Onigiri (Japanes Rice Balls)

Western people eat sandwich for their lunch, while Japanese eat onigiri. Onigiri is always found in the lunch box of Japanese kids and adults because for the Japanese, a lunch is not complete without onigiri.

Ingredients:

• 350 g uncooked Japanese rice or short grain rice
• 1 ao nori (seaweed) sheet
• 3 sachets (30g) of furikake (Japanese rice seasonings)

Method:

1. Wash the rice and cook it in a saucepan with 400 ml water, cover and bring to the boil before reducing the heat to low and cooking for 10-15 minutes.
2. Turn off the heat and leave without taking off the lid for a further 10 minutes.
3. Cut the ao nori into 8 small squares with scissors.
4. Mix the rice and the furikake together and shape into four small onigiri rice balls by hand, while the rice is still warm.
5. Stick the ao nori square to the both front and back sides of the onigiri.
6. Serve warm with soy sauce.

Note:
* A rice cooker can be used for cooking the onigiri rice. When the rice cooker is used, skip the step 1&2 and cook the rice normally in the rice cooker.
* Furikake can be substituted by cooked minced meat, cooked minced chicken, or cooked fish flakes. You just need to be creative with the mixture of onigiri. ;)

Nachos

When hubby and I feel so hungry and need to eat the food that is quick to make, we always opt for nachos. :) It's so simple, quick and tasty.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack corn tortilla chips (500 g)
• 350 g chunky salsa (home-made or ready made in a jar)
• 400 g minced beef
• 250 ml sour cream
• 1 onion
• 1 can of sweet whole kernel corn (250g)
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
  
• 250 g grated cheese (cheddar, mozarella or emental).

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180'C.
2. Peel, wash and chop the onion finely.
3. Heat a frying pan in a medium heat, pour the cooking oil and fry the onion until soft and slightly brown.
4. Put the minced beef into the frying pan and fry it together with the chopped onion until brown and cooked. Turn off the heat and set aside.
5. Combine the chunky salsa, 100 ml sour cream, kernel corns and 150g of grated cheese in a mixing bowl.
   
6. Grease the baking dish/pyrex with a little oil or butter. Put the tortilla chips to cover the bottom of the dish. Layer it with meat mixture and salsa mixture. Then, top with the tortilla chips. Repeat this step until all meat mixture, salsa mixture and tortilla chips are used.
7. Sprinkle the top surface with the rest of the cheese. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and golden brown.
8. Serve warm with the rest of sour cream.