Ojiya: A Japanese favourite

Ai Irasawa-Coney, CONTRIBUTOR

I am not really a morning person. When I was a child, I hated waking up early for school so much that I would stay up late trying to come up with a plan that would allow me to skip school and stay home.

Today, I stay up most nights to read, write, watch TV, do some work, and relax. I just love staying up while everyone else is asleep, especially when it rains. There is something about the rain that makes me feel disconnected from the world, I guess.

Sometimes, when I get hungry in the middle of the night, I make Ojiya. It is Japanese rice porridge using leftover rice and low-calorie vegetables like cabbage and carrot. Leftover rice is cooked with a lot of water and vegetables so that it is filling but not fattening.

I usually use miso paste for flavour, but you can use soy sauce instead if you are not able to find it, or not a fan of miso. Miso paste is fermented soy beans with salt and kouji. It is high in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals. It is widely used in Japanese cooking, like miso soup, and the Japanese consume it every day. Good supermarkets stock miso paste - I have seen organic ones at Loshusan and Sovereign supermarket recently. There are many different types and any will do for Ojiya.

I am using most standard ingredients like cabbage, carrot and onion in my recipe, but you can try it with anything like saltfish, okra, tofu, shrimp, callaloo, mustard greens, lettuce, pak choi, etc.

Ojiya is one of the healthiest Japanese fast foods, and I recommend it for persons trying to lose weight.

Ingredients

1 cup of cooked rice (sushi rice or Jamaican rice)

1 cup of finely chopped cabbage

1cup of finely chopped or shredded carrot

1/2 onion sliced

1/2 sachet of Dashi powder (fish stock optional)

2tbs miso paste (can be substituted by 2tbs soy sauce)

1 egg

Salt (if required)

1 stalk of spring onion (finely chopped)

1tbs ground roasted white sesame seed (optional)

Cooking instructions

1. Chop cabbage and carrot.

2. Clean and slice onion.

3. Boil 4 cups of water and add Dashi powder. If you can't locate this, skip it.

4. Add one cup of cooked rice and vegetables.

5. Once it begins to boil, add the miso paste or soy sauce. Mix well so that the miso paste gets distributed evenly.

6. Simmer for five to seven minutes so rice expands.

Add salt if you wish

7. Pour in whisked egg, remove from heat and cover and let sit for three minutes so that the egg gets cooked.

8. Sprinkle with finely chopped spring onion.

9. You can sprinkle on some ground roasted white sesame seed, but it is optional.

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 2 persons

Itadakimasu!

Ai Irisawa-Coney managed a Japanese restaurant in Soho, London. She is also a founder of Epiphany Media Solutions www.facebook.com/epiphanymediaja and ACI Consultancy www.aci-consultancy.com.