Can you guess what kind of fried rice is in the bento box?

A few days ago I bought two packets of natto (Japanese fermented soy beans) from my local Asian grocery store. I was curious with its infamous slimy, sticky texture and pungent (and many people say 'repulsive') smell. I was ready to pinch my nose when I opened my first ever natto packet, expecting strong, unpleasant odour. Strangely enough, I didn't find the smell to be repulsive at all, it didn't smell that strong either. I actually thought that it smelled like roasted peanuts...;). The texture is but a whole new different level. After I stirred the fermented beans several times together with the soy sauce and mustard included in the packet, the beans got very gooey and slimy - which certainly didn't look very appetising at all, but I had expected this, since I had been doing some research on natto beforehand.

I know that natto is a popular accompaniment to steamed rice usually eaten for breakfast in Japan. I wasn't ready to try it as it was though, the texture was quite a turn off, but I could somehow imagine that it would taste great when the gooey texture is gone.

And boy was I right! I found some natto recipes while browsing the net and the idea I l liked most was Natto Fried Rice. If you're a vegetarian, I strongly recommend you to give this natto fried rice a try. I am usually quite carnivorous, but I was able to enjoy this natto fried without adding any kind of meat or fish.

Natto Fried Rice

Adapted from Just Bento

• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 packet natto (mixed with soy sauce and mustard included in the natto packet)
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce (alternative: Worcestershire sauce)
• 2 Tbsp chopped scallion
• White pepper to taste

Mix the egg with a packet of natto. Fry the natto/egg mixture with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Add brown rice, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir-fry for a few minutes and mix well. Toss in the chopped scallion and white pepper. Stir-fry for another minute. Serve.

Sitting on top of the natto fried rice a dragonfly made out of cheese, purple potato, nori and takuan.  The side dishes include four baby carrots, two ham flowers, soy sauce egg, radish, two cherry tomatoes and one takuan rose.

It's public holiday in Germany tomorrow. I hope I'll be able to come up with another bento :).

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

Instructions

• 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.
  

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

Instructions

• 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.
  

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
  

Instructions

• 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

Instructions

• 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.
  

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 ;).
  

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.

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
  

Instructions

• 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

Instructions

• 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.
  

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 :)!

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

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

Instructions

• 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'.

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.

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!

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 :).

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!

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
  

Instructions

• 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.