Moon gazing and "Tsuki-mi" dango 2019 月見と月見団子

This year's "15th night moon" or "Jugoya" 十五夜, which corresponds to the "Harvest moon" in the U.S., occurred on September 13 which was a Friday--Friday the 13th (!). Since it was a work day there was no time to make ”tsukimi dango" 月見団子  to celebrate the beauty of the moon. In addition it was cloudy, and the moon did not make an appearance so "tsukimi" or "moon gazing" was not happening. The next day,  I made the tsukimi dango in the morning so it was ready. In anticipation, we waited for moon rise. As you can see from the picture below the sky was crystal clear and the moon rose like a large round silver platter, even though it was a 1 day waning moon...Tsukimi was on.

We had our "tsukimi dango" with "mitarashi" みたらし sauce as a desert. I never thought (especially when I was in Japan), I would ever make this dish myself but this is very good and the sauce really makes it.

Speaking of moons, in addition to the real moon, this year we had the pleasure of viewing moon flowers blooming, after a long absence, in our garden--the white flower shown on the right in the picture below. They bloom in the evening and glow softly in the ambient light as it gets dark withering in the morning light. In contrast this year we also had morning glories called "asa-gaoa" 朝顔 (morning faces) in Japanese, (shown on the left in the picture below). The morning glories and moon flowers have a counter cyclical blooming cycle. The morning glories bloom in the morning when the moon flower is fading and fade in the evening when the moon flower is blooming. The result is that there is always a flower in bloom.

Digression alert: Many years ago we used to grow moon flowers and morning glories in our side yard. We planted the seeds in the ground and the plants climbed up strings reaching the trellis which screened one side of the deck from sight of our neighbor's backyard. We had enough sun for these plants to cover the entire side of the deck trellis. As shown in the picture below we had a glorious wall of morning glories providing a beautiful privacy screen.  

Even more impressive were the large moon flowers, some as large as small plates, which mysteriously opened in the evening.  Some survived until morning so we could see both flowers at the same time as shown in the picture below. While enjoying the soft glow of the moon flowers one evening we saw something big flying and sounding like a hummingbird feeding on the nectar of the moonflower. It was way too late for a hummingbird to be about so what in the world was this creature? Turns out it was something call a hummingbird moth. They fly like a hummingbird and drink nectar like a hummingbird. What a treat! We had no idea something like this even existed but we were privileged to have the opportunity of see one.

For various reasons we have not been able to plant these flowers for many years. This year my wife found a space along the fence that she thought might work. So we planted the seeds, strung the string and waited and waited and waited. Finally in late August the first moon flower made its appearance. The picture above is of this year's crops. They were rather pathetic compared to the our old morning glory and moon flower display, but this is quite an improvement especially since we did not have them for many years.

So back to the subject at hand; tsukimi. It may be difficult to celebrate tsukimi on the exact day of "Jugoya", but this was certainly a fine second best. The homemade dango were much better than the ones that we have bought commercially. They are very tender in texture with a pleasant rice flavor. The absolutely crucial ingredient to this dish is the sauce. It adds a burst of salty sweetness that is irresistible.

Matsutake feast 2019 松茸尽くし ２０１９

Oregon mushrooms just started shipping North American fresh matsutake. Although North American matsutake is no comparison to the Japanese or even Mexican variety, we usually get them just to commemorate the season. As I posted before, this matsutake requires more aggressive cleaning since the dirt is embedded into the skin of the mushroom and just rubbing with a moist towel does not do the job. I have posted everything posted here and some more.  But this is a once a year matsutake feast.

Since I do not have an appropriate set of "dobin-mushi" 土瓶蒸し vessels,  I used mini-donabes to serve Matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物.

For color, I added blanched broccolini, thinly shaved carrot and chives. I also added cubes of cod and shrimp.

The soup base is bonito-kelp broth (using a dashi pack) and seasoned with mirin and light colored "usukuchi" soy sauce 薄口醤油. The cod and shrimp (Venezuelan red shrimp), both were previously frozen, stored in our freezer and thawed the morning I made the dish. I salted and marinated them in sake before adding to the soup. Upon opening the lids of the soup containers, the lovely matsutake aroma wafted up. (This initial whiff of  matsutake fragrance is one of the traditional "enjoyments" of this dish.)  This is the first time I used cod for this type of soup (any gentle tasting white meat fish will do). The cod was thick fleshed and tender and really good. The shrimp was sweet and excellent as well.

I was planning to have a chawanmushi 松茸の茶碗蒸し next but it took longer than I planned for it to finish cooking so I served matustake touban yaki 松茸の陶板焼き next. We enjoyed it simply with salt and lemon.

Finally, the chawanmush was done. For this batch, I added the cod, shrimp, kyo-bu 京麩 (dried gluten cake, rehydrated),  a cube of dashimaki だし巻き Japanese omelet (egg-in-egg idea). As usual, I made six so that we could enjoy the "leftovers" later.

I garnished it with finely chopped fresh chives. The soft egg custard was infused with matsutake aroma/flavor.

#1. This is the amount of matsutake I used for 6 small chawanmushi (about three matsutake).
#2. The first layer of the chawanmush is, of course, the matsutake.
#3. Kyo-bu is a small decorative gluten cake from Kyoto. It does not have any taste by itself. Just texture and whatever it  absorbed.
#4. Shrimp.
#5. Cod.
#6. Cube of dashimaki.

This was a sort-of treasure hunt. We love chawanmushi of any kind but this was a bit special. I used to add ginko nuts which, in the past, were readily available in a can (boiled) but not anymore for some reason. They just disappeared and we have not seen them anywhere. Finally we finished our feast with matsutake-gohan 松茸ご飯. This time I think I made it perfectly. The rice was slightly firm but well cooked.

For this occasion, I wheeled out my special "Kamado-san" earthenware rice cooking pot (#1).  As per the instructions, I  set the inner lid with its steam holes arranged perpendicular to the outer lid steam hole; necessary for the rice to cook properly(#2). As usual, I used bonito-kelp broth seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce which I enhanced by adding rehydrated strips of kelp and soaking liquid. When the lid was lifted, the smell the matsutake and freshly cooked rice (good combination) wafted up (#3). I mixed the rice and the matsutake before serving (#4).

Besides, the matsutake dishes, we had a few more of our  usual appetizers and cold sake. Once a year, this is worth doing.

Crab cake sushi クラブケーキちらし寿司

 I made crab cakes, using a recipe I posted some time ago . From one container of crab meat,  I made 5 cakes. We ate two immediately but three were left (see below). This time, I made the crab cake with sautéed onion, shiitake mushroom, jalapeño pepper and fresh dill. I also added Meyer lemon zest (micro-grated), lemon juice and seasoned it with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and bound it with panko, dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

Since we had gotten the crab meat to make California roll, my wife suggested we could (sort-of) stick to our original objective by using the crab cakes to make scattered sushi ちらし寿司. Also, we had discovered, on our last trip to Japan, that ingredients such as tuna salad made with mayonnaise work really well with sushi rice. So since the crab cakes included mayo, my wife thought they should work well over the sushi rice. She made fresh rice for the occasion and I made it into sushi rice.  First, I warmed the crab cakes in the toaster oven and the broke them into small chunks on the sushi rice.

Taking the cue from California rolls, I also added cubes of avocado, dressed in lemon juice and a bit of mayonnaise.

Since perilla has started coming out in profusion in our herb garden, I added a chiffonade of perilla 青じそ.

Finally, I topped it with thin strips of nori.

We had this on our day off as an ending "shime" dish. As my wife predicted this was really good. We thought that since it was a shime, the amount of rice may be too much but it tasted so good we couldn't stop and ended up eating the whole thing. As opposed to just using crab meat as is done with classic California roll, using crab cake added more complex flavor dimensions and texture.  For this, we switched to our "Tengumai daiginjo" sake 天狗舞大吟醸酒.

Seasoned fish "soboro" donburi 鯛のそぼろ丼

We had this as a lunch one weekend. This is a mini-"donduri" rice bowl ミニ丼 made with the last of the leftovers from the Sushi Taro osechi box. I made a similar dish before. The osechi box included a small "tai" red fish 小鯛姿焼き which is basically a symbolic dish for the new year. The fish does not have much of the meat and taste rather mild. So rather than just eat it, I removed the meat and made "soboro" そぼろ. I also used "jako" arima-ni" ジャコの有馬煮 in this donburi. I served this with a clear soup made of fish meat ball  (from mackerel) and tofu さばのつみれ汁.

To add colors and taste, I also added scrambled egg and green beans. The green beans were blanched, cut into small pieces and sautéed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The scrambled egg was seasoned with sugar and salt.

The "tai" soboro is visible on the left and the Jako arima-ni on the right.

The picture below shows the mackerel fishball soup. I added snow peas, shiitake mushroom, chopped scallion and Yuzu skin.

Fish soboro 魚のそぼろ
"Soboro" is a type of Japanese dish in which finely minced meat (chicken, pork or beef) or fish is braised with seasoning (soy sauce and mirin or sake) until almost dry. The soboro is usually used as a condiment for rice or used to make donburi by putting it on top of the rice.

I just removed the meat from the small red fish and tore the meat into small pieces. I braised it with soy sauce and mirin (about 2:1ratio) until also mostly dry. I tasted it towards the end of cooking and added more soy sauce. The seasoning is totally arbitrary but, as a condiment for rice, you may want rather strong soy sauce/salty flavor. To balance with "Jako" arima-ni, I also added sansho powder 山椒 at the end.

I microwaved frozen rice (it was frozen in a special Japanese container for rice. I just opened the steam hole and microwaved it). I placed the rice in the bowl, arranged fish soboro, Jako arima-ni, scrambled egg and green beans on top.

This was quite satisfying lunch and went well with the soup.

Bento Box お弁当

We usually make sandwiches to take to our respective work for lunch. Although we have a quite collection of Japanese bento boxes, I rarely  make bento for lunch (too much work). This was such a rare occasion. I made this for my wife since she was having surgery for her rotator cuff injury. Although this was a same day surgery, we knew she would be essentially fasting nearly 20 hours, before, during, and after surgery, by the time she was released from the hospital.  Knowing she would be hungry I made this bento box so that she could eat it either at the hospital or on the way home in the car. (She wolfed it down in the car on the way home). I chose a two-layered Bento box (for adults) which is very functional and the right size that we like best. Both the bottom of the top layer and lid have gaskets and once the elastic band is applied it makes a good seal preventing leakage.

It came with a Japanese style "Kinchaku" pouch 巾着.  Since the rabbit is my wife's Japanese/Chinese zodiac animal, this is very appropriate.

So, the night before, I packed this bento for her. This lunch box comes with a small mold which can be pressed on the rice to make small individual semi-cylinders. This makes eating the rice a bit easier and looks more elegant. I sprinkled dried red perilla salt ("Yukari" ゆかり) on one row and dried green seaweed ("Aonori"  青のり) on the other.  The small compartment next to the rice (which can be adjusted) is usually for pickled or salted vegetables ("Tsukemono" 漬物) but I put salad (my cucumber salad, skinned and sliced Campari tomato and arugula).

The upper layer can be divided into 4 compartments for side dishes. The central "H" partition can be slid to adjust the sizes of the end compartments. For protein, I used fish, pork, chicken, and egg including grilled salmon and Spanish mackerel simmered in miso (left), barbecued pork loin thinly sliced (center upper) and chicken squares with gorgonzola cheese and dried fig topped with my home-made figgy cranberry sauce (center, lower).  Of course, any Japanese bento box has to have "dahimaki" Japanese omelet (right).

Both grilled salmon and blue fish simmered in miso were leftovers and I separated  the two with slices of cucumber.

I added dried green sea weed "Aonori" to the "dashimaki" Japanese omelet . To make a snug fit for the space, I used slices of tomato.

Despite my wife's total lack of ability to use her right arm/hand, she enjoyed and finished the bento box in the car. She said the bento was very good and assured me it was not due to "Hunger being the best sauce". I thought the amount was quite large but she somehow managed to finish it. Now, she is on the mend and gradually regaining her right arm functions with physical therapy. I should make bento more often--for less serious occasions.

Lunch and dessert on New Year Day 4

We had a lunch comprised mostly of items I made for the New Year (the red and white fish cakes are store bought and I did not realize this one has the letter "Kotobuki" 寿 on every cut surface (no doubt by co-extrusion process of white and  red colored kamaboko ingredients). I rather prefer the simple red and white ones. In any case, the main dish here is from the osechi box. It is a cylindrical sushi made from sushi rice, wrapped with buri 鰤 (grown-up yellow tail) and thin slices of white radish called "Buri kabura zushi" 鰤かぶら寿司.

Here is a close up. This is a type of sushi called "Bo-zushi" 棒鮨. First sushi rice is formed in the shape of "bo" 棒 or  "rod/cylinder) and then the upper side of the cylinder is wrapped with a thin filet of vinegared fish. In this particular dish, it was wrapped with  vinegared "buri" or grown yellow tail and then thinly sliced large white radish. This appears to be a New Year dish famous in Toyama 富山. I slightly warmed it up in the microwave oven to bring the sushi rice back to its original texture. It is important to "take the chill off" of the rice but not cook the fish or radish (I used increments of 10 seconds of microwaving to control the process).

As a dessert, we had chestnut "shibukawa-ni" 栗の渋皮煮, sweet yam and chestnuts 栗きんとん and black beans in syrup 黒豆. All these are traditional new year dishes but they are rather sweet and this is the best way to enjoy, at least, for us. We had this "Fukamushi Shin cha" of the last year season from Uji Hibiki-an 深蒸し新茶、宇治　響庵.

Some time ago when we are dining at Sushi Taro Omakase, our conversation with Chef Kitayama went to North American Chestnuts. As I  posted before, surviving (after chestnuts blight of 1940s) North American chestnuts have deep crevices and it is difficult to remove inner brown skin or "sibukawa" 渋皮 without breaking the chestnut apart. We asked Chef Kitayama how he handles this problem. He said he had to peel so many chestnuts and the perfect ones were set aside for dishes which requires whole chestnuts (such as shibukawa-ni) and the rest were used for other dishes (such as kuri-kinton).

Last year we also got a few sets of new tea cups from Hibiki-An. This is out favorite among them. It has a little turtle figure climbing up one side.

This was a quite filling lunch and nice dessert with wonderful green tea. Among the few green tea (sencha 煎茶) we tried from Hibiki-An, we like this tea the best so far.

Moon gazing "Tsukimi dango" dumpling 月見団子

My wife really likes the moon (and rainbows), especially a full moon. She always looks for it in the sky. So, she immediately loved  the idea of Japanese "Tsuki-mi" 月見 moon-gazing or moon-viewing,  "Chushu-no-meigetsu" 中秋の名月 or "Juu-go-ya" 十五夜 . It refers to the full moon which falls on August 15 according to the Japanese lunar calendar and on September 24 according to the  Gregorian calendar. It is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox which incidentally also falls on September 24 this year. This moon gazing has something to do with a harvest festival in Japan and in the west this moon is called the harvest moon.  In any case, we decided to cerebrate for the harvest moon and Juu-go-ya moon. My wife even collected "Furoshiki" 風呂敷, Japanese wrapping cloth, and "tenugui" 手ぬぐい, Japanese hand towels, with moon-gazing motifs on them. As shown by the furoshiki below, these usually include the full moon, pampas grass or "Susuki" ススキ, and rabbits gazing at the moon. Rabbits are generally associated with the moon in Japan because according to Japanese folk lore supposedly derived from a Buddhism story, a mochi-pounding rabbit lives on the moon, rather than a man. So in Japan you have bunny-in-the-moon instead of man-in-the-moon. Since the creature living on the Japanese moon pounds mochi, this may explain why the traditional food to accompany the fall moon-gazing is a round mochi ball or dumpling made of rice flour called "Tsu-ki-mi dango" 月見団子 Also because the full moon occurs on the 15th night of August "Juu-go-ya" according to the Japanese lunar calendar, the dango are presented in three layers of 9+4+2 totaling 15 commemorating the 15th night full moon. A plate of these mochi dumplings is shown next to the rabbits in the picture below. The plate of the dumplings I made is in the forefront of the picture.

The last time I made this with mashed potatoes with a center of cheese but this time, I wanted to go traditional and made dango using rice flour. With my wife's help, I used one of her collection of furoshiki as a background for the picture.

Below is a picture of the guest of honor; the moon. I took this picture several days before Juu-go-ya (September 24). It was almost full moon. On the 23rd and 24th, it was rainy and cloudy and we could not see any moon.

I made tsukimi dango a few days prior. After displaying the dango, I put the dango on skewers and warmed it up in the toaster oven and coated it with "mitarashi" sauce. This way of serving dango is called "Mitarashi dango" みたらし団子. It was good (especially the sauce) but the dango themselves were not soft or warmed through. So the next day, my wife tried microwaving the dango with the sauce. That method worked much better and the soft elastic texture came back like the ones freshly made.

I have never made this from rice flour. I looked for the recipes on line and decided on making it with rice flour and silken tofu (the alternative is using just water). This recipe variant came with the claim that the dango stays soft even cold.

At that point, I was not very familiar with different kinds of Japanese rice flours* (see footnote). Because rice contains practically no gluten and gluten-free diet is popular in US, even if you do not have gluten allergy or Celiac disease, rice flour is readily available. Actually, my wife used it in her baking and she provided me with the rice flour she had used.  This is called  "Sweet white rice" flour from Bob's Red Hill. This is made from short grain Japanese eating rice grown in California (Probably "Kokuho Rose"). The flour looked a bit coarser than what I remember but I made dango from it. After boiling the dango for a few minutes, they should have floated to the surface but they never did. Although I boiled it for almost 20 minutes, they never became soft and  not quite edible especially after they were cooled. I then learned about the different kinds of  Japanese rice flours*.  Since I did not have the time or energy to go to our Japanese grocery store to look for the appropriate rice flour, I turned to Amazon and got "Mochiko"餅粉 meaning "rice-cake flour" which is milled in California by "Koda farms"  (Japanese name!). This is  made from "mochi gome" 餅米.  Mochi-gome* is a type of  rice specifically grown for making mochi 餅 or other rice dish such as "seki-han" 赤飯 (#1 in the composite picture below).  My thinking was this flour (by name and by Japanese association) must be the better flour to make dango.

Ingredients:

for the Dumpling:
"Mochiko" rice flower 100gram
Sugar 2 tbs (30gram)
Silken tofu about 1/2 (gradually added until right consistency is attained)

for Mitarashi sauce:(all weighed since amounts are rather small).
Soy sauce 40ml (or grams)
Sugar 60 gram
Dashi broth 100ml (or grams)
Mirin 15ml (or grams)
Potato starch 15 gram

Directions:
For Dumpling:
Add the flour and sugar in a bowl (#2).
Add a small amount of the tofu (#3)  at times to the dry ingredients and mix by hand.
Add more tofu until the dough forms but is still soft (#4) (The Japanese instructions say "texture of an ear lobe).
Using a small ice cream scoop, make small balls (need to make at least 15, I made 19).
Cooking them in boiling water until they float on the surface and cook additional 3 minutes (#5).
Put cooked dango in ice cold water for few minutes and drain (#6).

*Footnote: The below are what I gleaned from the Internet. There are some conflicting information. It appears that there are three major kinds of rice flour. These are made from two different kinds of short grain rice; one is "eating rice" called "Uruchi-rice" うるち米 which contains polysaccharide amylose, another is called "mochi-gome" 餅米 which contains two kinds of polysaccharides amylase and amylopectin. Amylopectin gives a lot of sticky elastic texture when cooked. Rice cake or Mochi is made from this rice.

1. Shira-tama-ko 白玉粉
Made from milling washed uncooked mochi-rice with water, After the starch settles down, it is dried, very fine, mixed with water and then boiled. It makes a delicate soft dumpling with slippery surface which remains soft even when cooled.
2. Mochi-ko 餅粉
Made from milling  washed and dried uncooked mochi-rice, strong rice flavor and makes elastic dumpling by mixing with water and then boiled
3. Jou-shin-ko 上新粉
Made from eating "uruchi" rice, washed, dried, and milled,  mixing with hot water, steamed, and pounded to make elastic mochi like dumpling.

Tuskimi-dango is ususally made from either shira-tama-ko or mochi-ko. The red mill rice flour is similar to #3.  The way I made the dango using this flour was not proper or this flour is too coarsely milled. The ones I made from Mochi-ko, the dango was much better and close to commercial "dango" my wife and I are familiar with.

Smoked salmon and salmon salad roll スモークサーモンとサーモンサラダ巻き

My wife is a firm believer that mayonnaise and sushi rice are a good combo. We tried her theory previously with tuna hand rolls and "Salmon salad" sushi. We regularly prepare grilled salted salmon with crispy skin (after salted and dried for few days in the refrigerator) We finish the skin but we make leftover salmon meat. I often make the leftover salmon into salmon salad by flaking it and dressing it in a mixture of Greek yogurt and mayonnaise. We enjoy the salmon salad as an appetizer as a canapé by putting it on the cracker. Since we had still some salmon salad left, my wife suggested this salmon salad roll with smoked salmon and caper. I took her suggestion and  I made a medium sized roll or "chu-maki" 中巻き (As opposed to Futomaki 太巻き fat roll or Hosomaki 細巻き thin roll). This differed from our previous post because it is a roll and includes smoked salmon

I made the salmon salad a few days earlier. I used a mixture of Greek yogurt, mayo, Dijon mustard  seasoned with Myer lemon juice, fresh dill, salt and pepper. to dress the flaked grilled salmon.

The rice was distributed a bit unevenly.

Since this was a weekday evening, I took a short cut and used frozen rice to make the sushi rice.  I have a Japanese container we got at our grocery store which was designed to store cooked rice frozen. The lid has either small air vent or by turning the lid 180 degree, the lid will leave small gap so that microwaving the frozen rice will steam the rice. I also microwaved sushi vinegar (from the bottle) to warm it up and dressed the warm rice and let sit for 5 minutes.

Ingredients:
Sushi rice, 1 cup (see above)
Nori dried seaweed sheet, one
Smoked salmon, 3 slices or enough to cover the rice
Salmon salad, enough to spread to cover the rice
Caper, 20 buds

Directions:
Place the nori sheet on the bamboo sushi mat
Spread the sushi rice in a thin layer on the nori to cover about 70% (for a medium roll)
Place one layer of the smoked salmon
Spread the salmon salad and top it with capers (see below)

Roll it with the bamboo mat and press to shape.

Wet the blade of a knife and slice the roll in half and then slice each half into 5 slices each.

This again proves my wife's theory that mayo and sushi rice go well together. The only problem with this iteration was that the salmon salad was a bit on the wet side with Greek yogurt and Mayer lemon juice but it tasted great. Sushi rice from frozen rice was not bad at all and this was a great ending dish for the evening.

Perilla tea and perilla rice 大葉茶と大葉ご飯

Our green perilla (a.k.a "Aojiso" 青紫蘇 and "Ooba" 大葉) is proliferating vigorously in our herb garden. Since we have so many plants and this is similar to the family of mint, my wife asked me if we can make a tea from it like mint tea. I quickly checked the Internet and found a few recipes/descriptions. The recipes are slightly different for red versus green perilla. (The red one requires acid to make the pink color to develop). I chose a recipe that specified the torn green perilla leaves should be boiled in water for 15-20 minutes with an addition of salt.  I made this green perilla tea and was surprised to find that it tasted just like "Umeboshi" 梅干し or "salted" plums.   I was not sure if this was supposed to be a drinking tea or a "health tonic". My wife tasted it and because of the umeboshi taste suggested we should make rice using this perilla tea. So I obliged and made perilla rice.  Since we got a whole Spanish mackerel the day before and I made my usual miso simmer mackerel 鯖の味噌煮 and also mackerel dumplings in a broth 鯖のつみれ汁, I served this perilla rice as an ending "shime" dish one evening.

I further fortified the perilla flavor by adding a chiffonade of green perilla and store bought "Yukari" ゆかりsalt which is made of dried red perilla and salt.

This time, I used match sticks of daikon and carrot in the mackerel dumpling soup.

The miso simmered mackerel is our favorite dish.

Ingredients for perilla tea:
20 green perilla leaves, washed and torn (amount appears to be arbitrary)
1/2 tsp salt
8 cups water

Add hand torn perilla leaves and salt to the water when it starts boiling then turn down to simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes. I let it steep until cooled to room temperature and remove the perilla leaves.

Although I did not take pictures, the resulting "tea" has a slight brown color with a strong perilla smell. We just used the perilla tea instead of water in our rice cooker to make the perilla rice. When the rice was done, it definitely smelled like perilla although the taste did not come through. By adding a chiffonade of fresh perilla leaves and "Yukari", this was a quite pleasant seasoned rice. Of course, my wife added a pat of butter to her rice to make it "better"(or maybe "butter").