Cooking Gallery

Cute Animals Bento

2012-01-29T14:41:00.004+01:00

So many cute animals in one box...:)!!! I have always wanted to make many different characters in one bento box, but I never really did more than 3 or 4 (except once, when I made 5 different characters to celebrate my 100th bento) because it would require A LOT of time. This time, however, I didn't spend so much time making this bento, even though there are 10 characters in the box (I actually even made 16, but the box is not big enough for all of them ;)). The reason is because making (simple) characters out of cheese is much easier than making characters out of rice - note: the frogs are made out of cucumber and the pig out of deli meat, but you can work with cucumber and deli meat pretty much like with cheese.

I will do a tutorial on how to make these little creatures in a few weeks' time when I have more time. You will be amazed how easy it is to make them...!

Each of the mini onigiri is filled with chopped umeboshi (pickled plum). The slim bento box contains one ebi fry, two wieners, half a boiled egg, four cocktail shrimps, three blanched carrot flowers, two cherry tomatoes and a slice of tamagoyaki.

Panda & Mameshiba Bento

2012-01-28T16:28:00.004+01:00

I have been feeling quite under the weather for a few days. I almost decided to skip bentoing this weekend and thought that I should just lie in bed the whole day and have some rest. But in the end my urge to prepare a cute bento meal won ;).

This time I made Mameshiba and Panda faces which are made out of goat cheese. Use a round cookie cutter to make the round faces, nori for facial details, chili sauce for the red cheeks and edamame for Mameshiba's ears.

The side dishes include pan-fried gyoza, pan-fried meat patties, cherry tomatoes, edamame, cocktail shrimps and mandarin and grapes for dessert.

As you can see in the photo above, there is also a matching panda fork that comes with this bento. I got this fork from Bento USA. I love the fact that the fork also comes with a matching panda case, which I find very practical - no need to wrap my fork with napkin anymore...!

This panda fork is currently on sale and costs US$5.99. If you are a panda lover, you should have this fork in your collection :)!

Chinese New Year Bento

2012-01-22T16:19:00.002+01:00

This is another Chinese New Year themed bento which is easier to make than my previous 'Year of the Dragon' bento. One reason is because I cheated and took the dragon's head and tail from yesterday's bento which I put aside just for this purpose ;).

This time the dragon's body is a dragon roll sushi (or caterpillar sushi) which I filled with pork schnitzel, cucumber, crab stick and mayo and topped with avocado slices. The dragon is carrying plenty of peaches on his back, which for the Chinese symbolises longevity. The peaches are actually beet juice tinted quail eggs and the leaves are made out of corn salad. The little boy and girl are also made out of quail eggs topped with mini mozzarella cheese for the heads. The hands show typical Chinese gesture for saying 'Gong Xi Fa cai' or Happy New Year.

"Year of the Dragon" Bento

2012-01-21T18:31:00.003+01:00

Hello again, everyone :)! I had been wanting to make a dragon-themed bento to celebrate the Chinese New Year and today I managed to overcome my laziness and made one :). Chinese New Year was always quite important to me when I was a little girl because it was the time when I would get 'red envelopes' filled with 'lucky money', so I always enjoyed visiting my relatives and parents' friends to get those red envelopes, haha ;). But now that I am married, I think that I am no longer eligible to receive those envelopes and I believe it's now my turn to give out red envelopes instead. But since I live in Germany, I don't have anyone to give out red envelopes to - maybe this is a good thing...;)??

I have to admit the dragon was quite complicated to make, but it's worth it because I am so proud that in the end it really does look like a (Chinese-style) dragon ;)!! The body of the dragon is made out of cheese, carrot and nori and the head of the dragon is made out of cheese, crab stick, carrot, nori and soy paper.

The pink, round balls above the dragon are meant to be red lanterns - they are made out of boiled quail eggs which I coloured with beet juice.

The big sakura bento box contains tamagoyaki (omelet with slices of fish cakes and chopped onion), Peking pork chops, garlic & chili shrimps, kimchi mandu and ebi fry.

The round, pink thingy next to the bento boxes is red bean mochi which I bought from my local Asian store.

Peking Pork Chops
Adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Marinade

500 grams pork tenderloin, cut into bite sized pieces
1 egg
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1/2 tablespoon plum sauce
1/2 tablespoon chili sauce
1/4 teaspoon sweet bean sauce, or Hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons black vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
small pinch of Chinese Five Spice powder, optional
2 tablespoons water

Marinade pork with Shaoxing wine, salt, egg and cornstarch for 30 minutes.
In a separate bowl, mix the sauce ingredients. Set sauce mixture aside.
Deep fry the pork slices until golden brown. Set aside.
Bring sauce to a quick boil. Toss in the deep fried pork slices, stir and coat well with the sauce.
Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Garlic and Chili Shrimps

500 grams shrimps
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoons chopped (seeded) chili
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
Sugar and white pepper to taste

Heat the oil. Add chopped garlic and chili. Stir-fry until fragrant.
Add shrimps and stir well.
Add Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar and white pepper.
Cook for another minute and turn off the heat. Serve.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone who celebrates it :)! I think the opening theme of the film 'Once Upon a Time in China' suits the atmosphere of Chinese New Year well. Enjoy the music!

Little Bear and Puppy Hamburger Bento

2012-01-15T18:51:00.000+01:00

Wow, today's bento has got no rice in it...;)!! I have actually made a hamburger bento in the past when I just started bentoing, it was my 4th bento. I do like eating hamburger, but I have to admit that I am more a rice and noodle person than a bread/sandwich person, that's why most of my bento boxes usually always feature either something with rice or noodles.

One big advantage of this type of bento (burger/sandwich) is that it's quite simple to make - I at least think that it's easier than moulding rice with plastic wrap to create a cute character. So if you're a real beginner in the bento arena, you should start with this type of bento.

For the little bear hamburger, I used cheese, nori and deli meat to create the facial features. A decorating tip or a fat straw would come in handy to cut out the circles. I cut out the nori for the eyes manually, but if you have a nori punch, it would be a great help!

The puppy hamburger is decorated with cheese and nori for the eyes, nose and eyebrows and tomato for the tounge. The pink cheeks are made out of deli meat and the ears are cheddar cheese.

I made the hamburger patties with a recipe which I created myself out of the blue. They tasted great though, so don't be scared to give this recipe a shot...!

Hamburger Patties - makes 8 -10 patties

500 grams ground beef/pork
1 egg
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
Pepper and sugar to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Divide into portions and make into patties. Pan-fry until each side of the patties is golden brown.

Surprised Rilakkuma Bento

2012-01-14T17:48:00.004+01:00

I think my Rilakkumas look more worried than surprised...;)???

The last time I made Rilakkuma-themed bento was around half a year ago. Since Rilakkuma is pretty easy to make and it's quite cute too, whenever I am stuck on what to make or whenever I am too lazy to do something more complicated, Rilakkuma is a good choice I think :).

I cut out the white and dark yellow cheese Rilakkuma with my teddy bear cutter. As usual, the eyes, nose and mouth are made out of nori. The surprised cheese Rilakkuma are sitting on top of fried rice onigiri. The two Rilakkuma bears in the middle are made out of fried rice, each of them is holding a Rilakkuma food pick :).

I also had three homemade pan-fried kimchi mandu, cherry tomatoes, rucola, a few slices of cucumber, a few pieces of strawberries, grapes and mango cubes.

I have made some Rilakkuma-themed bento lunches in the past, if you are curious to see them, here they are:

Festive Spring Bento

Rilakkuma Picnic Bento

Rilakkuma Inari Sushi Bento

Rilakkuma & Co Bento

Tiger Rilakkuma Bento

Koala Rilakkuma Bento

Dragon Rilakkuma Bento

Have a great weekend :)! I hope I can come up with another bento tomorrow, so stay tuned :)!

Super Easy Elmo Bento

2012-01-07T18:15:00.006+01:00

I have never been a fan of Sesame Street, but since my little niece LOVES Elmo, I created this bento including a tutorial as well, so that my sister can recreate this super easy tomato-Elmo at home for her daughter.

A few days ago I received my packet from Bento USA. One of the things I got are these cute Alphabet & Number Cutters. These are perfect for bentos because these cutters are very small and suitable for cutting out ham and cheese for edible bento decorations. Starting from now on I can also write short messages in my bento box, how fun...:)!!

Since my bento-theme today is Elmo, I cut out 'ELMO' using the Alphabet cutters above. I also added some black toasted sesame seeds on top of the letters to make them look less plain.

The cherry tomato-Elmos are sitting on top of a bed of rice covered with nori. The musical notes are made out of blanched carrot and the leaves are cucumber skin. The right bento box contains chicken with spicy sesame sauce, Mum's 'instant' fried noodles, stir-fried string beans with ground pork (which unfortunately look too dark to be seen), blanched broccoli, blanched carrot flowers, one mini pepper, half a tomato and flower ham.

When I was a little girl I loved to eat instant noodles (well, I still do ;)) and my mother didn't like the idea at all and she always told me how bad and unhealthy instant noodles were. To persuade me to stop eating instant noodles, my mum created delicious homemade 'instant' fried noodles. Afterwards I always asked her to make me a small bowl of her instant noodles whenever I felt hungry before it's lunch or dinner time ;). Well, unfortunately during my university time, when I lived away from home, I returned to eating instant noodles again...;).

Chicken with Spicy Sesame Sauce
Adapted from 'Chinese Cuisine' by Su Huei Huang (Wei Chuan Cookbook)

2 chicken breast fillets
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon sesame paste (or peanut butter)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger root
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chili oil

Boil water in a large pot. Put chicken in the water. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove chicken and retain broth for other use. When the chicken is cool, cut into bite-size pieces. Arrange on a seving plate.
Separately, heat oil in a wok. Add ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the other ingredients (except the chicken). Mix well and cook for 1 minute.
Pour the sauce on top of the chicken and serve.

Mum's 'Instant' Fried Noodles

1 package fresh ramen noodles
2 tablespoons 'Schweineschmalz' (or pork oil - which you can get by frying pork lard)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
Salt and white pepper to taste
Chopped green onions

Heat the pork oil. Add ramen noodles and mix well with the pork oil.
Add soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, salt and pepper. Cook for 30 seconds.
Toss in the chopped green onions. Mix well and serve.

BENTO TUTORIAL

How to make Elmo with Cherry Tomatoes

WHAT YOU NEED

NOTE - Small kitchen scissors will make your life easier when you have to cut out tiny shapes. Make sure that you use a kitchen tweezer - this means, please use it for food purposes only and don't double use it to pluck your eyebrows too, it's yucky...;)!!

Cut out the mini pepper with a decorating tip to make the nose.
With the same decorating tip, cut out the goat cheese to make the eyes.
Assemble the eyes and nose on top of the cherry tomato with a kitchen tweezer.
Fold the nori and cut out a round shape with kitchen scissors to make the black iris. Note: Folding the nori will make sure that you only have to cut out the eyes once and the size of both eyes will be the same.
Cut a U shape out of the nori with kitchen scissors.
Add the iris and mouth to make ELMO. Finito :)!

A Box of Love Bento

2012-01-01T17:25:00.002+01:00

I thought I'd blog more that I am on holiday, but I was wrong. Practically I've spent my days off doing nothing but watching war-related films/series...;). What a way to celebrate the festive season...;)!

Do you know 'Grave of the Fireflies'? I watched the live-action and totally cried my eyes out. I have the animation too but haven't watched it yet, I read that it's also extremely sad. I found a really good mini-series as well called '99 Years of Love: Japanese American'. The story is like a mixture of 'Gone with the wind' by Margareth Mitchell and 'The Good Earth' by Pearl.S.Buck.

Anyway, back to today's post... I finally managed to make a bento lunch again this morning after being absent from bento making for more than a week. At least I wanted to have something nice to celebrate the new year :).

The bento box consists of one puppy onigiri, three homemade ebi fries, pickled cucumber and carrot salad topped with rabbit-shaped papaya, two shrimp temari sushi, one egg, cheese daisy, strawberries and parsley for garnish.

Ebi Fry - makes 12

12 large shrimps
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Set the eggs, flour and bread crumbs in three different shallow bowls.
Add oyster sauce, salt and pepper to the egg bowl and mix well.
One at a time, dredge the shrimp in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture and coat with the bread crumbs.
Repeat step 3 one more time (optional).
Deep-fry the shrimps until golden brown.

Pickled Cucumber and Carrot Salad

Cucumber - thinly sliced
Carrot - julienned
Salt
Sugar
Vinegar
Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Directions

Cucumber pickles

Sprinkle the cucumber slices with salt. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Remove excess liquid from the cucumber and rinse with water. Pat dry.
Add vinegar and sugar to taste. Mix well.
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Easy Carrot pickles

Mix the julienned carrot with vinegar, salt and sugar to taste.
Set aside for 10 minutes before serving.
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

I wish you all a very happy new year 2012 :D)!!

And the winners are...

2011-12-27T19:25:00.004+01:00

(Click the picture above to find more details about the contest)

It was extremely hard for us to find the winners because all of you really did a good job and we know that every singe of you put in a lot of effort. I am awfully sorry that we could only choose two winners :(. I hope even though you didn't win this contest, you wouldn't feel too disappointed...!

To be honest I am glad that I didn't have to do the judging alone, because I am by no means an expert at bento making or the food arena in general. We, judges, didn't always agree with our choices of the winners ;), but in the end we just had to find the two winners...

And the winners are.........

*Roll drums*

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Congratulations Tataya from Thailand for winning the 1st prize

and Yunita from Indonesia for winning the 2nd prize... :)!!

And of course not forgetting our lucky winner:

Number 45, congratulations!!

You're Haku from France :)!

Winners, congratulations one more time :). I will contact you via e-mail shortly regarding shipping. Casabento will send the prizes to your door in January.

Crazy Christmas Bunny Bento

2011-12-22T22:12:00.006+01:00

Finally I had the time to make a Xmas-themed bento, even though it doesn't look too obvious ;). I wanted to make a cute, yawning bunny, but I failed horribly and in the end it looks more like a crazy bunny ;). I spent hours trying to fix his eyes because he always looked so angry - now he looks more presentable for Christmas, before he looked more like a Halloween bunny ;). Sorry for the rather blurry photos, It was already dark by the time I finished making this bento. I had to use artificial lightning to photograph this bento and the result is not very pretty. Look at those horrible looking gyozas... :(!

I used my new bento box from CasaBento. If you're my long time reader, you would have noticed that I have a thing for wooden bento boxes - I think they look gorgeous! This Moriki bento box is my third wooden bento box :).

This bento box has two compartments. The top part is made of plastic and it includes a plastic lid as well.

It has a small food cup inside.

What I like about the food cup is that it's removable.

If you like traditional bento boxes like I do, you should definitely check out CasaBento's site. It has a quite big selection of beautiful traditional bento boxes.

Do you see those sunflower food picks? I made them myself :)! Aren't they gorgeous? They're extremely easy to make, you just need your favourite stickers and some toothpicks.

Bunny Onigri

Rice
Ground toasted black sesame seeds - to make the black spots
Eyes: cheese and nori
Nose: nori and ground sesame seeds
Whiskers: cellophane noodles
Mouth: ham
Teeth: cheese
Red hat: mini red pepper

This crazy bunny simply couldn't wait to try the delicious mapo tofu which I made for lunch today :).

Happy Holidays, everyone :)!

BENTO CONTEST

If you participated in my bento contest, you can read an update regarding the contest over here: Bento Contest. I'd like to thank everyone who had participated. There're 60 entries in total and they're all amazing, we'd have a hard time picking out the winners...!!

Mapo Tofu Ramen

2011-12-22T19:22:00.005+01:00

Ingredients

200 grams soft tofu, cut into cubes
200 grams ground pork/beef
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons chilli oil
1 tablespoons chilli powder (or more if you like it extra fiery)
1 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoons minced ginger
2 tablespoons chilli-bean paste
2 tablespoons cooking wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorn powder
1 teaspoon corn flour (mixed with 1 tbs water)
Chopped green onions
200 grams ramen noodles, cooked according to package instructions

Directions

Heat 2 tbs oil. Add the minced garlic, ginger and ground pork. Stir fry until fragrant. Add cooking wine, soy sauce and fish sauce.
Then add tofu, chilli oil, chilli bean paste, chilli powder and sugar.
When it boils, add in the corn flour mixture to thicken the sauce.
Serve on top of ramen noodles.
Garnish with chopped green onions and Szechuan peppercorn powder. You can also add julienned cucumber and soft-boiled egg.

Spicy Beef Bulgogi with Shimeji Mushrooms Bento

2011-12-19T18:59:00.003+01:00

How do you like my new tiffin bento box which I bought from Amazon.de? I am in love with this box because it looks very simple yet sophisticated and elegant :).

I made this bento meal for my husband yesterday. If you have seen my Marie Antoinette bento post, you'd notice that all the main and side dishes in this bento are exactly the same as the ones in my Marie Antoinette bento. This is because I made both bento boxes on the same day.

This time I used Maangchi's Beef Bulgogi recipe, but we wanted it spicy, so I added a few tablespoons of gochujang and chili pepper flakes to the bulgogi marinade. I also added minced pear for natural sweetness.

Spicy Beef Bulgogi with Shimeji Mushrooms
Adapted from Maangchi

500 grams thinly sliced beef
200 grams shimeji mushrooms
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 pear, minced
1/2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
1 tablespoons chili pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 green onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced

Directions

Mix all ingredients together (except the shimeji mushrooms) and marinade for 2 hours (I did mine in 30 minutes and it was fine too...!!)
Grill or stir fry the beef bulgogi for a few minutes.
Add the shimeji mushrooms and cook together with the beef for another 2 minutes.
Serve with rice and toasted sesame seeds.

REMINDER

My Bento Contest will end tomorrow, 20th December 2011, at midnight GMT+1. You still have one day to go if you want to participate in the contest.

You may send me an older bento photo as well, as long as you have never submitted this photo to another contest.

If you haven't got a confirmation e-mail from me within 24 hours after submitting your bento photo, you should let me know by sending an e-mail to cookinggallery@yahoo.de - in case that your submission goes to my spam filter...

So far here are the bento photos from all the contestants. I think they're all really creative, I am sure we'd have a hard time choosing the winners...! Enjoy looking at the lovely bentos :D)!

You can also go to my Flickr Page to read more about the contestants' bentos :).

Marie Antoinette Bento

2011-12-18T20:10:00.004+01:00

Yes, call me crazy. I just ate the head of Marie Antoinette...!

Oh well, she doesn't actually even look like the real Marie Antoinette. My husband said it absolutely doesn't look like her. But hey, it wasn't my intention to replicate Marie Antoinette's real face, I simply wanted to make a Marie Antoinette-themed bento, thus the big, curly white hair, the ship on her hair, some lacy ribbons and the French flag (which certainly didn't exist yet when she was queen). She was after all the Queen of Fashion of her time, and her coiffure was a hit among the noble women, even though nowadays, I doubt that a lot of women would willingly put a few toy-sized ships on their heads ;). But due to my husband's rather discouraging comment, I am sure I'll make another Marie Antoinette-themed bento in the future ;). I'll make sure that her hair would be much bigger, higher and curlier ;).

Here she reminds me of Ganguro girls...;)!!

Why did I choose Marie Antoinette as my bento's theme? Well, it's because when I was a little girl I used to be 'crazy' about everything Marie Antoinette due to the manga series, "Rose of Versailles" by Riyoko Ikeda which I read and treasured. I got hooked on the story of her life and did a lot of research about her and on the French Revolution in general. But I would never have imagined that one day I would make Marie Antoinette's head out of food...!

Anyway, it was a bit weird to dig in something that looked like a human's face, I felt like a cannibal ;). I had to remove all the facial details from her face before I could eat it. It was an extremely yummy lunch though - not very French (well, actually not French at all ;)) since I had spicy beef bulgogi with kimchi, ebi fry and salad. Next time I make a Marie Antoinette bento, I should prepare something really French, so that it would be a real hardcore Marie Antoinette bento and my husband wouldn't have any reasons to say otherwise ;). I should start checking some French recipes from Charles from Five Euro Food and Sissi from With A Glass :).

I hope you enjoy looking at this rather unusual bento of mine - you know, I usually just make 'cute' character bentos or traditional ones.

Some information on how to make the Marie Antoinette onigiri:

Face: rice seasoned with soy sauce
Hair: rice
Ribbons: imitation crab with nori
Ship: goat cheese with nori and gouda cheese
Eyes: goat cheese and nori. The eyeballs are from goat cheese coloured with blue food colouring (no, I didn't eat the eyes...!)
Lips: imitation crab

I think most of you should know who Marie Antoinette is since a few years ago she was popularised by the movie 'Marie Antoinette' with Kirsten Dunst as the lead actress - unfortunately not a really great film, the story line is a bit ughh and it doesn't really tell the story of Marie Antoinette's life at all. The only scenes I can remember from the film are simply the ones when she's partying and partying and partying with 'I love Candy' as the background music. Sophia Coppola shouldn't title the movie 'Marie Antoinette' but 'The Party Life of Marie Antoinette' instead ;). Sorry if you like the film, I am just stating my opinion...:-).

Oh, by the way, if you don't know who Marie Antoinette is, just hop over to Wikipedia :).

Enjoy your weekend. I am glad I'll have my Xmas holidays soon :), it's totally overdue!!!

Two Puppies Bento

2011-12-17T17:38:00.003+01:00

HELLO! My name is Boo and my favourite food is ebi fry :).

Another puppy-themed bento for a gloomy Saturday's lunch. It took me around 2 hours making those two puppy-onigiris that this lunch became my dinner too - I started making the bento quite late, that's why.

Both puppy-shaped onigiris are filled with eby fry and I used nori and cheese for the facial details. Like last time, I used Tonkatsu sauce to brown the puppies. The tounge of the right puppy is made out of umeboshi (Japanese pickled plum), if you're curious.

I ate the eby fry together with Cooking with Dog's style Tartar sauce, deviled egg, homemade kimchi and some slices of cherry tomatoes.

Cooking with Dog's Tartar Sauce
Source: Cooking with Dog

1 Boiled Egg
2 tbsp Minced Onion
2 tbsp Minced Parsley
1 Small Pickled Cucumber
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
⅙ tsp Salt
2 tsp Lemon Juice

Oh, by the way, my name is Tobi. My creator told me to let you all know how thankful she was with your support in the bento contest which she joined some time ago. She didn't win the contest but she managed to grab the judges' attention and got a special award and a gift voucher too :D)! Many, many thanks, everyone :). If you are into bento making, and especially if you're located in the US and Canada, you should check out BENTO USA by AllThingsForSale, as the store has got various types of cute bento accessories :).

To end today's post, I'd like to say thank you to Neko from Amaineiko's blog who gave me the 'Back & Kochaward' - this means 'Baking and Cooking Award' :). Hey, Neko, I even know the girl in the snowglobe, she's Emma :). I used to read the manga, you remind me that I haven't finished reading the whole manga series...!

Cute Puppy Bento

2011-12-10T16:57:00.002+01:00

Aren't you all happy that it's weekend? I absolutely am...:)!! Unfortunately I always feel that it's much too short, especially in winter when everything is already dark by five.

The last time I made charaben was about 2 weeks ago, it's indeed time to make something cute again... A puppy...:)! I have always wanted to have a dog, but I don't because it's too much work. Since I can't have one, I made one myself...;). This is just the kind of dog I like...

Cuteness overload...:D)!!!

The little puppy is made out of rice and the brown spot is tonkatsu sauce. The eyes are made out of nori and cheese, the nose of nori and the little tounge of ham. I also had three fried panko-coated shrimps which I bought from my local Asian market and a few pieces of cherry tomatoes.

I wish you all a great weekend!

Prawn Cakes and Chasu Bento

2011-12-06T18:59:00.002+01:00

I made this bento at the weekend, on the same day I made the spicy shoyu ramen, thus the blurry photo...! I actually just bought a 'daylight studio set', but I haven't tried it yet, I hope this will help me make better pictures in the evenings...

This bento was for my husband as he's not very fond of noodle soups. But he still got my ramen toppings, chasu and prawn cakes ;). The recipe of my prawn cakes is exactly the same as the recipe of my mum's shrimp balls, but instead of white bread cubes, I use panko. My husband also had blanched arugula seasoned with soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds, soy-sauce seasoned egg, cherry tomatoes, blanched carrots, slices of cucumber, radish and mandarin.

Spicy Shoyu Ramen

2011-12-03T18:30:00.001+01:00

I had been waiting for the weekend to come because I wanted to try Nami's version of Spicy Shoyu Ramen which I saw on her Monday's post. I love this ramen because it's pretty simple to make and the flavour is quite rich too. Unfortunately I had to omit the chicken stock because I didn't have it, but the mixture of dashi, soy sauce and chili bean paste was good enough for me :).

I am not very happy with my photos though, it was so dark and gloomy today, I hardly could make presentable pictures. I had to sharpen and filled the photos with some light to make them passable to see, but as you can see, they're still pretty blurry.

Anyway, back to ramen making now...!

Spicy Shoyu Ramen - serves 2

Adapted from Just One Cookbook

2 packages ramen noodle, cooked according to package instructions
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ inch ginger, minced
2 teaspoon spicy chili bean paste with chili (la doubanjiang)
4 cups dashi stock (I used dashi powder + water)
2 ½ tablespoon soy sauce
½ tablespoon sake
1 teaspoon sugar

Toppings

Homemade Chashu
Homade crispy prawn cakes
1 soy sauce-soaked boiled egg
Chopped green onion
2 Nori sheets
Naruto maki (I used regular fishcakes)
Blanched mushrooms
Blanced arugula
Blanched carrot flowers
Toasted sesame seeds
White pepper

Directions

Heat sesame oil in a pot. Add garlic and ginger and saute until aromatic.
Add the chili bean paste and stir-fry for around 1 minute.
Pour dashi stock, sake and sugar.
Cook for 2 minutes then simmer until all your toppings and ramen noodles are ready.

Please VOTE for my Bento Photos :)!!

2011-12-01T19:05:00.006+01:00

Hi everyone, two of my bento photos managed to get into the top 15 of the "Food Deco Contest" by Allthingsforsale.com. You would do me a great favour if you could help me vote for these two pictures in Facebook. Here are the simple steps:

Click this link http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.269819619735411.87650.161843023866405&type=3
Look for my two photos.
"Like" them.

As I have mentioned in my Facebook page, I can't really give you anything in return for this favour, but a promise to make you smile with more of my bento creations :).

MANY, MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE :D)!!

Angelic Hello Kitty Bento

2011-11-27T16:09:00.001+01:00

Please welcome my new Matryoshka bento box, isn't it adorable :)? I bought this bento box weeks ago from Bento&Co. I had to unfortunately pay a quite expensive customs fee because this box was sent from Japan. If you're located in Europe, I recommend you to buy this box from CasaBento, because it's less expensive in total (i.e. shipping fee, no customs fee, etc) and it would arrive much sooner at your door. I found out too late that CasaBento has this bento box too in their shop :(.

Anyway, today I made a Hello Kitty-themed bento. Both kitties were cut out using a teddy bear cutter (for the bear suit) and an oval-shaped cutter (for the face) - the kitties are from cheese by the way. I decorated them with nori (eyes, whiskers, etc), chili sauce (cheeks and the red dots on the dresses), cheese (nose), cucumber (green flowers on the dresses) and carrot (for the wings or coat or whatever they're ;)).

The left box contains cucumber salad, kimchi, cucumber border, mini schnitzel, egg, carrot flowers and boiled shrimps.

There is also some Indonesia-style chicken 'Ayam Bumbu Rujak' in the round box - I used instant spices to make this ;), cucumber slices, tomatoes and mandarin slices.

Smiling Frogs Bento

2011-11-26T18:19:00.001+01:00

This Smiling Frogs Bento was my lunch :). Making the frogs is very easy as long as you have a teddy bear cutter for the face. I used my decorating tips to make various circles from cheese and ham for the facial features and a nori punch for the eyes.

This bento is pretty healthy as you can see. Lots of greens and protein ;). Yesterday my husband and I went to Okinii, a new Japanese restaurant which specialises on sushi and teppanyaki. We have been there three times and so far we've been very happy with the foods and service. My husband and I tried their grilled beef with teriyaki sauce last night and we're impressed by how tender and moist the meat was.

This morning I noticed that we had some fresh beefsteak in the fridge at the right moment when I was busy thinking of what to make for lunch. Then I remembered the grilled beef from Okinii, so I tried to recreate this dish again, my way.

Beefsteak with White Wine Teriyaki Sauce

2 beefsteak filet, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
50 ml white wine
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Sugar and pepper to taste
Chopped green onions

Directions

Heat oil in skillet.
Toss in beef cubes and stir-fry until the beef is slightly brown.
Add white wine and mix well.
Add soy sauce, sugar and pepper and cook the beef until the sauce thickens.
Garnish with chopped green onions.

I also had bell-pepper/tomato/egg salad, Tomato & corn-salad tamagoyaki, pan-fried gyoza and cucumber & red-onion salad.

By the way, don't forget the bento contest :D)! So far I have received two very cute entries. You can see the bento pictures in my Flickr group over here :).

Macaroni with Spicy Bolognese Sauce

2011-11-24T20:23:00.001+01:00

After I saw Sissi's Ragu alla Bolognese, I really felt like eating pasta alla Bolognese again. So, yes, don't get me wrong, I don't only eat Asian foods ;)! My Bolognese sauce typically uses ground meat, tomato paste, chopped onion, peeled canned tomatoes, red wine, a little bit of cream and some chopped oregano and basil. However, this time I added some olives and fresh tomatoes instead of canned ones to 'clean out' my fridge - I have the tendency to have too many things in my fridge and freezer ;). I also added a bit of soy sauce and thyme as Sissi did - love the addition of flavours, Sissi :)!

Spicy Bolognese Sauce

300 gr ground beef/pork
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 - 6 fresh medium sized tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
100 ml cream
100 ml red wine
10 - 15 olives, halved
3 tablespoons Tabasco
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Chicken stock, pepper and sugar to taste
Dried thyme
Grated parmesan cheese

I am so glad it's Friday tomorrow...! It's getting very cold over here and I get tired more easily. I always think to hide and sleep under my blanket instead of going off to work ;). Anyway, I wish you all a nice evening! See you Saturday, I am sure I will make another bento at the weekend :).

Gyudon Bento

2011-11-22T19:52:00.006+01:00

Here I am again with a new bento :). My appearance in the blogsphere has been quite erratic the last few months, my job has taken its toll on me I guess... I hope I would feel more relaxed after Christmas!

This is a simple bento which I made last weekend. To be true, I really enjoy making simple, traditional bento, because it doesn't take too much time to make, it's delicious and quite attractive too. I love making charaben as well, because I simple love cute things ;), but with no children at home and only a husband who would pull a long face whenever he sees pink rice with a bear shape in his bento box ;), I've started to make more 'adult bentos' - I think I exaggerated a little bit and have made too many charabens in the past few months ;). FYI, both my husband and I never bring our bento to work, in case you're wondering if my husband really has been going to work with a bento box which contains pink bear-shaped rice with cheese flowers and butterflies in his suitcase ;). I normally make my bento at the weekend, when I have more time to spare. During the weekdays I don't usually cook and we normally eat out or order something from home.

I got this pretty bento box from Bento&Co some time ago but hadn't had the chance to use it until last weekend. I had rice topped with toasted sesame seeds, pickled ume (plum) and a few slices of orange and grapes for dessert. I ate the rice together with gyudon, which unfortunately looks a bit dry in the picture. I guess I took too long to photograph it ;). The taste itself was great though, but next time I'll try not to add beaten egg on top of the beef and use the method from Cooking with Dog instead - onsen tamago (hot spring egg) on top of beef sounds delicious! Oh, and it just came into my mind, I probably shouldn't call this beef dish 'gyudon', because I don't put the beef on top of the rice. I suppose Nami from Just One Cookbook can tell me the answer ;)?

Gyudon
Adapted from Cooking with Dog

200g thinly sliced beef
Shirataki noodles *optional
1/2 Onion
5 g Ginger
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Sake
1tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Hon-Mirin
100 ml Water
1/2 tsp dashi powder
2 eggs
Beni Shoga - Japanese Pickled Ginger
Shichimi - Seven Flavour Chili Pepper
Chopped green onions

MY BENTO CONTEST

2011-11-19T12:58:00.009+01:00

Finally the time has come :)! I've been so crazy busy lately that I've not had the chance to officially announce the bento contest that I've been talking about since last week. I am so excited, because this is my first bento contest ever :D). I am incredibly lucky that CasaBento has generously offered to sponsor this contest and the talented Lia from Bentolicious and the sweet Nami from Just One Cookbook have agreed to help me co-host this event.

CONTEST DETAILS

Photo: Take a good, clear picture of your bento.
Theme: Let your imagination fly :). Can be anything really, it doesn't have to be a charaben either, tradional, modern or whatever kind of style is fine as long as it's a meal in a box/container.
Description: Please include a description of what you have inside your bento.
Contact Details: Include your name or nick, e-mail address and the country where you come from to be eligible for the competition. If you have a food blog, you can also post your entry there and send me the link, but you're still expected to e-mail me your photo, description and contact information to enter the contest officially.
Limit: 1 entry per person
Send your entry to: Cookinggallery@yahoo.de
Can everyone (worldwide) participate? YES
Contest Period: 19th November 2011 - 20th December 2011

CasaBento, Lia, Nami and I will judge your bento photo based on the following criteria:

Food Balance: We'll not only look at how cute or pretty your bento is, but also if your bento is well balanced. Let's say, a bit of carb, meat, veggies, fruit, etc instead of just rice with a cute nori face.
Colour Balance: People would be more attracted to your bento (including us, judges) if your bento doesn't look too dull.
Creativity: Impress us with your creativity :)!

PRIZES
I chose the following prizes myself. I hope you like them :).

The 1st prize: 1 Totoro bento box, 1 set of Totoro cutlery (chopsticks, spoon and fork), 1 blue thermal bag, 1 Winnie the Pooh pancake pan, 1 set of bento picks, 1 set of mini sauce bottles and 1 set of mini sandwich cutters.

The 2nd prize: 1 big Yume Sakura bento box, 1 small Yume Sakura bento box, 1 Yume Sakura bento bag with matching chopsticks.

I hope a lot of people would participate in this contest and if you're not so confident in your bento making skills, there's still a chance that you might win the fantastic book 'The Just Bento Cookbook' from Makiko Itoh, the writer of the wonderful and informative sites Justbento.com and Justhungry.com, because I will also draw one random winner using random.org. (NOTE: The 1st and 2nd winners would not be eligible for this)

After I have received your photo including the decription and your contact information, I will post your photo in this Flickr group, so that all of you can see all the entries.

I will announce the winners on Tuesday, 27th December 2011.

Good luck everyone :D)!!

By the way, I'd like to hear what you think about the bento items I chose for the prizes. Do you think that they're something that you would like to add to your bento collections? If not, please do give me some feedbacks on what kind of prizes you would like next time I do another contest or giveaway. Browse CasaBento site and suggest me some items you would love to have from there. Thank you :-)!

UPDATE

You will receive a confirmation e-mail from me that I have received your photo. If you sent me a picture but haven't heard anything from me, please let me know...!!

Another UPDATE :)

This contest is closed. Thank you for participating :)!! There are 60 submissions in total, I didn't expect there would be so many people who would join in the contest, especially because my contest was held at one of the busiest times of the year...^-^.

The slideshow below shows all 60 pictures from the bento contest participants.

You can also check out my Flickr Page to see what the participants say about their bentos.

I will announce the 3 winners on the 27th of December 2011, so stay tuned :D)! Currently Casabento, Nami, Lia and I are still having a headache - we don't really know which photos to choose because all of you did such a marvelous job with your bento creations...;)!!

My 100th Bento - Happy Children Bento

2011-11-13T11:17:00.000+01:00

Yay! I finally made my 100th bento :)!! It took AGES to make this, but in the end it was worth it, because I think my 100th bento looks pretty cute and festive.

To be honest, I had no idea what to make for my 100th bento. I really liked Nami's idea (from Just One Cookbook) that I should make all the characters I have made so far into one huge celebratory bento. I would actually even do it if I had the time (and the nerves!), but I think I would die in the process ;). So in the end I resolved to do something much simpler but cute enough - little children in animal suits ;).

The children-shaped rice balls (uupps ;)!!) are dyed with decofuri, except the yellow tiger suit, which I coloured with curry powder. As far as I know decofuri is made with natural ingredients, such as edamame for green, pumpkin for orange, etc. But I am not so sure, please do correct me if I am wrong!

All onigiris are filled with chicken katsu with mayo. Eating plain rice is not very yummy as know. So this bento is absolutely not bland in taste :). The 100 numerals are from carrot and cheese. It could have looked much better if I had numeral cutters...:(.

In the other box, I had some teriyaki drumsticks, tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), three radishes and pan-fried prawn and kimchi fritters. My husband loved the fritters - which unfortunately don't look so visible in the pictures. The recipe is very simple even though I don't have the exact measurements, so the recipe below is just based on my estimation). I am very Asian when I cook, I always use my gut feelings - probably the reason why I never really succeed in baking ;).

Prawn and Kimchi Fritters

100 prawns, chopped
50 grams kimchi, chopped
1 egg
100 gram flour
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped red onions

Directions

Mix all ingredients well. Drop fritter batter by spoonfuls into an oiled pan and fry until both sides of the fritters are golden brown.

I my previous post I mentioned that I wanted to do something special to celebrate my 100th bento. I have given this some thoughts and I came to the conclusion that holding a bento contest would be the most fun (for me ;)). Everybody around the world would be able to participate and since CasaBento has very kindly offered to sponsor this contest, there will be some super nice bento goodies as well for the winners. I have also asked two very talented ladies from the blogsphere, Nami from Just One Cookbook and Lia from Bentolicious, to help me co-host the contest. I am greatly honoured and touched by their willingness to help me doing my first bento contest...!! I will officially announce the bento contest inclusive the details on how to enter in the near future. So please stay tuned :D)!!

Szechuan Noodles with Spicy Meat Sauce

2011-11-12T21:59:00.001+01:00

I have not been posting for a while because I was stuck on what to make for my 100th bento ;). Finally I made my 100th bento today, but I'll post about it tomorrow. For now, I am simply posting a noodle dish which I whipped up last week. Basically it's got the same recipe as my Szechuan Noodles with Wontons and Meatballs, but I added some boiled shrimps and soy-sauced seasoned boiled egg this time minus the wontons. If you're a noodle-lover like me, this is a must-try recipe. It's extremely simple to make but very flavoursome.

Ingredients - serves 2

400 g Udon noodles
250 g ground pork
100 chopped mushrooms
2 tbs fish sauce
3 tbs 'Fried pork with chili in oil' (click my previous Szechuan noodles recipe to see what it is.)
2 tbs oyster sauce
Pepper to taste
Frozen meatballs
Boiled shrimps and eggs - optional
Chopped green onions and fried onions for garnish

Directions

Heat 1 tbs oil in a wok.
Toss in the ground pork and mushrooms and stir fry until slightly brown.
Add fish sauce, 'fried pork with chili in oil', oyster sauce and pepper.
Simmer the meat sauce, stirring occasionally until cooked through.
Place cooked udon noodles in a bowl. Top with the meat sauce, cooked meatballs, shrimps and eggs. Garnish with green onions and fried onions.

Have a lovely evening and see you all tomorrow :)!

Bulgogi and Kimchi Bento

2011-11-03T17:59:00.001+01:00

This was our yesterday's lunch. I made bulgogi again, but the non-spicy version. I got the recipe from Maangchi and we loved it! Next time I'll try Aeri's version. Her recipe is very similar to Maangchi's but she uses pear juice as well, which I think would add nice extra sweetness to the bulgogi.

Bulgogi - Korean BBQ Beef
Adapted from Maangchi

500 grams beef, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons cooking wine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and marinade for at least 2 hours.
Grill or pan-fry the bulgogi.
Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving.

Since we haven't had kimchi for a while, I decided to make it again yesterday, especially because I thought it would be nice to eat Korean dishes with kimchi as a side dish. I used to make kimchi following Maangchi's recipe last year. It was a success and I even gave some to my MIL and she was thrilled. But this time I wanted to try another kimchi recipe which doesn't use glutinous flour porridge (I am too lazy to make it...!!). A few days ago when I browsed some kimchi recipes, I found Anna Kim's kimchi making video. I directly wanted to try her kimchi recipe when I saw that she used apple and pear in her kimchi. I love the idea of adding fruit to food for natural sweetness!

I tend to cook too much, as you can see, the other bento box has got some shrimp temari sushi again and some kimbap filled with leftover spicy bulgogi from the day before, cucumber sticks, carrot&cabbage salad and mayo.

Oh, by the way, I just realised that this bento is my 99th bento :D)! Wow! I started bentoing in February, I can't believe that I have made so many bento meals throughout the months...! How should I celebrate my 100th bento? Should I hold a bento competition with prizes ;)? Any ideas? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)!

Doejibulgogi - Korean Spicy Stir-Fried Pork Bento

2011-11-01T21:05:00.007+01:00

Korean Spicy Stir-Fried Pork or Doejibulgogi or Jeyuk bokkeum is my husband's absolute favourite Korean food. When I was still studying in Sydney, my husband (then boyfriend) visited me quite regularly and when he was there, we would go to the various food courts in China Town and tried different kinds of delicious Asian foods. We got to know Doejibulgogi in one of those food courts. We loved it that we always got kimchi and cabbage salad as side dishes for free everytime we bought something Korean - we were just poor students back then ;).

Since finding Korean restaurants in Germany is like looking for a needle in a haystack, I've converted to watching cooking videos from YouTube instead ;) and tried to make
Korean dishes myself at home. My references usually come from one these talented ladies: the cool Maangchi, Aeri from Aeri's Kitchen and Anna Kim from Korean Cuisine.

Spicy Stir-Fried Pork
Source: Aeri's Kitchen

2½ cups pork (Shoulder or Loin)
½ onion
2 green Onions
1 green hot pepper
1 red hot pepper

Pork Ingredients

1 Tbsp cooking wine
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Sauce Ingredients

5 Tbs gochujang (hot pepper paste)
1 Tbsp red pepper powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp minced garlic
¼ apple, minced
2 Tbsp sugar
½ Tbsp sesame oil

Check out this video from Aeri to see how to make Doejibulgogi.

We also had some shrimp temari sushi, Korean cabbage and carrot salad, cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, mini pepper and soy sauce-soaked hard-boiled egg. It was a great lunch...!

Crispy Duck Breast with Peanut Sauce Bento

2011-11-01T11:25:00.001+01:00

Fried crispy duck breast with peanut sauce is one of my husband's favourite Asian dishes. He likes to order this from our local Asian eatery. Asian food is generally fairly inexpensive in Germany, unfortunately this means most Asian foods here taste pretty much the same from one restaurant to another. This is one reason why I love to cook Asian foods myself at home.

Crispy Duck Breast

1 duck breast filet
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon flour

Directions

Rub the duck breast with salt, pepper and soy sauce.
Marinade for 10 - 15 minutes.
Coat the duck breast with flour. Fry duck breast until golden brown.

Peanut Sauce

4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 tablespoon sambal oelek (minced chili)
100 ml water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 - 2tablespoons sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 sweet bell pepper, sliced - *optional

Directions

Heat the wok and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil.
Add onion and pan-fry for 1 minute.
Add the rest of the ingredients, except bell peppers and lime juice. Cook for around 2 minutes.
Toss in the bell peppers and cook for another 1 minute.
Add lemon juice before serving. Mix well.

Do you see the pretty, round yellow ball on top of the rice? Guess what? It's a hard-boiled egg yolk! Don't ask me how to do it. When I peeled the egg, the egg yolk fell out by itself ;). I wish it happened all the time, because I don't really like egg-white that much.

Halloween Bento - Green Eyed Wizards

2011-10-31T19:29:00.001+01:00

To be honest, I have never celebrated Halloween in my life. Even though I am quite fond of watching thriller and horror films ;), I was never interested to join in the 'fun' of Halloween.

This is the first time that I make Halloween-themed meal, which, I am aware, looks more cute than scary :-). Well, I don't really like the idea of disgusting-looking food. It's interesting to see, but I don't think that I have the guts to eat something that looks like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs ;).

I have seen so many other bento sites with Halloween-themed bentos. Today I finally had the chance to make one as well!

I made two soy-sauce flavoured wizard rice balls. Somehow the wizards look a bit like Powerpuff Girls ;)! I guess, it's because of the humongous eyes! I used cucumber to make the green eyes, nori for the pupil and goat cheese for the shiny, starry-eyed look. The wizard's hat is from nori and cheese.

The three little Jack-o-lanterns are quail eggs which I coloured with orange food colouring. I also made two radish Jack Skellington look-alikes (next time I'll make the eyes bigger!)

Happy Halloween, everyone! I will spend the evening watching a horror film with my husband :-).

Basil Pesto Linguine with Crunchy Pork Cutlet

2011-10-30T19:37:00.010+01:00

Non-bento post today :-). I had thought about making another fusion pasta for some time, especially after my Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Spicy Ebi Fry was very well-received by my husband (and me:-)).

Here is the recipe:

Crunchy Pork Cutlet (Tonkatsu) - serves 2

2 pork fillets
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Set the eggs, flour and bread crumbs in three different shallow bowls.
Add oyster sauce, salt and pepper to the egg bowl and mix well.
One at a time, dredge pork filet in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture and coat with the bread crumbs.
Repeat step 3 one more time (optional).
Deep-fry the pork cutlets until golden brown.

Basil Pesto Linguine - serves 2

200 grams linguine, cooked to al dente
1/4 cup olive oil
2 seeded bird's eye chilies, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons store-bought (or fresh) basil pesto
15 olives, sliced
2 green peppers, seeded and sliced
4 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt, sugar and black pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Combine olive oil, garlic and chili in a skillet and cook under low heat for 8 - 10 minutes. The garlic should be golden brown and not burned.
Toss in the cooked linguine, basil pesto, olives, green peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, soy sauce, salt, sugar and pepper and mix thoroughly that the pasta is well coated with the oil.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Serve with pork cutlet, fried sunny-side up, cherry tomatoes and cheese flowers.
NOTE: I also added spicy mayo and julienned carrot and cabbage salad to eat together with the pork cutlet - this combo definitely made the pork cutlet taste yummier.

Coconut Chicken Bento

2011-10-24T18:51:00.005+02:00

Two days ago I made this bento for my husband. It contains rice sprinkled with black sesame seeds topped with umebosi, stir-fried coconut chicken, two rolls of chicken sushi maki, three pieces of pan-fried gyoza and salad.

My husband really liked the stir-fried coconut chicken. Unlike me who prefers her soups and noodles, he would always opt for wok dishes.

Stir-Fried Coconut Chicken - serves 2

2 chicken fillets, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon Maggi seasoning
1/4 cup cooking wine
1/2 cup coconut juice
1/2 cup cabbage, sliced thinly
1/2 cup chopped green onions
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Directions

Heat oil in a wok and saute chicken over medium high heat until lightly browned.
Add garlic, onion, cabbage, soy sauce, Maggi seasoning, salt, sugar and pepper. Stir-fry for around 2 minutes.
Pour in cooking wine and coconut juice and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Add green onions and stir lightly before serving.

Happy Brown Bears Bento

2011-10-22T17:25:00.001+02:00

Hey, guys! How are you all doing? I am enjoying my weekend here, even though I still need to finish some household chores like dusting and vacuuming the floor...:(

I made another bear-themed bento today, so boring I know, but at least the bears this week are brown and the the ones last week were white ;).

The brown bear onigiris are made from soy-sauce seasoned rice. The eyes are from konbu, nori and white rice and the nose from gouda cheese and the smiley from nori.

I also made some kimbap filled with tamagoyaki, crabstick, avocado and mayo. Kimbap tastes very similar to sushi, but the rice is seasoned quite differently. The rice for kimbap typically also uses some sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds, instead of just plain vinegar, salt and sugar.

I also had some homemade pan-fried gyoza, store-bought BBQ chicken wings and cucumber kimchi in my bento.

Two Hungry Bears Bento

2011-10-15T22:44:00.000+02:00

I had wanted to make another picnic bento for some time. Even though picnic bento requires more time to make, it's totally fun to see the end result - at least for me :). I thought about making many different types of onigiri with various colours, shapes and so on, but I got too lazy in the process, so I ended up making plain white onigiri only. Well, I did add a bit of chopped umeboshi (pickled plum) and chopped green onions to the triangular onigiri and toasted black sesame seeds to the round-shaped onigiri, just to make sure that my bento doesn't look too boring.

Yesterday I got this beautiful bento box from CasaBento. It's called 'Bento Box Petals Jyubako Red'. This bento box is perfect for picnic, because it's quite spacious (height: 11 cm, width: 19,3 cm and length: 19,3 cm).

As you can see the bento box has two compartments. The top part comes with a plastic lid on.

When you open the plastic lid, you'll see that top compartment has two extra small compartments which can be removed as you wish.

My triangular onigiris are filled with prawn tempura and mayonnaise and the circular onigiris are filled with chicken katsu and cucumber. If you have been following my blog for some time, I am sure you have noticed that I am very fond of tempura and chicken katsu, as they make their appearances in my bento boxes on a quite regular basis ;).

I also made tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) and this time, I added slices of black olives and chopped umeboshi and green onions - a real great combo by the way! I really like how the umeboshi makes the omelet tastes slightly sour :).

The two hungry bears are also onigiris filled with chicken katsu, cucumber and mayo. The hats worn by the bears are food picks which I also got from CasaBento. I think they look really adorable....)!!

Next to the bears are pasta salad (pasta, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, dried basil, black pepper, a pinch of sugar olive oil and chopped parsley) and a few slices of mandarin and two pieces of chocolate.

Pink Bunny-Bears Bento

2011-10-12T17:23:00.001+02:00

These two little creatures look like a hybrid of a bear and a rabbit, that's why I name this bento 'Pink Bunny-Bears Bento' :). This bento was made yesterday, mainly just for fun, really. I still had a bit of pink rice left after I made the Mameshiba bento, and I didn't want to throw it away, so I thought why not make another simple bento?

The two pink onigiri balls are filled with umeboshi (pickled plum). There is also a heart tamagoyaki decorated with cheese flower.

Deluxe Bento

2011-10-12T06:31:00.000+02:00

This is the other bento which I made yesterday. I call it 'Deluxe bento' because I think it looks quite festive :).

I don't use this bento box very often because it's very big, but I think it's great for special occasions, even though this bento wasn't made to celebrate anything.

So now let's see what's inside :) - rice sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and pickled plum (umeboshi), two pieces of fried kimchi dumplings, a few slices of carrot/green onion tamagoyaki, chicken katsu, salad (carrot and cucumber sticks) and chicken teriyaki.

Enjoy with a bowl of miso soup and a few slices of mandarin!

Mameshiba Bento

2011-10-11T16:54:00.001+02:00

I am amazed by how productive I have been (in the kitchen, that is) this week despite of not having any holidays...:-)! I even made 3 bento lunches today ;)!! This Mameshiba bento was the first one I made, I also made another more traditional one for my husband and the third one was a simple bento I created just for fun - but I'll save these two other bentos for another post :).

I have made a Mameshiba bento in the past. If you want to know what Mameshiba is, you can read it in my previous bento post featuring Mameshiba here.

I really like the little flowers with the little yellow birds - things you can do with cookie cutters...!! The flowers and birds are from cheese by the way, and the red dots are from chili sauce.

The other bento box is filled with chicken teriyaki, tamagoyaki, kimchi gyoza and salad.

Before I end this post, I would like to say thank you to Arudhi from A Box of Kitchen for passing me the Versatile Blogger Award :)!! She's got many beautiful recipes in her blog, do pay her a visit, it's worth it :D)!

I have just recently written 7 things about myself - so please hop over here if you're interested to read it :).

Till next time!!

Froggy Sushi Bento

2011-10-10T19:06:00.002+02:00

I made this bento yesterday: maki sushi filled with chicken katsu, lettuce, mayo, egg and kani, two slices of carrot/green onion tamagoyaki and frog quail eggs.

Cheeky Little Bears Bento

2011-10-08T22:48:00.002+02:00

This is another bento which I made yesterday. I used my bear sandwich cutter to cut out the bear shapes and I used a nori puncher to make the facial details.

The round bento box contains Korean-style stir-fried chicken, cucumber and grape tomatoes.

Little Chicks in Nappies Bento

2011-10-08T20:43:00.001+02:00

I had noticed that I have quite a lot of cookie/bento cutters which I hardly ever use. Since I didn't really know what to make anyway, I decided to experiment with my cutters and the little chicks in nappies bento is the result.

The chicks are made from gouda cheese, the beaks and the feet are from carrot, the hair and the eyes from nori, the red cheeks from chili sauce and the nappies from goat cheese.

The two mini umbrellas are made out of cucumber, decorated with goat cheese and nori.

The branch of the tree is from nori and the leaves from cucumber and the two mini hearts are from radish.

The other bento box is filled with store-bought fried shrimps coated with potato noodles, homemade ebi fry and Korean-style stir-fried chicken with green peppers.

Spicy Ramen with Pan-Fried Gyoza

2011-10-07T20:12:00.000+02:00

I love to make loads of dumplings in advance and then freeze them for future use - this can be very useful for days when you don't have any real time to cook something big. If you don't like to make homemade dumplings, then buy frozen ones, there are quite some good ones out there too.

This spicy ramen version of mine is very simple and only needs minimal preparation. The broth is only made with water, dashi powder, soy sauce, mirin and chili oil. Then I pan-fry my frozen homemade gyoza, add a semi boiled egg, a few slices of kamaboko (fish cake), chopped green onions and toasted sesame seeds and tadaah...: a delicious spicy ramen is ready to be consumed ;).

I intend to make another charaben tomorrow. But to be honest, I have not been so inspired lately, I don't have real motivation to make cute bentos either. What should I make next..?

By the way, I got an award from Melonpan a few days ago. Thank you so much, Manja :), you're too kind !! Apparently I have got to tell 7 things about myself. Hmm...At the moment I am not sure what to write, so let me just write some random stuffs about me.

I can be very childish.
I am often lazy too ;).
At the moment I am in love with Pip Studio products :)!
I love to hang around doing nothing, as have been mentioned above - I am lazy ...;).
I think I am not really able to multi-task - bad, bad, bad...!!
I am trilingual.
One day, I would really love to visit Japan and Korea for real, not just the airports ;).

Homemade Japanese Lunch

2011-10-06T18:18:00.002+02:00

I made this Japanese-style lunch last Sunday, that's why the menu is exactly the same as the 'Three Little Chicks Bento'. This lunch-set was for my husband because he does prefer 'normal-looking' lunch without any cute chicks or bears, etc ;).

Chicken Katsu, Agedashi Tofu, Miso Soup, Pan-fried Gyoza and Rice

I have not been cooking (and blogging) much lately, which in a way is not so bad I think, for I still do want to enjoy my non-virtual life. But I will certainly still keep this blog up and running and you will still see one or two (or maybe even three) posts per week.

Totoro Cake

2011-10-03T11:09:00.001+02:00

This is the Totoro cake that I made yesterday. I used fondant to make the Totoro figurines, flowers and leaves. The cake itself is choc-chip vanilla cake covered with dark chocolate.

I love the expression of the grey Totoro, I find him so adorable...:)!

I made the cake because today is a special day for both my husband and I. We'll see later if the cake is edible because I am absolutely no baker...;).

Three Little Chicks Bento

2011-10-02T16:39:00.000+02:00

Hi again, everyone! I have a day off tomorrow because it's the German reunification day, so happy that I have a long weekend :D)!

Today's bento is pretty simple. I think most people would be able to recreate the little chicks. You only need four ingredients for the little chicks: yellow-coloured cheese for the face, carrot for the beak, white-coloured cheese for the eyes and nori for the eyeballs and the lips.

I also made some pan-fried gyoza, miso soup and chicken katsu for the bento. It was a delicious lunch...:)!

Anyway, that's it for now. I want to continue decorating the cake which I made this morning - it's going to be a Totoro cake, so stay tuned :D)!

Rabokki - Korean Rice Cakes with Ramen Noodles

2011-10-01T19:25:00.001+02:00

I think most people who love Korean food are familiar with Ddeokbokki - cylinder-shaped Korean rice cakes cooked in hot pepper sauce. It's a popular Korean snack food.

Rabokki is another version of Ddeokbokki. Both are basically the same thing, but Rabokki includes ramen noodles. I got the Rabokki recipe from My Korean Kitchen - very unfortunate that the blogger stopped writing because I love her recipes...!

I couldn't find cylinder-shaped rice cakes in my local Asian market, so I had to make do with sliced rice cakes. I also added ramen noodles, store-bought Korean mandu, cabbage, fish cakes, egg, onion and green onions.

Ingredients - serves 4
Adapted from My Korean Kitchen

1 tablespoon oil
1 pack instant noodles
300 grams rice cakes
1 onion, sliced
4 leaves of cabbage, sliced
1 stalk of spring onion, sliced
8 instant dumplings
100 gram fish cakes
1 hard boiled egg
1 sachet dashi powder
4 tablespoons Gochujang (Hot Pepper Paste)
Sugar, to taste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
1½ cups of water

Directions

Heat oil in a skillet. Add garlic, onion and fish cakes and stir fry for one minute.
Add water, dashi powder and hot pepper paste. Mix well.
Toss in all other ingredients (except green onions) and cook for around 8 minutes.
Before you turn off the stove, add green onions and mix well.

Korean Fried Chicken Bento

2011-09-25T18:28:00.002+02:00

This is another bento which I made yesterday. The front bento box contains rice sprinkled with roasted nori and sesame seeds, parsley, carrot and cucumber sticks, radish and rolled ham with chesse/carrot/cucumber.

The other bento box is filled with Korean fried chicken and store-bought fried potato and shrimps rolled with noodles.

Boys Over Flowers Bento

2011-09-24T19:22:00.002+02:00

I told you some time ago that I have been watching some Korean drama series and the last one I've watched is 'Boys over Flowers' - a drama series based on the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango. I have to admit the story line is quite cheesy but it's addictive! Probably this is because I am actually simply a crazy romantic at heart ;).

One thing that caught my eyes in the series was the lunch box meals the main character made for her boyfriend. In Korean it's called Doshirak, which is basically the Korean version of Japanese bento boxes.

Source: beasia

The doshirak made by Jan Di, the main character in 'Boys over Flowers' for her boyfriend, Goo Joon Pyo.

I tried to imitate Jan Di's doshirak today for fun :). As you can see yourself, mine doesn't look too similar to the one in the film, because my rolled omelet doesn't look as good and I didn't have broccoli for the greens and I wasn't sure either what exactly are in Jan Di's doshirak, such as the smiley face and the rolled thingies.

There are supposed to be three lunch boxes shown in the drama but I could only see two of them, that's why for the third lunch box I filled it with Korean Fried Chicken and the recipe is of course adapted from the highly popular website of Maangchi.

Box 1: Rolled omelet with seaweed, pan-fried wiener sausages, rolled ham/cheese/carrot/cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, parsley

Box 2: Goo Joon Pyo shaped rice, parsley and quail eggs

Box 3: Korean Fried Chicken, parsley, lettuce and mandarin

I hope you enjoy this slightly different bento of mine. If you like 'Boys Over Flowers', I hope you'll enjoy seeing this bento/doshirak too :)!

Penguin Bears Bento

2011-09-18T21:08:00.001+02:00

I made another bento today, isn't that great? I thought I would be too lazy to do so, but then I just did it. This time the bento box consists of two bear-shaped rice balls in penguin suits. I love the expression of the penguins...! I think I should make more penguins in the future because they're quite easy to make and they look adorable too :).

I also made chicken katsu to make my husband happy, because he loves chicken katsu or tonkatsu :).

By the way, I have had some people asking me how to make the ham/deli meat flower. If you're curious to know, please check my previous post here with the tutorial. If you look at 'Tutorials' under 'Labels' on the right, you'll find a few how-to tutorials. There are just six so far and some are not even so well-explained, but I hope they can be somehow helpful to people interested in bento making. When I have more time, I will try to make more bento tutorials, but it might still take some time because I am quite busy at the moment.

Have a great week ahead... - I am already longing for the weekend again (and it's not even over yet ;))!

Little Seals Bento

2011-09-17T20:32:00.002+02:00

The little seals don't really look like seals, don't you think? I forgot to add some whiskers ;). The seals are made out of fish balls and as usual, the eyes, nose and lips are made out of nori.

I had two pieces of shiu mai and chicken cordon bleu on top of a bed cabbage and carrot salad.

I have been watching Korean drama for a few weeks and got quite hooked *uuppss* ;), that's why I have not been so active in the blogging world. The ones I have watched so far are 'Personal Preference' and 'City Hunter' and at the moment I am watching 'Boys over Flower'. Korean drama can be long-winded and sometimes even annoying but it's got its own charm too and yes, the actor Lee Min Ho is sooo cute... ;)!! I don't usually mind much about male actors, or even men in general but he is really quite charming ;).

Happy weekend, everyone :)!

Sad Pink Bears Bento

2011-09-11T17:51:00.001+02:00

The weather is quite unfriendly today, thus the theme of today's bento: sad pink bears :).

I have been quite busy this week, so I had no time to make any bento meals. I have not really had the motivation either to be honest. Well, I hope it's going to get better next week.

That's it for now. Have a great week ahead, everyone :)!

Beef Curry Bento

2011-09-04T13:42:00.002+02:00

Another simple bento which I made yesterday: rice decorated with sour plum and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet) and Malaysian-Indian beef curry.

I want to watch Totoro now, maybe I'll be inspired to make another Totoro bento after I watch the film ;). Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)!

Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Spicy Ebi Fry

2011-09-02T20:42:00.002+02:00

The last time I made spaghetti Aglio Olio was around last year. I felt like making another version of this pasta after I ate a beautiful Japanese-style pasta - Spaghetti with Ebi mentaiko, in a Japanese restaurant during my holiday in Jakarta some time ago. The pasta was so simple but tasted heavenly...!

This spaghetti aglio olio with spicy ebi fry is inspired by the pasta which I had in Jakarta. Since I cannot find mentaiko (marinated pollock roe) here, I was looking for another spicy and creamy alternative - the answer was quite simple: spicy mayonnaise ;)! The Japanese love their mayo, so I thought, why shouldn't I give it a try?

I wasn't wrong, ebi fry (fried panko coated shrimps) with spicy mayo together with spaghetti aglio olio taste wonderful together! In Germany I always use the brand Thomi for mayonnaise. I think it has the closest consistency and flavour to Japanese mayonnaise. Thomi has got chili mayo too available in stores - and this chili mayo from Thomi is the mayo which I used. If you cannot find spicy mayo in your local supermarket, you can make your own spicy mayo by combining chili sauce (e.g Sriracha chili sauce) with, if possible, Japanese mayonnaise (e.g. Kewpie)

Ebi Fry

12 large shrimps
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Set the eggs, flour and bread crumbs in three different shallow bowls.
Add oyster sauce, salt and pepper to the egg bowl and mix well.
One at a time, dredge the shrimp in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture and coat with the bread crumbs.
Repeat step 3 one more time (optional).
Deep-fry the shrimps until golden brown.

Japanese-style Spaghetti Aglio Olio - serves 2

200 grams spaghetti, cooked to al dente
1/4 cup olive oil
1- 2 seeded bird's eye chilies, sliced thinly
3 - 4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt and black pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Combine olive oil, garlic, chili and red pepper flakes in a skillet and cook under low heat for 8 - 10 minutes. The garlic should be golden brown and not burned.
Add salt, pepper, chopped green onions and parsley and cook for another 1 minute.
Toss in the cooked spaghetti and soy sauce and mix thoroughly that the pasta is well coated with the oil.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Serve with ebi fry topped with spicy mayonnaise. You can also add other things such as cocktail shrimps, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.

Salmon & Prawn Tempura Maki Sushi

2011-08-31T22:34:00.002+02:00

I have been craving for some sushi for a longer time and I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight if I didn't get it today ;). I don't usually make sushi with raw salmon at home and I always let the professional sushi chefs do this job for me. One reason is because I don't really like to deal with fish in the kitchen and another reason is because I know that the sushi chefs can do it better than me :).

Strangely enough I got this urge to make sushi with raw salmon today. So I bought frozen salmon this morning, defrosted it and then cut it into long strips. I had to wear rubber gloves though, because I knew that I if I didn't I would have the imaginary feelings that my hands smelled like fish and in the end I would feel nauseated and refuse to eat the sushi ;). I am weird, I know...;)!

I was quite happy with the maki sushi, even the salmon maki tasted great. If you want to have my sushi recipe you can click this link here.

Nami from Just One Cookbook wrote a great post about prawn tempura with step-by-step pictures and instructions. I used instant tempura flour this time, but if you want to make tempura from scratch, do visit her site, it's worth it!

That's it for now. Nighty night, everyone :)!

Tsukemen - Japanese Dipping Noodles

2011-08-30T22:11:00.004+02:00

I made Tsukemen today. I knew I had to make Tsukemen after I saw this video below from Cooking with Dog :).

It's really delicious! The portion looks huge in the picture, but it's actually not as much as it seems. These little bowls are in reality quite tiny - I bought these beauties in Daiso Singapore. I really shopped till I dropped there, such a pity that I couldn't buy as much as I wanted, as I would have to carry all those back to Germany and would in the end have difficulty with the luggage.

Ingredients - serves 2
Source: Cooking with Dog

2 bags of fresh ramen
100g pork belly slices
400ml chicken Stock
2 tbsp sake
1 clove garlic
1 piece ginger root

1 tsp dried red chili pepper, sliced into rings
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 long green onion
40g Shiitake Mushrooms
40g Shimeji Mushrooms
½ tsp sesame oil
1 tsp vinegar

Toppings
1 soft boiled egg
Chopped Spring onion leaves
Katsuobushi shavings (Bonito flakes)
Grated garlic

Smiling Onigiri Bento

2011-08-30T17:05:00.002+02:00

I was running out of ideas of what to make for today's bento, so I resolved to do something easy - onigiri...! I had to add cute features to the onigiri to make them look sweeter though ;).

This was my husband's lunch. He loves wok dishes, unlike me who prefers noodles and soups. So I made him chicken and vegetables stir-fried in hot bean sauce and for myself I made Tsukemen which literally means dipping ramen. I saw the cooking video from the Cooking with Dog channel in YouTube and directly fell in love with the look of it. But I will save this for another post...

Little Teddy Bento

2011-08-28T14:52:00.001+02:00

I am back....:D)!!

And with a good news too :)! Finally I've got my German driver's license after sweating blood and sweat for 3 weeks ;). Well, I am exaggerating a little bit, but getting a driver's license in Germany is not very easy and certainly not within 3 weeks. I have to say I am really quite proud of myself that I did manage to get it in such a short time, especially because everything was done in German (including the horrible theory test which I passed with NO mistakes, Yay :D)!!!). I did the practical test two days ago. I wasn't sure if I would pass it, since I had never driven in my life before I did this intensive driving course and I have to admit that my sense of orientation and directions is rather questionable ;), so I was EXTREMELY happy when the examiner told me that I passed the test...:D)!!

I especially have to thank my MIL for her support during the three-week period. Because of her I was able to focus only on driving and felt like that I was staying in a 5-star hotel :). I think without her, I wouldn't be able to do it...!

Anyway, back to bento now :). My MIL is a very good cook and she makes the most delicious western dishes, however, after eating western dishes for three whole weeks, I have been craving for something Asian. My choice fell to Indonesian Beef Rendang - beef simmered in coconut milk with various spices. I also made tomato and rucola salad with vinaigrette dressing and the teddy rice was seasoned with chili oil and sambal oelek. The flowers under the teddy are made out of goat cheese and gouda cheese. I used my new food picks which I bought in Daiso Singapore some time ago to decorate the rice.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone :D)!

Linguine with Spicy Mushroom Sauce and Shrimps Bento

2011-08-13T17:56:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone! Here I am again...:D)!! I have been away for about a month from the blogsphere due to summer holiday. As stated in my previous post, I spent a good few weeks in Jakarta and a few days in Singapore. Some people were rather concerned that I was away for some weeks without any news. I'd like to use this chance to say thank you to these people who have written me kind e-mails and also to people who have been commenting in my blog while I was away or just to silent readers in general. Apologies if I have not responded to your questions or e-mails sooner. When I was in Jakarta I was mostly away most of the time, shopping and eating delicious foods ;) and had no real chance to be online. Now I am back in Germany I am again busy(and crazy like hell despite my still ongoing summer holiday) due to the driving course which I am currently attending. Doing everything is German is really not that easy. In one week's time I will do the theory test (and I have around 900 questions (and answers) which I have to somehow learn by heart *O*!!). Wish me luck...!

Anyhow, I don't think stuffing my head with horrible, technical, car-related information the whole day would do me any good, so I stole some time today to make a bento meal for my parents-in-law ;) - I am staying with them at the moment as my driving school is very close to where they live (and far away from where I live ;)).

I got this gorgeous, sakura-patterned bento box from CasaBento yesterday. My MIL was so thrilled when she saw this box. The quality is great and it's roomy too, perfect for a picnic.

You can buy this bento box by clicking the link here: Fantasy Yume Sakura Picnic Bento. It's €25,99, I think a reasonable price for a good-quality, not to mention, lovely bento box.

The beautiful bento box with the lid on.

It is two-tiered and has got a plastic lid on the top tier.

I needed to make something that was not time-consuming as at the moment I am using most of my time filling out dreadful 'Fragebogen' - German for 'questionnaires' (of course car-related). My MIL suggested that I should make pasta which I made for her for Mother's Day last year, this pasta here: Linguine with Spicy Mushroom Sauce and Prawns. It's very easy to make and a real treat! Give it a try, it's totally worth it!

Until next time and have a wonderful weekend... :D)!

Szechuan Hotpot Style Udon Noodle Soup

2011-07-10T17:45:00.002+02:00

Hello again, my dear readers...! I am still alive and kicking despite of not being active virtually for one whole week :). In fact I feel very well and rather excited because I am officially on a long summer vacation now :D). Tomorrow I will fly to Jakarta to visit my parents. I am sure I will do loads of shopping and eating out. I hope I will still be able to make a few bentos there, but I cannot guarantee this, but I am sure I will post a lot about my restaurant visits in Jakarta, which is a real food paradise (I might visit Singapore too for a few days, isn't it exciting??) :D) - I can only hope that the internet connection over there would be okay. I still remember the last time I was in Jakarta, the connection was a catastrophe even though we used 'speedy' internet connection ;)!

I thought about making a bento lunch today, but I finally decided to make a 'normal' meal which wouldn't take so much time to make, since I still had to do a lot of packing.

This soup tastes quite similar to my Szechuan Noodles with Wontons and Meatballs, but this udon noodles soup has got more toppings and looks indeed prettier ;).

Ingredients - serves 2

400 g Udon noodles
250 g ground pork
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbs fish sauce
3 tbs 'Fried pork with chili in oil'
2 tbs oyster sauce
Dashi powder to taste
Pepper to taste
800 ml water
Chopped green onions
Topping suggestions: store-bought meatballs, fish balls, shiu mai, chikuwa (fish cake), shrimps, you tiao (Chinese bread stick), boiled egg, mushrooms and sugar snap peas.

Directions

Heat 1 tbs oil in a wok.
Toss in the ground pork and chopped onion and stir fry until slightly brown.
Add fish sauce, 'fried pork with chili in oil', oyster sauce and pepper.
Simmer the meat sauce, stirring occasionally until cooked through.
Add 800 ml water and dashi powder to taste.
Add udon noodles and the toppings (except the you tiao) and cook for a few minutes.
Garnish with green onions and you tiao slices.

Happy Cooking :)!

Totoro & Friends Bento

2011-07-03T18:48:00.005+02:00

I was a bit in two minds whether I should make another Hello Kitty-themed bento or Totoro bento to end this week. I finally decided for Totoro, because I do like Totoro better than Hello Kitty ;). But I am sure I will still make the Hello Kitty bento I had in mind in the next few days (or weeks), especially because I do not want to disappoint the people who have been waiting for my other Hello Kitty-themed bentos :).

I don't have the motivation to get back to work again tomorrow, because I have been in summer vacation mode for some time. I guess, I simply need to be patient, because it's only one more week to go and then I am (somehow) free...:D)!! I made today's bento especially cheery to remind myself that my summer vacation is indeed coming soon :). I hope you will all enjoy looking at this bento as much as I did making it :)!

I included all three Totoros this time: Totoro, the gigantic friendly forest plus his companions, the blue Chu-Totoro and the petite white Chibi Totoro. I also made some Susu Wataris (dark sootballs which inhabit dark places and immediately flee in the presence of light) to make the bento more 'Totoro-festive'.

I like this Totoro bento much much more than my first Totoro bento, which I now think looks quite ugly. My second Totoro bento is quite cute IMHO, but the mini Totoros indeed look more like little mice than Totoros :).

I used toasted ground black sesame seeds to colour the rice dark gray (for the giant Totoro). Since I didn't have red cabbage available, I did use a tiny drop of blue food colouring for the Chu-Totoro. If you want to have a natural blue colour, use the juice of red cabbage and a bit of baking soda. The sootballs are made out of cheese and nori, the red flowers of radish and cheese and the yellow ones of cheddar cheese and goat cheese.

The side dishes today include a portion of salad with a few pieces of pan-fried chicken karaage and feta cheese and the smallest bento box is filled with Japanese-style stir-fried pork with peppers, sugar snap peas and shirataki noodles. You can also see one half of soy sauce-soaked egg and a piece of strawberry.

Japanese-Style Pan-Fried Pork with Shirataki Noodles

500 grams pork, very thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
200 grams Shirataki noodles
100 grams sugar snap peas, sliced
5 mini green peppers, seeded and sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
3 tablespoons sake
A pinch of sugar and pepper

Strawberry Girls Bento

2011-07-02T20:20:00.003+02:00

I just did my first aid course today which was supposed to last for 8 hours. Luckily, we managed to finish earlier :). I learned a few new things which are very useful, but most of the things were plain boring, so I am glad it's over....!!

When I was sitting and 'listening' to the first aid lecture, I was thinking of what to make for today's bento :). So, this bento is the result of me being bored in the lecture ;).

As usual, I used red beet juice to make the pink rice. The two little girls are made out of quail eggs, coloured with soy sauce. Underneath the strawberry shaped rice there is pan-fried chicken karaage. The flowers are goat cheese and cheddar cheese, and of course my bento is never really complete without a portion of salad and fruit :).

Duck & Avocado Chirashi Sushi Bento

2011-07-01T19:38:00.003+02:00

I am back...:)! What a stressy and tiring week! I am glad it's over. Unfortunately I'll have to be away again tomorrow for a first aid course. I don't feel like doing it, but I need to, since I intend to get a driver's license this summer.

Today's bento is again quite simple and traditional. I used my new bento box from Japan, which you can see below. It looks very sweet and elegant, but it arrived much smaller than I expected. This bento box is very petite - I'd say, great for portion control!

The main course of today's bento is roasted duck with avocado chirashi sushi. I used brown rice instead of white rice and some slices of mushrooms, sugar snap peas and green peppers.

Duck and Avocado Chirashi Sushi

1 plate sushi Rice
50 grams store-bought roasted duck, sliced
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 mushrooms, sliced
2 - 3 tablespoons avocado cubes
3 sugar snap peas, sliced
2 mini green peppers, seeded and sliced

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan.
Add mushrooms and roasted duck and stir-fry for 1 minute.
Drizzle with soy sauce and mirin. Then add sugar snap peas and green peppers and stir-fry for another 1 minute. Turn off the heat.
Add sushi rice and mix well.
Decorate with avocado cubes.

Pan-Fried Chicken Karaage Bento

2011-06-26T17:27:00.003+02:00

This was my husband's lunch - looks quite healthy, doesn't it? Unlike last time, this time, I pan-fried the chicken karaage. A much healthier alternative and still very yummy too!

I've not really been in the mood of making cute bentos since a few days ago, probably much to my husband's delight ;). He prefers traditional-looking bento meals like today's bento. I've been feeling very tired for a few weeks, but this is going to be over soon because in two weeks' time I'll have my summer holiday :)!! However, due to work commitment, next week I'll be away for a few days from home. But, once I am back, I promise I'll come up with something new again :).

If I have not visited your blogs or replied your e-mails for some time, I do apologise...! After I am back from the trip, most of my work will be more or less done, so I'll have more time to make more bento meals, visit your blogs and reply your comments and e-mails :D).

Pan-Fried Chicken Karaage

4 chicken tighs, deboned and cut into bite-size pieces
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons tapioca starch
1-2 tablespoons oil to pan-fry the chicken

Mix all ingredients well (except the oil) and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes. Heat your non-stick pan, add the oil and pan-fry the chicken until cooked and golden brown.

My husband loved this chicken karaage! And we didn't even have to have a bad conscience after eating it either, it's relatively healthy and absolutely scrumptious!

I stole the idea of the half avocado/half boiled egg from Shizuoka Gourmet's site :).

The bottom box is filled with rice, decorated with toasted sesame seeds, rucola and two sweet pepper slices. There are also three cherry tomatoes, lettuce border, pan-fried chicken karaage, lemon to zest the chicken and pan-fried green pepper.

The top box is filled with avocado/soy sauce soaked egg combo, tamagoyaki with Serrano smoked ham and salad on top of a bed of Tzaziki sauce.

Chirashi Sushi

2011-06-25T14:24:00.004+02:00

This is my first time making Chirashi sushi. I was actually never tempted to try Chirasi sushi because I thought that Chirashi sushi always meant sushi rice topped with raw fish, because that's what I always saw in restaurants (and I am not that fond of raw fish, I only can eat raw salmon so far). But then I saw some chirashi sushi posts by Shizuoka Gourmet - he's a French national (I think) living in Shizuoka, Japan. His Japanese wife makes him the most mouthwatering bento, which he posts in his blog regularly, along with his other stories and and pictures of his food adventures in Japan.

Correct me if I am wrong, but apparently chirashi sushi simply means sushi rice (rice mixed with vinegar, salt and sugar) topped with any kind of ingredients you like. Since I love sushi, I thought that I really should give chirashi sushi a try.

Basic Sushi Rice

3 cups short grain rice
3 cups water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
a pinch of salt

Directions

Wash the rice until the water almost runs clear.
Cook the rice/water mixture in a rice cooker.
Make the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture in a separate bowl.
When the rice is cooked, pour in the vinegar mixture and gently mix the rice.

Topping Suggestions

Scrambled egg
Shiitake mushrooms, julienned and simmered in soy sauce, mirin, a pinch of sugar and dashi powder
Boiled Shrimps
Sugar snap peas, sliced
Cucumber, julienned
Blanched lotus root, thinly sliced
Tobiko (Flying fish roe)
1 boiled egg, quartered
Nori (roasted seaweed), cut into thin strips
Toasted sesame seed

Verdict: Chirashi sushi is definitely worth a try! It's delicious and easier than sushi rolls to make :).

Today's song is again from Ayumi Hamasaki, called 'Mirrorcle World'.

Daisy Onigiri Bento

2011-06-23T20:32:00.002+02:00

Let me just do a quick post: the bento today consists of onigiri decorated with nori and daisy cheese. The side dishes include stir-fried kimchi with prawns, stir-fried bok choy with mushrooms and Indonesian spicy chicken and eggs (seasoned with fresh tomato puree, sambal oelek, a pinch of sugar and lemongrass powder). There's a portion of salad too. The two little chicks are made out of quail eggs coloured with turmeric - yes, these chickies are leftovers from two days ago...!

Moo-Cow Rilakkuma Bento

2011-06-21T21:50:00.004+02:00

I have to admit, I didn't make this bento to eat it. I made it for fun, that's why the lack of 'yummy' ingredients. Just eggs and rice, they don't look so appetising, do they? To be honest, I am still very busy, so to get away from my pile of work, I sneaked into the kitchen and made bento instead *uuppss* ;). So for the time being Rilakkuma has to stay overnight in the fridge and I'll probably eat him tomorrow for lunch with a side dish - Wow, I do sound quite brutal, don't I...;)!

Rilakkuma's face is made out of soy-sauce tinted hard-boiled egg and the cow suit of rice and nori. The two little chicks are quail eggs, tinted with turmeric and the facial features are from nori.

Unazukin Dolls Bento

2011-06-19T17:06:00.007+02:00

I always wanted to make Matryoshka bento, but I thought that the facial expressions looked too complicated to make. But then I saw a picture of an Unazukin doll, which is a reminiscent of a Matryoshka doll, however the facial features are simplified and 'cutified' ;) - which is typical Japanese, I think.

The Unazukin dolls react to voice and can nod and shake their heads when questioned. They are meant to be a special friend who can give you some advice. The idea is actually somehow nice, but it's rather silly, because they will also shake or nod their heads when you bang the table or simply turn on the radio, since they're sound-activated ;)

The Unazukin dolls are created by Bandai, the company which also produces Tamagotchi.

The faces of my Unazukin dolls are made out of soy sauce-tinted quail eggs. The pink one is coloured with beet juice and the yellow one with turmeric powder. Their clothes are decorated with cheese (and salami) flowers and lettuce.

The other bento box is filled with boiled dumplings and chicken teriyaki/hot sauce/salad wrapper.

Rice Vermicelli with Beef Balls and Gyoza

2011-06-19T11:14:00.000+02:00

Yes, I do love my noodles...! As you might have noticed, I do post about noodles quite regularly too, if I don't make bento, I always seem to make noodles somehow ;). I usually eat udon or egg noodles, but this time I wanted to have something different and made something with rice vermicelli. This dish might look complicated, but in reality it's pretty simple.

Ingredients

Rice Noodles

100 g rice vermicelli, cooked
1/2 tablespoon Schweineschmalz (pork lard) or sesame/olive oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
A pinch of pepper

Toppings (Suggestions)

Store-bought beef balls, cooked
Homemade (or store-bought) gyoza
1 boiled egg
Savoury ground chicken/pork (I used leftover gyoza's filling and stir-fried it)
Chopped green onion
Fried shallots (or onion)
Soy-sauce soaked mushrooms
Naruto maki (Japanese fish cakes)
Bok choy, blanched

Directions

Combine cooked vermicelli with Schweineschmalz, fish sauce, oyster sauce and pepper.
Top the vermicelli with beef balls, pan-fried gyoza, egg, chopped green onion, fried shallot, bok choy, etc - basically anything you want...!

I love eating my noodles with Szechuan chili oil. If you don't have this, you can use other types of chili sauce too.

By the way, I watched the Japanese series 'Ordinary People' when I was still in primary school....!! I have always liked the OST 'True Love' by Fumiya Fujii from this series, this brings back lots of memories...*very old school* ;).

Hello Kitty Kaburinbo Bento

2011-06-18T16:01:00.006+02:00

Hello everyone...! Here I am again with another bento lunch :D)! Ever since I have started working, I've learned to appreciate my weekends much much more, because the weekends are always over too quickly...

Anyway, I was inspired to make today's bento after I saw a few Hello Kitty in other Sanrio character suits pictures here. I am actually not a fan of Hello Kitty, but I love seeing her in different cute suits and her facial features are quite simple to make too.

The Hello Kitty on the left is wearing a Keroppi suit. The green suit is made out of eggsheet coloured with a drop of green food colouring. The eggsheet recipe can be found here. The Keroppi's eyes are made out of mozzarella cheese and nori.

Keroppi lives with his brother, sister and parents in a big house on the edge of Donut Pond, the largest and bluest pond around. Keroppi and his friends share his love for baseball and boomerangs. Most often he is seen with his little snail friend Den Den, always tagging along a little behind.

(Source: Sanrio.com)

The Hello Kitty on the left is wearing a Kuromi suit. Well, it doesn't really look like Kuromi, but anyway, I think it's not that bad... The suit is made out of nori and Kuromi's facial features are made out of cheese, nori and pink eggsheet.

My Melody’s friendly rival is a tomboy who loves making mischief and causing trouble! Although she may look tough, she is actually very girly and is attracted to good-looking guys! Kuromi enjoys writing in her diary and is hooked on romantic short-stories. Her favorite colour is black and her favorite food is shallots. Fittingly, her birthday is October 31st.
(Source: Sanrio.com)

Both Hello Kitty onigiris are filled with chicken teriyaki and mayo. There are also two slices of okonomiyaki in the bento box:).

For today's song I've chosen 'Green' by Ayumi Hamasaki. To be honest, I don't really like her voice very much and I only like a few of her songs. But her music videos are often very well-made, just like this one. Enjoy...:)!

Bento Contest

2011-06-17T21:19:00.012+02:00

I know I have been absent for a few days, I've been awfully busy this week and had no real time (and motivation) to cook. Anyway, there is nevertheless a very good news: there is another BENTO CONTEST by CasaBento :D)! You can find the details in BentoChannel.

Long story short, the contest is actually a game where you have to find an onigiri in distress which has lost his way.

If you want to join this bento hunt contest, the only thing you have to do is write an e-mail to bentochannel (at) casabento (.) com and tell them where you have found the image of this little onigiri in CasaBento's site.

The image of Onigiri in Distress which you have to find in CasaBento's site!

The lucky winner will be randomly selected and will receive ALL the goodies below :)!! So, join in...!!! You have time to participate until midnight GMT +1 on 22nd June 2011. This bento game is open to everyone around the world! Have fun :)!

Chicken Karaage & Rucola Sushi Bento

2011-06-13T16:41:00.004+02:00

I thought about making a charaben today, but I got too lazy, so I made sushi instead ;). I I filled in the sushi rolls with chicken karaage (Japanese fried chicken), rucola, Sriracha chili sauce and mayonnaise. It was delicious...!! I was always playing safe and the only kinds of veggies I'd used so far were cucumber, lettuce, spring onions and avocado. Now I am adding rucola too and I don't regret it!

Last week I also made chicken karaage using Nami's recipe from Just One Cookbook. I still used her recipe but I added minced garlic to the chicken this time so that I can annoy my colleagues tomorrow with my bad breath...;)! *Uuppsss*

Chicken Karaage
Adapted from Just One Cookbook

2 tablespoons sake
3 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
A pinch of pepper
5 skinless & boneless organic chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
1½ cup corn starch (more or less)
Oil for deep frying

Mix all ingredients (except the oil) and marinate for 30 minutes before deep frying the chicken pieces.

The left bento box contains chicken karaage drumsticks, pan-fried shao mai and one piece of radish. The right bento box contains chicken karaage/rucola/mayo/chili sauce maki sushi and a few pieces of strawberries, grapes, cherries and blueberries.

As you can see, I use this red bento box with Ikebana design quite often. The shape of this bento box makes it easy to fill. It's got a quite nice size too, not too big but also not to small.

Mameshiba & Friends Bento

2011-06-12T19:01:00.002+02:00

Mameshiba is a Japanese character created in 2008 by Japan's largest marketing agency, Dentsu.

WHAT IS MAMESHIBA?

Mameshiba is a very strange, but very cute, creature that has the body of a bean and the face of a dog. The Mameshiba family is made up of over 20 members (Note: I think, now 25), they have angelic faces and sweet voices, but the stories they tell will spoil any listener’s appetite... For instance, they might surprise you with phrases such as this one: “You know what? When you kiss, 200 million bacteria are passed on from mouth to mouth each second.”
(Source: Curiosite)

The mameshiba I made today are the black bean mameshiba, the purple colour is supposed to be darker, but I didn't want to add too much red cabbage juice to the rice.

I also made two bear-onigiris in suits - but I myself don't know what kind of suit ;).

The left bento box contains chicken teriyaki drumsticks and pan-fried shao mai, and the round bento box at the back contains rucola salad with vinaigrette dressing.

Piggy Hello Kitty Bento

2011-06-11T23:47:00.007+02:00

Yay, it's weekend...:)! And double yay that we have a long weekend here in Germany :D)!! I am feeling slightly better than yesterday and the opera was quite nice (I know I wrote 'concert' yesterday, but it's not true, I was too tired and just wrote whatever without thinking much). My husband's colleague composed one of the pieces performed in the opera and we were invited to watch it. The music was beautiful but the story was a bit weird. It's actually a story about the legendary Sumerian King, Gilgamesh, but it only contains about 2% of the real story. I think people who have no background knowledge of the legend would have difficulty understanding what the opera is about. Anyway, it was a nice experience, because I had never been to a real theater before, in the past I only had the chance to watch a ballet performance 'Swan Lake' and some piano concerts.

I went to the gym this morning, so all my bones are still somehow sore (and I know tomorrow it's going to get even worse... ;)). I've started going to the gym since last week, with the hope to live healthier, since I spend too much time sitting down in front of the computer. I thought about not doing any bentos today and only wanted to relax and enjoy my long weekend. But then this little sweetie below arrived - my new bento box from CasaBento :)!!

I LOVE wooden bento boxes! They look traditional and elegant. This is my second wooden bento box. My first one has got the same colour and is made of the same material, Wappa wood, but the shape is oval instead of round. Check out some awesome traditional bento boxes here!

Some people who have visited CasaBento website in the past will notice that the website has got a new look now, which I think is fantastic. It is now much more organised and easier to navigate.

This bento box has two tiers, the bottom part is deeper, around 8 cm, and you can fill it in with quite a lot of food. The top tier is around 4 cm high.

One thing which is not so practical about this bento box is it's not microwave- and dishwasher-safe. Since I am somebody who loves her dishwasher, I wasn't very happy about this fact. But in the end I got used to manually washing my (first) wooden bento box and it normally takes me less than a minute to wash it, so it's really okay after all (yes, call me lazy...;)!!).

I filled in my new bento box with Hello Kitty onigiri in piggy suit plus some pan-fried wontons, radishes, mini peppers, tamagoyaki, deli-meat flower and lettuce.

The piggy suit is made out of eggsheet coloured with a drop of red food colouring. I didn't have red cabbage available, or I would have tried colouring the eggsheet pink with the cabbage. Please only use the eggwhite to make the eggsheet, because if you use the egg yolk too, the pink colour is not going to show - or maybe it would, but you'd have to use way much more food colouring, which I do want to avoid.

Pink Eggsheet - make 1 (diameter: 30 cm)

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon tapioca or corn flour, mixed with 3 tablespoons water
1 drop red food colouring
Oil to grease a non-stick pan.

Directions

Mix all ingredients well.
Use a kitchen strainer to sieve the eggwhite.
If you still see some bubbles, remove them with a spoon. This will make sure that the eggsheet turns out smoothly.
Oil a non-stick pan with a kitchen paper.
Pour the eggwhite mixture and heat the pan under very low heat.
When the top part of the eggsheet gets slightly glossy and hardens, you may turn off the heat.
Be careful not to break the eggsheet when you remove it from the pan.

Do you see the pretty pink cloth with polka-dots pattern underneath the bento box? It's actually a furoshiki, but since I usually eat my bento at home, I love using it as decor for my bento photo session :).

Green Tea Soba Soup with Ebi Furai

2011-06-10T15:36:00.002+02:00

This was my dinner yesterday: green tea soba soup with fried panko coated shrimps, soft-yolked egg, naruto maki (fishcakes), omelet flower and chopped green onions.

This might look complicated but it was actually very simple to make, because the fried shrimps are store-bought and I only had to deep-fry them. The soup simply consists of hot water, dashi powder, soy sauce, mirin and Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese 7-spice powder).

Just like yesterday, I feel totally dead tired today....I hope I will feel more awake later in the evening - I am going to visit a concert!

Chick-Balls Bento

2011-06-09T19:51:00.001+02:00

As promised, here is my husband's bento which I made yesterday, also with chicken karaage. The chick-balls (I call them chick-balls, because they look like cheese balls ;))are made out of mini Kartofellknödel (German potato dumplings).

I used a plastic bento container which I got from Maruyasu. Good that I didn't throw it away, I somehow knew that I would use it for my own bento...;).

That's it for now, I am too tired to write more... Till next time...:)!

Little Bee-Bear Bento

2011-06-08T20:55:00.004+02:00

Have you been missing my posts ;)? Well, I guess not, the last time I posted something was just two days ago ;). I've been super busy the last few days and this will go on for the next few weeks unfortunately...But I will somehow find some time to make some bento meals.

Today's bento meal consists of a bee-bear made out of brown rice. The bee suit is made out of egg sheet with nori and the ears are mini Kartoffelknödel (German potato dumplings) and cheese. I also made Chicken Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) to eat together with the brown rice. I stole Nami's recipe again from Just One Cookbook to make the karaage, it's delicious...:D)!!

Chicken Kaarage

2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon grated ginger
5 skinless & boneless organic chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
1½ cup corn starch (more or less)
Oil for deep frying

Mix all ingredients (except the oil) and marinate for 30 minutes before deep frying the chicken pieces.

I also made a bento dinner for my husband with chicken karaage, but I will save it for tomorrow's post.

Today's Song of the Day is 'Shoreline' by Anna Ternheim, a Swedish singer-songwriter. I got to know this song from a very dear friend of mine. Unfortunately we have lost contact. I hope he's happy and well...

Platychicks Bento

2011-06-05T18:15:00.002+02:00

The platychicks (platypus/chicks) are characters created by San-X. There is not much information about them which I can find in the net, but I know that they belong to the Kamonohasikamo series.

The platychicks are made out of quail eggs and the pink ones are tinted with beet juice. The beaks are from cheddar cheese and the eyes from nori. They're lying on top of a bed of wild rice/long-grain rice. I also included one fried shrimp ball which I made this morning, half an egg, half a cherry tomato, one deli-meat flower, lettuce, a few slices of sweet pepper and cheese flower.

The salad bento box was my husband's and behind it is stir-fried turkey breast with spicy green bean sauce (the sauce is store-bought).

Mum's Shrimp Balls

2011-06-05T16:35:00.004+02:00

Almost every single day I've got the same problem of not knowing what to cook, despite quite a collection of cookbooks and bookmarked foodie blogs...;). Quite regularly I ask my husband, "Hey, what do you want to eat today?" because I am sometimes desperate for new ideas, and our conversation always ends with "What do we have?", "What can you cook then?", " What's your suggestion?" - so instead of giving me some ideas, he asks me back...;). But silly me never learns, I keep asking him almost everyday anyway even though I know he's going to question me back ;).

These shrimp balls are quite special, because the recipe is from my mum and this was the first recipe I gave my husband around 12 years ago (*O* - I'm really getting old...;)) when he told me that his mum liked Asian food and would like to know some good Asian recipes - Of course we were just friends at that time, I was a bit too young for a boyfriend ;).

This recipe is certainly not for the faint-hearted nor the health-conscious, because it involves deep-frying white bread....*Upps...*. Anyway, I have a good excuse to make these shrimp balls again because the last time I ate them was probably ten years ago ;).

Ingredients

White bread - remove the brown sides and cut into small cubes
500 grams shrimps, chopped finely
2 stalks green onions, chopped
1 egg
1.5 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs fish sauce
A pinch of white pepper
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbs corn flour (or tapioca flour)

Directions

Mix all ingredients stated, except the white bread cubes.
Take one tablespoon of the shrimp mixture and coat it with the bread cubes.
Shape the bread coated shrimp mixture into a ball. Repeat.
Deep-fry the shrimp balls until golden brown.

Another song I want to share today is called 'Teil mit mir den Frieden' (which means something like 'Share with me the tranquility/harmony') by a rather unknown German group, Leander. I think it's such a pity that this group doesn't get the recognition it deserves. The singer's voice is breathtaking and the text of this song is simply beautiful...!

Oyakodon Bento

2011-06-04T23:29:00.000+02:00

I wanted something very simple to make for dinner, so Oyakodon that was. For the recipe I used two references, yes, another recipe from Cooking with Dog and Nami's Just One Cookbook ;).

My version is not very correct because I didn't put the chicken/egg mixture on top of the rice, I did it because I thought that the two little quail egg-chicks would look better on top of rice. Anyway, I am not very happy with the quality of the photos, let me blame the bad weather today, it was so dark and gloomy this afternoon, so the lightning really wasn't perfect and thus the rather blurry pictures...

Oyakodon
Adapted from Just One Cookbook and Cooking with Dog

50ml dashi stock
1 tbsp soy Sauce
1 tbsp sake
1/2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp mirin
1/2 onion, sliced
100 grams chicken thighs, cut diagonally
2 eggs

Let me end this post by sharing a beautiful Indonesian song called 'Matahariku' or 'My Sunflower'. Have a lovely evening, everyone :).

Beef Sukiyaki

2011-06-04T17:19:00.000+02:00

I made beef sukiyaki today, something that both my husband and I enjoy :). This is nevertheless the much simpler version because I only used beef, konyakku and shiitake mushrooms. I added soft-yolked egg instead of raw egg, because both of us don't eat raw eggs.

Beef Sukiyaki
(Adapted from Cooking with Dog)

100 ml sake
50 ml mirin
50 ml soy sauce
2 tbs sugar
Thinly sliced beef
1 soft-yolked egg (cook for 6 minutes under boiling water)
Shiitake mushrooms
Sliced green onions

Salad with Easy Vinaigrette Dressing

Rucola
Cherry tomatoes
Corn kernels
Lettuce
Radish
Mozzarella cheese
Paprika

Vinaigrette Dressing

Juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs vinegar
1/2 tbs sugar
1/4 tbs garlic powder
1/4 tbs paprika powder
Dried basil
Dried majoram
Black pepper

If you want to make the more elaborate version of sukiyaki, you can watch this video from Cooking with Dog (this is their first video I think, no background music yet, a bit weird to see the typical 'Minute Waltz' from Chopin missing in the video ;)).

We ate the sukiyaki with steamed brown rice because our stock for white rice is gone - which is probably good ;). By the way, I love eating sukiyaki with seasoned roasted seaweed, very yummy....:)!

As you can see, the sukiyaki beef doesn't look ideal because it's rather thick, bur I tried my best to slice it thinly;).

Anyway, I want to end this post with a song which I really like. I am sure most of you are familiar with this song 'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen. But the version I am showing below is an interpretation from four Norwegian singers. I like the melody of the song and how emotional it sounds. Enjoy!

Three Little Bears in Totoro Suits Bento

2011-06-03T21:49:00.003+02:00

I was inspired to make another Totoro-themed bento after I saw Anna the Red's Totoro tutorial. She's one crazy talented lady...! Her bento creations are always so full of imagination and very intricate too. I hope I can be as good as her one day :).

Oh, and I want to dedicate this post to Nami from Just One Cookbook, because she was the one who first suggested me to make Totoro bento quite some time ago, and this is my THIRD Totoro-themed bento already:). I hope you like it, Nami :)!

The three little bears are onigiri filled with chicken teriyaki. The Totoro suits are made out of inari skins. This time I cooked the inari skins in boiling water for a few minutes before using them to remove the sweet taste. Maybe you still remember my Rilakkuma Inari Sushi bento, where I complained that canned inari skins were simply too sweet to eat.

The round bento box contains three pieces of meat patties (which actually are my leftover gyoza filling). Since I didn't have enough gyoza wrappers, and I was too lazy anyway to make the wrappers myself, I decided to transform the leftover gyoza filling into meat patties - I simply shaped the gyoza filling into flattened round balls then baked them in the oven.

Do you see that little cute glass next to the round bento box? I got it from my MIL. She's always so sweet and thoughtful. She knows that I love my four rabbits, so she ordered a glass with a picture of my rabbits for my birthday last year :).

To end this post, I'd like to say thank you to Chris from Gourmet Fashion for giving me the block of awards below. Thank you so much...:)! I've felt very honoured due to the amounts of awards I've received during the last few weeks. Thank you for thinking of my humble blog, everyone...:)!

Ebi Furai & Gyoza Udon Noodle Soup

2011-06-02T23:14:00.001+02:00

Doesn't this udon soup look very yummy :)? Udon belongs to one of my favourite noodles, I love its chewy texture and shape. Today's udon soup simply reflects the perfect udon soup for me because it contains my favourite toppings, ebi furai (fried panko coated shrimps) and gyoza . It's very simple to make when you have all the toppings ready beforehand, that's why I like to freeze any types of extra dumplings which I make, because they can be very practical for later use such as this one. I didn't make the fried shrimps myself, that's why they look so perfect ;). I bought them in my local Asian store and I only had to fry them- I was surprised that the fried shrimps were very tasty...!

Ingredients

200 grams udon noodles
2 ebi furai
2 gyoza
1 soft-yolked egg
3 slices of naruto maki (fishcake)
Blanched asparagus
1 piece of Shiitake mushrooms, cooked in soy sauce and a pinch of sugar
2 pieces Lotus roots, cooked in soy sauce and a pinch of sugar
Chopped green onions
2-3 teaspoons dashi powder
1 tablespoon mirin
2 tablespoons soy sauce
400 ml hot water

Directions

Cook udon noodles according to package instructions.
In a separate bowl, add 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs mirin, 2 tsp dashi powder.
When the udon is cooked, add it into the bowl with 400 ml hot water.
Garnish with 1 soft-yoled egg, 2 ebi furai, 2 gyoza, naruto maki, asparagus, shiitake mushroom, lotus roots and green onions.

The Moomins Bento

2011-06-02T15:01:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, Sissi from With a Glass wrote this comment: "...If you look for a new bento character, I have my favourite one: Moomin. It's not famous all around the world, but I loved the books and still love, and also the cartoon was wonderful. I suppose it would be difficult to make, since he is light blue ;-)..."

I am always eager to know new characters from comic strips, animations, manga, etc from around the world because there are just so many out there that receive so little attention. The mainstream one are of course characters from Disney. I love Disney, but I think it's such a pity that so many good children stories and tales are left unnoticed or untold. And it's so sad to see how children nowadays grow up too early. But I guess it's no big wonder when they are confronted daily by so many useless, non-educational rubbish in TV and magazines...It must be very hard to be parents in today's society...!

Anyway, of course I had to google The Moomins after I read that comment from Sissi. The Moomins is written by Tove Jansson, a Swedish-Finn writer and illustrator.

The Moomins are a family of trolls who are white and roundish, with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses. The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moonminvalley, in the forests of Finland, though in the past their temporary residences have included a lighthouse and a theatre. They have many adventures along with their various friends. (Source: Wikipedia)

I think the Moomins have got different colours in the animated version (please correct me if I am wrong, I've also just found out about The Moomins yesterday): Moominpappa is blue, he always wears a hat, Moominmamma is creamy light brown, Moomintroll (the main character) is blue and his admirer and lady friend the Snork Maiden, which also looks like a Moomin, is light yellow.

I made the Moomins from tinted quail eggs - blue (red cabbage water + baking soda), yellow (turmeric powder mixed with water) and light brown (soy sauce). While the quail eggs are still warm, they're quite pliable and you can shape them as you wish, but please lightly...! I tried to make a hippo-face shape to each one of them, not completely successful, but I think close enough.

The Moonmins family and the Snork Maiden are sitting on top of multigrain fried rice (leftover from a few days ago), rucola, baby corn flowers and cheese flowers. Behind the rice there are two pieces of taro mochi, a piece of ham flower and a few pieces of strawberries, grapes and blackberries.

The Moonmins don't really look like the original Moomins, but I hope you like them, Sissi :). Thank you for introducing me to a group of interesting new characters...!

And to everyone who reads my blog, if you know any other not very well-known characters which you like, please let me know....:)! As I have written above, I love learning about new characters :D)! Maybe I can even transform them into a bento meal ;). But I cannot guarantee this, because I am absolutely no expert in bento making...!

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Satsuki from Kirschkuchen for awarding me with the 'Kreativ Blogger' badge below :)! Satsuki writes a German blog about bento, Japan, some reviews (about foods, book, shops, etc) and her daily blabbings ;). And check out her first bento box, isn't it cool? And it's her FIRST bento! Nochmal, ganz herzlichen Dank, Satsuki :). Ich schätze diesen Award sehr...:D)!

Now, 10 random things about me you maybe don't know:

I have one older sister.
I have one little niece.
I can speak Indonesian, English and German
I used to learn Japanese for 2 years in high school and I was quite good at it.
Unfortunately now I only remember words like 'Konnichiwa', 'Watashiwa...desu', 'Moshi moshi', 'Ikura desuka' and other happy words such as 'Oishii desu ne...!!' and 'Kawaii ne....! ;)
I used to learn Chinese too but I was totally horrible at it and quitted after 1 year ;)!
I adore bubble tea! Favourite flavours are milk tea, green milk tea and taro milk tea.
I cannot bear people who've got no manners (well, who can? Probably people with no manners themselves ;))
Imagine by John Lennon is one of my favourite songs.
I used to be crazy about Rondo Alla Turca by Mozart when I was younger ;).

Cheburashka Soboro Bento

2011-06-01T18:08:00.006+02:00

Have you ever heard of Cheburashka? I had not, until one reader from France, Elo', commented under my Dragon Rilakkuma bento: "Do you know "tcheburacha" (Чебурашка)? It's the phonetic name of a famous Russian character, he's really loved by children, I thought it could be an inspiration for a charaben, with his big ears and his sad face." I googled the character and found some pictures from the net, including the background story from Wikipedia.

Cheburashka is a funny little creature, unknown to science, who lives in the tropical forest. He accidentally gets into a crate of oranges, eats his fill, and falls asleep. The crate is eventually delivered to a grocery store in an unnamed town where the rest of the main story unfolds. Cheburashka is a name given to the character by the puzzled store manager who finds the creature in the crate when he opens it. The salesman takes the animal out and sits him on the table, but his paws are numb after the long time spent in the crate, and he tumbles down ("cheburakhnulsya" (чебурахнулся), a Russian colloquialism, "tumbled" in English) from the table onto the chair and then from the chair, where he could not sit, for the same reason, onto the floor. The store manager, who witnesses the scene, called him Cheburashka. (Source: Wikipedia)

I thought he looked quite adorable and not too complicated to make, so I'd promised Elo' to make the Cheburashka bento in the near future - I know it's been quite some time now, but I hope you like this Cheburashka bento, Elo' :)!

In the beginning I wanted to make him from meat patties, but today I just didn't feel like eating meat patties, so I decided to make the character from rice mixed with spicy pork soboro (Soboro simply means seasoned finely chopped meat, egg, fish or vegetables, etc, usually used as toppings for steamed rice) and the facial features from cheese and nori.

Spicy Pork Soboro

250 grams ground pork
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon sake (or cooking wine)
2 tablespoons hot bean paste
1 tablespoon Szechuan chili paste
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
A pinch of sugar

Directions

Heat your skillet and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil.
Toss in the ground pork and cook until the meat is slightly brown.
Add sake, hot bean paste, Szechuan chili paste, soy sauce and sugar.
Stir-fry the meat for a few minutes until it's completely cooked.

TUTORIAL

Now I want to show you how to make deli-meat flower, because a few people have been asking me to show the step-by-step pictures. The pictures below are rather small, but I hope you can still recognise them. Making deli-meat flower is actually very easy and there are several methods to make it, but the one below is the method which I like to use because I think the flower holds together better.

With a slice of deli-meat you can make 2 flowers.

You need: a slice of deli meat and a kitchen knife.
Cut the deli meat in half.
Cut lines in the middle of the deli-meat, but not all the way.
Fold the deli meat in half.
Roll it up!
Keep rolling!
And voilà - you get one deli meat flower :).

My bento box today is filled with: Cheburashaka-shaped onigri (rice mixed with spicy pork soboro), chopped omelet, two pieces of broccoli, two pieces of cheese flowers, two deli-meat flowers, one piece of radish, rucola and four mini cheese flowers.

BENTO GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCEMENT

I'd also like to use the chance now to announce the two lucky winners of my bento giveaway: Mieke (first winner) from the Netherlands and Lyn Trinix from Singapore (second winner) :D)! I wish everyone who has participated could get something, unfortunately, it's quite impossible...:(. Maybe, one day when I was a millionaire ;)!! All in all there were 75 people who participated including several people who contacted me through e-mail. So, thank you so much, everyone, for joining in this event :). I hope the people who don't win this time wouldn't get too upset, there will still be other giveaways or contests being held here in the future. So stay tuned :)!

Winners, you'll be contacted shortly, you'll have to provide me with your address so that CasaBento can send you the prize :).

Yaki Gyoza: Japanese-Style Pan-Fried Dumplings

2011-05-31T21:42:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I made yaki gyoza (Japanese-style pan-fried dumplings). I have made quite some varieties of dumplings in the past, simply because dumplings are one of my favourite foods. This time I used the recipe from Cooking With Dog, I am sure a lot of you are aware of this cute cooking channel in YouTube, if not you should definitely check it out...! It's my absolute favourite channel in YouTube and I have followed this channel since two years ago. I love the humour written at channel's header too "Cooking with Dog - It's not what you think" ;).

I have tried making gyoza in the past, but I never really knew how to pan-fry them correctly. Just look at my Chinese/Indonesian pan-fried dumplings. Do you see how ugly the bottom parts look ;)? Thanks to Cooking with Dog, now I know.

Yaki Gyoza

120g Ground Pork
100g Cabbage
50g Onion
50g Nira - Garlic Chives
1/2 tbsp Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Sugar
A pinch of Pepper
1 tbsp Sake
1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Potato Starch
1 tsp Grated Garlic
1/2 tsp Grated Ginger
1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
25 Gyoza Skins
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
Flour for dusting

Gyoza Dipping Sauce

1 tbsp Black/White Vinegar
1 tsp Soy Sauce
Chili oil or sesame oil

Happy with the result, my husband loves the gyoza too :)!

White Koala Bulgur Pilaf Bento

2011-05-31T16:53:00.006+02:00

Don't worry...No koalas have been harmed during my bento making process ;). Do you know that koalas are not only grey but there are some white ones too even though they're quite rare ? I wanted to make another koala-themed bento because I really like my first koala bento. I thought about using quail eggs and colouring them grey (but I really didn't know (and still don't know) how to get grey-coloured eggs), but then I remembered that not all koalas are grey, there are white ones too, how convenient, in the end I didn't even have to colour anything:). I decided to use mini mozzarella cheese instead of quail eggs to make the two mini white koalas, because I like the idea of eating pilaf with mozzarella. These mozzarella koalas are made out of: mozarella cheese, nori for eyes, black olive for the nose and chili sauce for the rosy cheeks.

I also made bulgur pilaf for today's bento. I'd never eaten bulgur in my life, so I was very curious. I invented the recipe myself and I was quite happy with the result, bulgur is definitely something that I would eat from time to time when I am bored with normal white rice, it's healthier too because it doesn't have as much carb as white rice.

Bulgur Pilaf

250 grams bulgur
500 ml water (I think...)
4 mini green chili peppers, seeded and sliced thinly
2 mini yellow peppers, seeded and sliced thinly
2 mini red peppers, seeded and sliced thinly
2 mini orange peppers, seeded and sliced thinly
1 tablespoons minced/chopped garlic
1 large onion, sliced
4 dried chillies
80 grams green beans, cut into 5 cm pieces
200 grams turkey breast, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato puree
chicken powder to taste
A pinch of paprika powder, garlic powder and cumin powder

The right bento box is a normal salad bento with rucola, cherry tomatoes, quail eggsy, mozzarella, radish, croûtons, majoram, olive oil and ground black pepper.

Don't forget, my giveaway ends TONIGHT, 31st May 2011, at midnight GMT +1. Click the banner below to find the details and enter the giveaway...!