A very simple but delicious bento today: spicy shrimp fried rice  served with slices of hard-boiled egg, cherry tomatoes and pickled carrot salad.

Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 10 - 20 pieces of shrimps
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped and seeded bird's eye chili
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Sugar and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped green onions

Instructions

• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan.
• Add minced garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute.
• Toss in the chopped chili and  stir-fry for another minute.
• Add shrimps and fish sauce and keep stirring until the shrimps turn pink.
• Quickly toss in the rice, oyster sauce and sugar. Mix well.
• Add chopped green onions and pepper to taste. Keep stirring for another minute.
• Serve with a few slices of hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, pickled carrot salad, lettuce and a  slice of tangerine.

 

 

This is another simple bento which you can whip up within minutes, provided that you have all of the ingredients ready. And please do use fresh rice-noodles if you could, it'd make such a huge difference...!

Ingredients:

• 250 g fresh rice-noodles
• 100 ground pork (or chicken)
• 100 bean sprouts
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbs fish sauce
• 2 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tbs sambal oelek
• 1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
• white pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat oil in a wok.
• Add the ground pork. Stir fry for 2 minutes.
• Add fish sauce, sambal oelek and oyster sauce. Simmer for 1 minute.
• Quickly add the noodles and stir until well combined.
• Toss in the bean sprouts, green onions and sprinkle a dash of pepper. Stir fry for another 1 minute. Serve.
• Top with slices of boiled egg, carved radish and a dollop of chili sambal :).

 

Today I made sesame noodles for lunch. If I remember it correctly, this must be my first ever vegetarian bento...! I am not vegetarian and I am not thinking to be one either, but I have to say having meatless meals from time to time can be very tasty...! 

Sesame Noodles

Serves 2

• 200 grams spaghetti, cooked until al dente
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp chili oil
• 2 Tbsp sesame paste (or peanut butter, if you don't have sesame paste)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp chopped scallion
• sugar, to taste
• chili flakes, to taste
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish
• Toppings: cucumber slices, radish, cherry tomatoes

Mix cooked noodles with the rest of the ingredients and topped with refreshing cucumber, radish and cherry tomatoes.

 

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.
  

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

Instructions

• 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 :)!

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 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

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).

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.

Instructions

• 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 :)!

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

Instructions

• 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.
  

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'.

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

Instructions

• 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* ;).

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!

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.
  

Yesterday I received my newest bento box from CasaBento. I didn't actually expect the bento box to be THAT gorgeous...! When I saw the bento box in CasaBento's site, I thought it looked nice, but I only thought of that as one of many nice bento boxes and that it was nothing so special. I decided to get this bento box with Ikebana design because I was simply looking for another design and shape to add to my bento box collection. What I received yesterday was beyond my expectation. You can feel the quality just by looking at it. By the way, I am not exaggerating at the moment and I don't praise this new bento box so much just because CasaBento is my sponsor, when I am not so happy with one of their products, I'll write about it too ;).

Just look at this beauty...!

It's got plastic lids to cover each of the bento container.

This bento box is also microwave and dishwasher safe, but you should remove the plastic lids before you put the bento box in the microwave.

As some of you might have known, CasaBento is a French-based online bento- supplies shop. I had seen CasaBento logo in some bento-related sites for some time, but I never thought about buying anything there, because I was just not used to buy anything online which was not from Amazon. I usually buy my books from Amazon and have always found their service reliable, this was also the reason which led me to buy my first bento box via Amazon. I was actually totally happy with my purchase there and even thought that the box was rather expensive but still quite reasonably-priced. But then, because I couldn't find more interesting bento boxes to buy from Amazon, I started to look around in other online shops and I was especially looking for Europe-based online shops to have less expensive shipping cost. Suddenly I remembered CasaBento again and went to their site and browsed their products. Then I saw my first bento box there and got quite annoyed, because I noticed that the exact bento box which I bought in Amazon was twice more expensive than the one in CasaBento...! Not very nice, but one lesson learned was, 'always compare prices' ;).

This was our dinner - very simple duck fried rice topped with slices of cucumber and cheese sakura blossoms. Next to the fried rice you can see one ham rose (I intend to do a tutorial on this in about one week's time when I have more free time), a few pieces of edamame, three pieces of blanched baby carrots, one cherry tomato, one piece of radish and lettuce.

The top box is filled with several pieces of grapes and strawberries, lettuce border, two pieces of mini Cordon Bleu, two ham roses and one slice of tamagoyaki.

Simple Duck Fried Rice - serves 2

• 1 cup cooked rice (better when one day old)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 100 grams roasted duck breast, cut into cubes (I like buying pre-made duck breast to save time)
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 egg
• 2 -3 tablespoons chopped green onions

Instructions:

• Heat up your wok to high. Add 2 tbs oil.
• Add duck breast and fish sauce and stir fry for 1 minute.
• Quickly toss in the rice, oyster sauce and sweet soy sauce. Stir fry for another 1 minute.
• Push rice to one side of the wok and make scrambled egg on the other side.
• Mix rice and scrambled egg well.
• Add chopped green onions and white pepper and stir well before serving.

This fried rice is super simple because it doesn't use garlic or shallots. There are times when I am even too lazy to peel and mince garlic/shallots and this afternoon is one of those days ;). I can nevertheless guarantee that this fried rice still tastes super good! Chopped green onions can compensate the missing garlic...!

I knew I had to make Chasu Miso Ramen after I saw the recipe in Nami's beautiful site - Just One Cookbook. The recipe sounded quite simple and not as time-consuming as when you want to make ramen noodle soups that use pork bones for the stock. Since I love shortcuts, I was totally sold on the idea of using ground pork for the stock which makes the cooking time much shorter, around 40 minutes in total. This is the second time I make homemade miso ramen. I got the recipe for my first miso ramen from a cooking-themed manga 'Oishinbo' ;). It was delicious too, but Nami's ramen tastes better, especially because of the gorgeous chasu (Japanese BBQ pork). I am sure I will make more chasu in the future, it's so easy to make and tastes absolutely wonderful!

I did make a few changes to the recipe because I didn't have everything requested from the original recipe, such as bean sprouts and pickled ginger, but all in all, I tried to follow Nami's recipe quite religiously.

Ingredients - serves 2

Homemade Chasu

• 250 - 300 grams pork belly
• 1 tablespoon dashi powder
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sake
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1-2 inches ginger, sliced
• 1 stalk spring onion, sliced

Miso Ramen

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 100 gram ground pork
• 1 tablespoon hot bean paste
• 3 tablespoons miso
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon dashi powder (or salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 4 cups boiling water
• 2 servings fresh ramen noodles (if you want to make fresh ramen noodles yourself, you can see the recipe in my old post here)

Toppings

• Homemade chasu
• Corn kernels
• Blanched asparagus
• Semi hard-boiled egg
• Blanced baby carrots
• Green onions
• Radish

Instructions

Homemade Chasu

• Cut the pork belly into 6 cm pieces and rub with dashi powder.
• Brown the pork belly pieces in a non-stick pan.
• While browning the pork belly, pour water, soy sauce, sake, sugar, ginger and spring onions to a saucepan.
• Transfer the browned pork belly pieces to the saucepan. Cook the meat over medium heat and when it starts to simmer, lower the heat and continue cooking (and occasionally turning the meat) until the liquid is almost gone.
• When bubbles start to appear, you'll notice that the liquid starts to caramelise and gets slightly sticky. You can turn off the heat now.
• Cut the meat into thin slices and serve.

Miso Ramen

• Heat sesame oil over medium heat. Add minced garlic, shallot and ginger and fry until slightly brown.
• Add minced meat and stir-fry for one minute.
• Add hot bean paste, sake, sugar, dashi powder, ground sesame seeds and pepper and stir-fry until aromatic.
• Add boiling water and lower down the heat before adding the miso paste. Stir and keep warm.
• Meanwhile, cook ramen noodles for 1.5 - 2 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl.
• Add your favourite toppings and pour the ramen stock. Enjoy!

I had always wanted to make something with wild rice, but never did so until today. I was curious with its texture and taste. Unfortunately I think the wild rice being sold in German supermarkets are not pure wild rice but a mixture of long-grain rice and wild rice. This mixture does nevertheless make nice colour-combo.

I have been bentoing too much the last few weeks, that's why today I decided to make a normal meal, it did save me time in the kitchen too :).

I bought a jar of XO sauce a few months ago but it was mainly left in the fridge because I didn't really know what to do with it. I can be an impulsive buyer, that's why I have a lot of things in the fridge which finally go bad. This doesn't impress my husband at all because he is by nature a very organised person - I am the messy one at home, haha ;). This fried wild rice recipe was actually made mainly to clean up my fridge. It was nevertheless very very tasty and is worth a try!

Ingredients - serves 3 - 4

• 2 cups cooked wild rice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 Spanish onion, sliced
  
• 3 seeded bird's eye chillies, sliced thinly
  
• 100 grams shrimps
• 100 grams cuttlefish
  
• 4-5 fish balls, sliced thinly
• 1 Chinese sausage, sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons XO sauce
  
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 cup green onions, sliced thinly

Instructions

• Heat up your wok to high. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil.
  
• Add minced garlic, chilli slices, Chinese sausage, fish balls, cuttlefish and shrimps and fry until the garlic and seafood are slightly charred.
  
• Add Spanish onion and fish sauce. Stir fry for 1 minute.
• Quickly add the wild rice, XO sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry for another 1 minute.
• Add green onions before serving and mix well.
• Serve your fried wild rice with scrambled egg, vegetables and fruit of your choice.
  

The peppers and cucumbers look quite big in this photo, but actually they're mini peppers and cucumbers, just about 8 cm long! I bought them because I thought they would look good in bento boxes ;).

By the way, I would also like to say thank you to Krisi for giving me the Golden Bento-Blog Award below :D). She is a student in Germany who loves Japan, cooking and dogs. Her aim is to collect as many bento blogs as possible in her site, so that it would be easier for her and other people to visit bento related blogs. Ganz herzlichen Dank, Krisi :D)!!