very small portions of salmon, btw - about 2 oz each.) And I suppose that even without the greens and the mochi, it's a pretty balanced breakfast since there is lots of seaweed in the miso soup. Better than, say, oatmeal. And it kept me going until lunchtime with no need for snacks, which was great. Stirling wasn't such a fan - I think I'm pushing things "denying" him breakfast cereal (which is evil) and this was too far out of his comfort zone. But Rowan and I liked it. (For the record, if Stirling wants breakfast cereal, he can buy it himself. I just won't. I did, however, make him granola yesterday too. )

Oh, and I kind of forgot the pickles. I HAD pickles - I made some quick radish pickles the other day, and they were lovely - and I put them in a bowl, and completely forgot about them on the counter. I ate a few afterwards, if that counts.

So, thumbs up for the Japanese-style breakfast. (And no, it wasn't my usual hardcore local fare, although much of the seaweed was local, the greens and the salmon were local, and the mochi and miso was *made* locally. I'm sure some kind of local adaptation for bonito could be made if I tried hard enough, but... there's a limit, y'know?)