This is one of my favourite dishes when I need something nourishing but I’m hungry now. If I’m feeling run-down, this is the dish I turn to. Earthy comfort food. Wholesome. With a Japanese twist. The inspiration came from a friend with Malay heritage, who used to cook up eggs with leftover rice and serve with soy sauce and sambal. With this dish, I like to keep things fairly simple – onion/garlic/ginger base, a green veg, and eggs done plainly, omelette style, over a bowl of wholesome, nutty brown rice.
But that’s not brown rice in the photo. Correct! I almost didn’t post this one, because I wanted to be true to this dish. But life is busy right now, time is nil… so I used quinoa instead (hey, that’s ten minutes I reclaim!). I also added swiss brown mushrooms, cashews and a mirin/oyster sauce/lemon juice seasoning. And it was seriously good! Nutty, earthy and ever-so-slightly sweet. So I wanted to share my small triumph in the midst of madness. I’m usually a bit of a control freak, but I’m learning to let go, in many ways. And finding that good things usually result!
Oh. Must mention, I love eating this dish with chopsticks. And serving with steaming genmaicha (green tea with roasted rice).
Because I usually make this dish with brown rice, I’ve included this option in the recipe below. But you could also use basmati or jasmine rice. (Quinoa and white rices need rinsing to remove bitterness/starchiness – brown rice needs no rinsing.) Also I think snow peas, or really any type of Chinese green veg would work in place of brocolli.
1/2 cup quinoa or brown rice
6-8 swiss brown mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 spring onions, chopped into 2cm sections
8-10 florets of brocolli
2 cm nub of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2 small cloves garlic, thinly sliced
splash of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbspn mirin
good squeeze of half a lemon
1 tsp oyster sauce (vegetarians can use soy sauce instead)
handful of roasted unsalted cashews
4 organic eggs
Place quinoa/rice in a saucepan, cover with water and rinse by swishing it around with your fingers. Drain and repeat a couple of times. Cover quinoa/rice with water, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, loosely covered, for 30/45 minutes respectively, stirring occasionally.
Once that’s underway, get all your ingredients prepped.
Very lightly mix two of the eggs in a bowl. Heat a very small splash of oil over medium heat in a wok and add the eggs. Cook for about two minutes and flip, cooking for a minute on the second side. Place the omelette on a plate covered with foil. Repeat the process for the remaining eggs, so you end up with two omelettes set aside. (They should stay warm under foil in the few minutes it takes to cook the vegies.)
Heat a slightly more generous splash of oil over low heat in a wok and add garlic, ginger and white parts of onions, stirring until just fragrant. Add mushrooms and fry for a minute. Add brocolli, mirin, lemon juice and oyster/soy sauce and turn heat up to medium-high or until the wok sizzles – the idea is to steam the vegies very lightly in the scant liquids. Add the cashews a minute before killing the heat.
Serve the vegies over the quinoa/rice. Halve the omelettes or cut them into strips and arrange on top of bowls. This is great with a bit of soy sauce or shoyu and toasted sesame seeds with citrus and spice.
Nourishes 2!
Mmmm Yummmm.
(Now how strange is that? My spellchecker/dictionary suggests ‘Mummy’ for Mmmm and ‘Scummy’ for Yummmm.) Ho Hum!
Can I be the dumb blonde and ask what quinoa is please?
(and here it is suggested I use Quinlan or Quinton!!)
Can’t sleep . Reading your blog instead . Think tomorrow this is dinner for me . I love it . Another great simple inspiration . I also use quinoa this way , the red one is great for savoury .I like the other plain one for breakfast. Try for dinner also same ideas with sate ,like Indonesian style gado gado . Yum o !
Thanks Samia – let me know how it goes if you make the eggs. I don’t think I’ve ever made a true satay dish but am using nuts in stirfries and curries a lot lately… yummo indeed! Hope you get some sleep soon!
KP – Your spell check sounds about as switched on as the predictive text on my phone! Quinoa (pronounced nothing like it seems, ‘keen-wah’) is not technically a grain but is used as one – good as a substitute for rice or couscous, or in soups. It has quite an earthy taste, comes in red, white, black and brown varieties, cooks quickly, is packed with protein and has excellent nutritional credentials. I’ve posted a couple of other recipes using quinoa: a five spice quinoa side dish and a red quinoa, orange and feta salad. Love to hear how you go if you try it!