Flavored rice ball with beef slices in miso sauce おにぎりと牛肉の薄切りの味噌和え

 This is, again, not really post-worthy but I am posting this to make the point that you need to improvise on short notice when eating and drinking at home. This was a small "shime" dish we had on a weeknight, from leftovers. We started with some snacky-snacks (cheese with crackers, roasted cashew nuts and such) and "snap pea in broth", progressed to grilled chicken thigh 鶏の塩焼き with celery salad with kelp tea powder  セロリの昆布茶サラダ, and finished with this "shime" 締め. For most people (especially some fellow bloggers or blog-eagues), the amount of food is not enough or not even close, I am sure.

Rice ball おにぎり: This was from yesterday's cold (but not frozen) rice. I first microwaved and mixed with perilla seedpod tsukudani 紫蘇の実の佃煮, made it to a cylindrical shape and wrapped with a strip of nori.

Beef with miso sauce: I had leftover flat iron steak which was cooked medium rare. I sliced it very thinly across the grain. In a small frying pan, I added sesame oil (1/2 tsp) and chopped scallion (1 tbs) and sauteed for a few minutes and added miso (2 tbs). After a minute or so, I added mirin (2 tbs) and stirred. While the sauce was still loose I placed the slices of steak on top to warm them but I did not mix them with the sauce. After a few minutes, when the meat was warmed through, I removed the meat and placed it on a small serving plate. I turned the flame to medium and reduced the miso mixture to make the consistency firmer (not to the level of the original miso consistency though). I poured the miso sauce on top of the meat. 

I could have served the thinly sliced steak on top of greens with Japanese style dressing (sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce) or I could have served them with sliced cucumber and/or daikon with ponzu sauce and so on.  

I also added asazuke 浅漬け of daikon, nappa cabbage and cucumber. Probably I should have made two rice balls per person even for us.