Basic Quinoa Recipe

1. 1 cup dry quinoa (rinsed or soaked – I suggest thoroughly rinsed)
2. a heavy pinch of salt?
3. a bit shy of 2 cups of water, like 1 6/7 cups.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, stir it up, and apply some high heat. When it comes to a boil, slap on a lid, and bring it down mid-low or low (probably low), you want it to low-simmer for somewhere between 16-18 minutes. Remove lid, taste it (whoops – I need to use less water next time, whoops – I need to use more salt, hey that tastes great), fluff it, and serve or let it steam a bit more with a lid on if you want it a bit softer.

Or, let it cool and chuck it into the fridge. The texture will firm up slightly by chilling, however, overcooked or swamped quinoa will not chill well, and will turn into mushy, meaty shit.

If you’re making two cups, try to use less water. 3 ¾ cups, maybe even 3 ½. I think I’ll try 3 and see what happens. I’ll let you all know.

Bastard Chirashizushi (originally with Brown Rice)

1. 1 cup cooked Quinoa (works with brown rice, cold pasta, and without grains too!!)
2. ½ cucumber, seeded and cubed or rough chopped
3. Small tomato or ½ large tomoato, cubed or rough chopped
4. a handful of chopped onion or scallions or both
5. A bit of shredded cabbage if you like
6. 1 can of good tuna (don’t do chunk light…it’s gross)
   (or canned salmon with bones and skin, leftover baked/sauteed/still thrashing salmon)

Sauce:

1. Fish Sauce (I suggest Tiparos) or Soy Sauce (get cheap, light soy from Asian markets),
2. Good ‘ol distilled vinegar
3. Dark sesame oil
4. Optional – sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, chillies, or whatever.

Chuck everything in a bowl. Direct your sauce application mostly towards the vegetables and fish. Hit it with a good 5 or 6 bangs of fish sauce, more if you like, or a fast 1-one thousand, with your soy sauce. Drizzle on about half as much vinegar. Drizzle on a nice teaspoon of sesame oil. Now mix it all up. Taste it. Does it need more saltiness? Add fish/soy sauce? Is it flabby? Add some vinegar? Is it dry? Add a bit of olive oil or more sesame oil if you like. Just use a healthy oil or Kewpie Mayonnaise; because that’s healty for your Japanese soul.

The whole thing is really to get veggies, protein, carbs, fiber, and blinding, raw nutrition into a bowl with leftovers and make it taste rock. Experiment with it. It’s a salty/sour/nutty dish, so work wit those flavor adjustments to make it to your liking.

Listen to your taste buds!!!

Did I mention this shit will make you skinny?