Got rice? Then dinner is one-pot easy

Writer Sonoko Sakai has a secret weapon when it comes to making dinner.

Rice. Yep, rice:

It always gives me great comfort to know that when I cannot think of what to make for dinner, I can always rely on rice and everything else will eventually fall into place. Many Japanese plan their daily menu this way -- around a bowl of rice. It is not a surprise that gohan, the Japanese word for "rice," also means "meal."

One of my favorite dishes that makes rice a satisfying centerpiece is maze-gohan -- a one-pot rice dish made with a variety of seafood, meat and vegetables and cooked in a clay pot called a donabe.

Read more here, and check out the recipes for rice with chicken and dandelion greens and spicy rice with scallops.

What's that? No rice cooker or donabe? Here you go.

Photo: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times