All in one meal – SUPER easy rice cooker recipe

Bookstores are an absolute time suck for me. Every time I step into one, hours just mysteriously disappear. My favorites to look at are cooking/baking, and craft books!

Being super, uh, cost-effective (ok, fine. cheapo) if the book only has one or two recipes I like, I will usually just memorize them.

I have bought recipe books before though! Plus, there are a few others I’m planning to buy. So not 100% cheapo. Maybe just 64.27%.

So the other day, I came across this recipe, and it looked so simple I decided to cook it for dinner that night. It’s absolutely fuss-free cooking; just chuck all the ingredients into the rice cooker and wait to eat!

There are surely days when you (i’m talking about me, really) are just lazy to cook complicated meals and want something delicious but easy.

This is it.

But before I get to the recipe, there’s quite a hilarious anecdote I have to share.

The rice was still cooking when Fu came home from work, so he was working on his laptop in the same room (our living/dining/kitchen is just one connected room with no barriers. Yes, the horrors of the smell from cooking, but that’s a discussion for another time).

We were discussing something on his screen and I was standing beside him. We were happily talking, when he suddenly exclaimed

“AY!!! You farted ah?!”

I was so startled (and indignant) that I immediately shouted back “WHAT?! NO!!”

Truth is I really didn’t! Haha.

So who did?

The answer is…
 
The rice that was cooking.

The steam that was emitting from the cooker was smelling like fart LOL.

Now you’re entirely turned off and have absolutely no inclination to read further, right?

But!!! There is a happy ending! Read on!

The fart smell occurred around halfway through cooking. I was still in denial that the simple recipe is not going to work out so I left Fu and the fart smell together while I went for my bath.

When I returned, I gingerly opened the door and asked, “Does it smell better now?”

He didn’t answer so I stepped into the room…

To a roomful of delicious smells!

I think it’s like a metamorphosis stage for the meal. Much like the fat, ugly caterpillar before the beautiful butterfly.

Or you can also think of it as pimples during a human’s puberty stage. Although not everyone becomes better-looking after that stage, so scratch that.

I swear, it really smelled very good! It also tasted very good! Plus, it’s a balanced meal. Carbs, protein, fibre, all in.

Best of all, its SO EASY TO PREPARE.

Japanese Takikomi Rice (炊き込みご飯）

What you need:

• Chicken
  As much as you want, chopped to bite-sized pieces
• Carrots
  As much as you want, chopped to bite-sized pieces
• Shiitake mushrooms
  As much as you want, slice thinly
• Light soya sauce
• Cooking wine (cooking sake, cooking white wine all ok)
• Rice

Instructions:

1. Wash 1 cup rice and fill with water required for normal cooking + a bit more (around 10ml)
2. Add 1 TBSP (15ml) light soya sauce and 1 TBSP (15ml) cooking wine into (1)
3. Mix well
4. Add chicken, carrots and mushrooms on top of mixture from (3)
5. Put in rice cooker and cook as usual
6. Eat!

For bigger portions, just maintain the same ratio of rice:water:soya sauce:cooking wine

If you make this, let me know if yours smells like fart in between!

I’m wondering if it’s because of the mirin I added to the original recipe above… I like mirin so I will add it as and when I feel it’s appropriate, even if it may not be, haha.

I really have to cook this again to see if I can reproduce the same smell. Maybe I can bottle it and sell it as gag gifts? Hmmm.