General Cooking and Recipes

Cooking outside the (bento) box.

Pickles!

Hey everyone! Hope your holidays were awesome! Santa got me what I wanted so I'm pleased haha! Though it was hectic this christmas, 12 of us all staying in my tiny house and 2 young kids. Wow. Anyway, my Mum does pickles every year for gifts, lime pickle, picalilli, beetroot etc. This year I got a couple of jars!! Both quite large, one is pickled garlic (I use garlic a lot in cooking so very useful!) and some pickled ginger slices. Now these babies are HOT, helped clear my sinuses of my cold xD But sooooo very tasty!
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Alternate dashi methods

I often find that I just can't be bothered to take out a pan to make dashi for a single, small bowl of something that only I'll be eating. So, I've been pondering some alternatives. With a large water dispenser which produces water hot enough to leave quite a painful burning sensation and red mark throughout the day and night and a microwave and rice cooker (with one of those switches without any actual settings) at my disposal, I feel there must be some way to make small portions of dashi without the stove.
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Recommendation for blender/juicer

Hi all, I've been avoiding buying too many kitchen equipments because I'm currently living in a rented place, and it's such a hassle when I have to move. But I figured that with all the money I spend buying fresh smoothies everyday, the time has come for me to invest in my first food processor (or blender or smoothie maker? so many names!).. It'd mainly be used to make smoothies everyday, and the occasional soup... Would be good if it can also function as a juicer, but that'd be an added benefit, and not a must-have. Can anyone recommend a good brand?

Rice Cooker or Slow Cooker? Can i still cook rice in the slow cooker?

I've been looking around on the internet at rice cookers and slow cookers and wondering which to get. I'd be tempted to get both but my problem is that counter and storage space is strictly limited in our kitchen so ideally i'd like something that i can both set a timer for rice for my bento in the morning and cook lovely stews and soups for when i come home from work in the winter.
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Green tea noodles?

I've been cleaning out my pantry, and came across a package of green tea noodles I bought a few months ago and never did anything with - simply because I didn't know what to do. They're fine, light green, made with Wheat Flour, Salt, Tea Powder. Other than the ingredients, "Tea flavour noodles" and a label marking them as "Product of Taiwan", nothing is english, making me thoroughly confused as to what to pair them with. What would you do ? Here's a (poor quality) picture: http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h318/Kylarra_CatClaws/noodles001.jpg

Silicone steamers

I was gifted one of those silicone steamers that you pop in the microwave to steam cook vegetables, salmon, and what have you. I live in Tokyo at the mo, and they are all the rage in Japan these days. I haven't lived in the States for a while now so I'm not sure if they are popular anywhere else, but I was startled to find there is very little information about this type of cooking online. The steamer came with a pamphlet but I don't like the recipes in there. I'm also not the type that likes steamed food with just a little S&P - I like my food to have a little kick in it!
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