Taco Rice Bears Bento #48

Brittany from Okinawa asked me for a suggestion on how to incorporate one of her daughter’s favorite foods, taco rice, into an onigiri.  Brittany’s recipe for taco rice includes cooked white rice, topped off with seasoned ground beef, and traditional toppings like lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and salsa.  When making my onigiri version of taco rice, I wanted to ensure that I didn’t deviate to much from the original ingredients because when a child has a favorite food you don’t want to mess with it too much.  I made the onigiri bears from the taco rice and packed it with a “taco salad” of lettuce, cheese, baked tortilla chips, and a tomato.  I also packed the salsa and sour cream on the side in separate small sauce containers so that it can be added when eaten.

I hope you and your daughter like it Brittany!

Taco Rice Recipe

Ingredients:

• 5-6 ounces thinly sliced beef
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• 2 tablespoons diced tomatoes
• 2 cups rice washed
• 2 cups chicken broth

Place thinly sliced beef in a bowl.  Add in soy sauce, mirin, pepper, salt, garlic, and onion.  Mix well and marinate for 10 minutes.  In the mean time, to the washed and drained rice, add in the chicken broth and tomatoes.  After the beef has marinated add evenly to the top of the rice making sure that the beef is submerged in the liquid, but do not stir in.  Press the cook button and let the rice cooker do all of the work!  When done, the rice will be caramelized on the bottom so make sure that you stir it well to redistribute all of the seasonings.

Taco Rice- the rice cooker, onigiri version!

To make the fun tortilla chips just cut out shapes from a corn tortilla.  Lay on a baking sheet, spray both sides of the cutouts lightly with non-stick cooking spray, season with a little bit of salt (I use kosher), and bake at 425 degrees for 5-10 minutes until crisp.  You can easily fry them up as well.