About

Thanks for visiting my site. If you’re looking for rice cooker recipes then you’re in the right place!

What do you know about rice?
When I first came to Japan more than 9 years ago, not much was the answer. In the U.K, the only time I was interested in rice was when Chinese or Indian was on offer. The idea of eating rice every day had never crossed my mind.

When I arrived in Japan, my landlord gave me a bunch of stuff which included a Zojirushi rice cooker. At that time, I had no idea that was the #1 brand in the world!

Can you really cook rice?
Japanese friends showed me how to measure and wash the rice before cooking. From eating eating out (a lot) and enjoying Japanese home cooking, I got a few ideas for things I could prepare as one pot rice cooker dishes which inspired me to start experimenting with rice cooker cooking.

After moving apartments a few times, I’ve bought some newer and fancier rice cookers. The one I use just now is the equivalent of the Zojirushi NP-GBC05, which is a Micom + Induction Heating (IH) rice cooker. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best style machine to use. Even though the models with a pressure function are newer (and more expensive), I’m not too impressed with them. I also own a Sanyo ECJ-JG10W which cooks the rice under pressure. It is a decent machine but it doesn’t seem to do a better job of cooking than the regular Micom + IH models.

A book I purchased about rice cooker recipes kind of let me down because lots of the recipes weren’t actually all-in-one recipes at all. There was call for saucepans, frying pans and I was expected to cook! My eureka moment came when I decided that the rice cooker recipes they covered seemed “made up”. I could make my own up…so that’s exactly what I started doing.

Karate Rice contains a number of rice cooker recipes that I love. Even though I do include some non-all-in-one recipes, my main focus is on simplicity. In other words, rice + plants in the rice cooker – press start and that’s it. These are great if you like simple, quick and healthy meals.

Where’s the meat?
In 2011, for health, ethical and environmental reasons, I decided to stop eating animal products and eat a plant strong diet. In other words, a vegan diet. Avoiding animal products isn’t the only goal. The other side of the equation is focusing on whole plant foods. As far as possible, I make all my meals from scratch.

Part of my decision to change my diet came from conversations with Japanese people. Despite the claims that whales are killed for “research”, I’ve seen whale meat in supermarkets in Japan. Perhaps they mean “market research”.

Many Japanese people tell me that eating whale is part of their culture just as eating cows is part of ours. They asked me what the difference was between killing whales and killing cows. Maybe I was expected to say, “Fine, let’s kill them all!”. But it made me realize that if whales suffer as they are hunted down and killed, cows produced for meat suffer throughout their whole life…and then they’re killed. I don’t want to be a part of their suffering. And to be quite honest, plant food can taste pretty damn good!

Every recipe on this site is high in fibre, low in fat and has zero cholesterol. This is real, simple health food!