I have a little confession to make…I owned my thermomix for over 2 years before I really embraced the varoma (aka the steaming unit) which comes with your thermomix. It all changed when I was at tenina’s class and a lovely lady was telling me how she was told of someone who would use the varoma every time they were making rice and cooking something over 20 minutes. Well that was it for me. We use it at least once a week and it makes some great tasty dinners.
This isn’t a fancy looking recipe but is just really simple and delicious and a great midweek meal. It’s a new one for us that I’ve made twice this week and had the kids wanting seconds….not that there was much to go around for seconds. You could add more vegies or whatever you like or have in the fridge. My kids eat carrots so I went with carrots this time.
Now this dish is subtle in flavour rather than really packing a punch and perfect for when you feel like eating something good and healthy. I also made myself a cup of miso while the dinner was cooking just to go for the whole japanese dinner in my own home experience.
But now a word on the dashi, if you go to the asian supermarket a lot of the powdered dashi that I’ve used in the recipe will come in packets and contain MSG. I’ve just found this brand online, Spiral Dashi (red) with no msg and they also have a vegetarian version too so might be stocking up on some for the next time I make this.
and this dish was prepared under normal dinner time conditions with a few kids coming into the kitchen while I was cooking and one toddler pulling out the contents of one cupboard. So if you’re a busy mum at home then you can rest assured that I don’t do my recipes locked away in the kitchen without any disturbances. No ma’am. Plenty of little people who need to know where I am and stay nearby.
- 2 chicken breasts
- 2 carrots
- 1-2 spring onions
- 1 1 /2 cups uncooked sushi/short grain rice
- 3 Tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 Tbsp cooking wine (I use a chinese one)
- 1Tbsp dashi powder (you could also use bonito flakes or regular stock if you can't get your hands on any or a Tbsp or two of miso paste)
- Slice chicken into small cubes or thin slices and carrots into slices as well.
- If you have a thermomix then lay chicken and carrots in your varoma making sure you leave some vents uncovered for the steam to come through.
- Fill your thermomix bowl with 1 litre of water and the tamari, mirin, cooking wine and dashi/stock that you are using.
- Pour rice into basket and rinse under cold water until the water runs clear. Now I use almost 2 cups of uncooked rice in this recipe so if you have more people to feed just make more rice.
- Place basket into thermomix. Put on the lid then the varoma and cook for 20 minutes, speed 4, varoma.
- I lay out a teatowel and place my varoma on the tea towel and lift off the top layer, pour the chicken to the bottom layer and then remove the rice bowl from the thermomix.
- Pour chicken and carrots into the liquid (let's call it the sauce) with a good dash of tamari in your thermomix bowl and gently stir around.
- Serve out rice topped with chicken and pour the sauce on top. I top with a few sliced spring onions and for those who like a stronger flavour just add a bit more tamari to each dish.
- If you don't have a thermomix then there are a few ways to do this. Firstly you cook could the rice using the absorption method and in a saucepan cook the chicken and carrots in a reduced liquid of 300mls with the above ingredients.
- And another way is a just making it all in one pot on the stove top. Heat up 500mls of water, add in the dashi and the carrots and bring to the boil.
- Add the chicken, tamari, mirin and cooking wine and the rice and cover the saucepan.
- Bring to the boil and boil for about 5 minutes, reduce your heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until your rice is almost cooked.
- Remove your saucepan from the stove, with the lid on and leave for at least 10 - 15 minutes for the rice to continue cooking and absorbing the liquid.
