This is getting dangerous. My Zojirushi stuff is making it so easy to cook, pretty soon I’m going to be expected to do more cooking around here. My wife already said, “You’re gonna have to cook more if you want to get better. What if you start cooking every Sunday?” Waaait a minute…how come I feel like I’m going to get more “to-dos” around the house? Actually we usually buy take out food on Sundays anyway, so cooking might save us money—and I’m never opposed to that.

I recently tried these One Pot/One Pan recipes that really seemed perfect for my Electric Skillet and my Toaster Oven. The hardest part is prepping the ingredients, which isn’t that time consuming. The cooking part all happens in the same pot, so even if there are steps to follow, it’s not like you’re washing anything in between. I found that being able to electronically control the temperature when the recipe calls for it, helped a lot for a novice like me.

I’m happy to say this One-Pot Beef Stroganoff came out tasting as good as it looks,  Here are the ingredients I used (link to this recipe below if you’re interested). I used the shallow pan from my skillet for this one, which was the right choice because pasta stroganoff isn’t a soupy stew like sukiyaki or a hot pot.

Then it was a matter of cooking each stage of this dish in the same pan. First I sautéed the mushrooms.

I set that aside to make room for the ground beef and onions.

Here I’m stirring in the flour and paprika real good so it dissolves. Look at me—two fisted cooking technique! LOL.

Here’s where I added the broth and finally the pasta. That was basically it—all I had to do then was cover it and let it simmer for 10 or 12 minutes until the pasta cooked al dente. 

The sour cream is added after the heat is turned off, and then garnished with the parsely. Look at how creamy it looks!

I’m realizing that one-pot literally means one pot, so that’s easy on the cleanup, but I sort of thought you load up everything in the pot in the beginning and just let it cook by itself. There are recipes like that, but most recipes require “steps”, because different ingredients cook at different times. Not complainin’, just sayin’.

On the other hand, one-pan recipes are exactly like that—and are fast becoming my favorite kind. This is a sheet pan Garlic Butter Salmon and Asparagus that I found online that can be baked all at once in the oven (or toaster oven). Now this was easy—make the garlic butter, coat the fish and veggies with it on the baking sheet, and pop into the oven to cook.

14 minutes later, we got dinner, with sides! I am definitely trying more sheet pan recipes in the future. And having a toaster oven large enough means you can do everything on the countertop—from prep to bake to serve.

Check out the sizzlin’ salmon! Woohoo!!

Just For Fun
What in the world is this guy doing??

Products used for these recipes: 
Gourmet d’Expert® Electric Skillet EA-BDC10
Micom Toaster Oven ET-ZLC30

Beef Stroganoff recipe by JoCooks
Garlic Butter Salmon recipe by Chrissy Teigen

All photos by Bert Tanimoto

Comfort food is different for everyone, depending on where you grew up. I grew up bi-culturally, so if Fried Rice is one of the great comfort foods of all time for most Asians, my #1 is Cha-han, Japanese style—but my #2 is Spam Fried Rice, Hawaiian style. Here’s where non-cooks like me can never fail. Fried rice is so easy, the only way to fail, besides burning the rice, is to use rice that’s too freshly cooked because you’ll get mushy fried rice.

This is my Kimchi Fried Fice and this is how I made it foolproof. You’re supposed to use day old rice so that it’s slightly harder already, thus preventing mushy fried rice. I didn’t have any—so I made fresh rice in the morning, using the “HARDER” menu setting on my rice cooker. I didn’t make any adjustments to the water; I only cooled it off to room temp. Worked like a charm.

Kimchi and spam—who’s gonna argue with that? I’ll wait.

The Zojirushi Gourmet d’Expert Electric Skillet at work.

The secret sauce (kimchi juice from the bottom of the jar). Feel free to add Korean gochujang if you want, but bear in mind it doesn’t really increase flavor, only spiciness.

Really fast Kimchi Spam Fried Rice.

The family liked it, so I guess that means I passed.

So now I’m getting cocky, right? I thought, OK—let’s try the steamer function on the electric skillet; I’ve already got it out anyway. I chose this Sesame Broccoli, a popular side dish that you get sometimes at Korean BBQ restaurants. The ingredients are simple enough—fresh broccoli florets, sesame oil, ground sesame seeds and lots of garlic.

The steamer plate is more than large enough to hold a bunch of veggies as you can see, and the skillet is deep. I filled it with about a half-inch of water, got it boiling, and lowered the broccoli inside. The steamer plate has a small handle and legs to hold it above the water. Steaming time was about 7 minutes, but I think I should have quit at 5. Still, it was OK.

Then all I had to do was dress it with the sesame oil, garlic, crushed sesame seeds and some salt and it was done! Looks good? I think my daughter really liked it—she even brought some to work for her lunch the next day.

Just For Fun
Remembering the late great Ruth Bader Ginsburg…my daughter must have been channeling her spirit with this hairstyle! LOL!

Have you ever been to the secret swing at the top of Elysian Park in Los Angeles? Not so secret if you’re on Instagram actually, but still worth finding if you want this great view! Check before you go though—it’s been known to disappear and reappear for various reasons, like COVID, too many influencers, etc.

credits: all photos by Bert Tanimoto, Sesame Broccoli recipe by Korean Babsang