WhatsCookin

Yeah, I know. I think if they had been as sour as regular umeboshi it wouldn't have worked at all. It was still a little weird, but I'm Midwestern enough to think that umeboshi in regular o-nigiri are weird too. Well, okay, I guess I mean they had the moisture content of a raisin. Maybe they were wetter. They definitely seemed like umeboshi, and not another dried fruit. Of course they were made by a Japanese American woman who seemed to have a catering business, so she may not want to divulge her secrets. I'll ask around at Thanksgiving with the Mizoue clan. Thanks for all the help!

Many thanks to both of you! I guess I meant "soft and squishy," as I see that the aka umeboshi in my fridge are not actually floating in water. Good advice! I can read kana, so I have figured out that "natoriumu" is the sodium content. My aka umeboshi have 910mg per 2 plum serving, so I bet I'll really like the lower sodium varieties. I think the umeboshi in the treats were about the consistency of raisins - anything wetter might have dissolved the rice krispie cereal. That makes me wonder if the cook dehydrated them? I'll definitely read the umeboshi thread - thanks! And I'm sure I'll be back when I start translating some of the recipes from the (very silly) character bento books I got from Sasuga.

At the craft bazaar at Simpson UMC in Denver, I purchased yummy rice krispie o-nigiri. These are your basic rice krispie treats shaped in a triangular o-nigiri mold and wrapped with a strip of nori. Inside they had umeboshi, but they were a little sweeter and drier than the standard sour, water-packed kind. Any ideas whether these would have been store-bought or homemade? My daughter is obsessed with all things kawaii and wants to bring some to family potlucks. Thanks, Karen

what do you all think of adding the chopped up inari packets (abura age?) to your takikomi gohan? I find that the little bits are hardly noticeable with all the other ingredients, so I don't feel that it's worth the trouble. So right now my recipe includes chicken marinated in tamari, carrot, konnyaku (the brown kind), and shiitake. The broth includes the shiitake soaking liquid, soy sauce from the chicken, sake, mirin, and kombu dashi for the rest of the liquid. - Karen

i basically didnt really want to wait around to make my first batch and so i made this today with a pack of bunashimeji. followed the recipe exactly. the smell coming out of the rice cooker was positively wonderful. you know how the smell of rice cooking can be so, so, so good? it was just like that, but with a new twist. i think it was the addition of the soy sauce, mostly. amazing aroma.it was delicious. my husband loves it too. :D ← Say, do you guys really add the ingredients and then fill the water to the 3-cup mark? I am just discovering takikomi gohan, and my only recipe (from Hensperger/Kaufman Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook) says to fill the water to the mark, then add the ingredients on top of the rice. This makes sense to me - all those carrots and mushrooms take up a lot of space. I'm looking forward to searching the forums for more takikomi gohan recipes, and discovering my own. I was inspired to buy a rice cooker by my Sansei boyfriend, and now I cook Japanese way more than he does. He's more of a ravioli guy. :) Take care, - Karen