Yearly Archives: 2009

Mid-September Bento

Nothing extraordinary here, just the continuation of leftover mixed with new sweets.

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Sept 16th – Vegetable Korma with Jalapeno Sausage; Pineapple-Coconut yogurt with “Harvest” (ハーベスト) cookies

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Sept 18th – Green Tea Day! Ochazuke; Matcha Castella (with a thin layer of adzuki on top I think)

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Sept 21st – Summer Corn Chowder; Sesame Chicken
Sept 22nd – More Ochazuke; Zucchini Bread
Sept 23rd – Customized MojoMix Granola; Cup Noodles

I’ve been really lazy recently, but I’m trying to use up what’s in the refrigerator since we are going on Vacation soon!

Carte Postale d’Indonésie

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Diana from Bento Concept and her friend KaraChiwie have started traveling around the world with bento. The first stop was Italy and the next stop is Indonesia (October 5th). Bento Concept has amazingly cute bento. Even though the site is written in French, Diana provides a short English summary at the bottom.  Everyone is welcome to join the bento-around-the-world adventure!

Bottom tier (brown): Egg sheet; baby spinach; tofu noodles cooked with carrot, fish sauce, coconut lime dressing, ginger lime sauce, and soy sauce, Baby elephant made out of konnyaku and cooked in sesame oil with cheese decorations [I personally think the elephant looks like a mouse and my boyfriend said it could be an anteater too].

Top tier (orange): Spicy green beans with shrimp paste, curried chicken skewers, konnyaku and carrot with tofu sesame sauce. Under the noodles is an orange container filled with peanut sauce.

I’ve never been to Indonesia, but my boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend taught there for a while. I didn’t want to do the typical fried rice nasi goreng but wanted to get the range of flavors available in Indonesia. And Indonesia is also famous for elephants.

This was actually my first -ever- attempt at kyaraben キャラ弁 with the little elephant. I have once again proven that though I can come up with creative ideas, my execution (mind to hand) is lacking. How do I solve this problem and become craftier??

Curried Chicken Lime Skewers with Lime-Apricot Glaze

Skewers

By the time we finished making dinner Wednesday, we were absolutely famished.  Hence this hurried, low-quality shot.

This recipe came from SeriousEats’ “Eat for Eight Bucks” section. We actually had all of the ingredients except curry powder and the chicken, so our cost was considerably less. It was fairly easy and quick to make. The only reason I this recipe took so long is because I trimmed the chicken very meticulously (even though the chicken was “hand-trimmed”).  Once the chicken was all cut up, it was about 12 minutes to cook and 3 minutes total to make the marinade and dipping sauce. I was afraid that since the chicken didn’t marinade before cooking that the meat would be bland, but the meat was juicy and flavorful. The chicken passed the test to go into the “we’ll-make-this-again cookbook”, but the sauce didn’t–we were split 50/50 on it.

Curried Chicken Lime Skewers with Lime-Apricot Glaze

  • 1/8 c. lime juice
  • 1/8 c. soy sauce
  • 1/8 c. apricot or peach jam
  • 1tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2-inch section ginger, coarsely chopped (or ginger powder)
  • 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • Sweet-and-tangy peanut dipping sauce (optional; recipe follows)

Set skewers aside to soak in water. Purée all the marinade ingredients in a blender. If making peanut dipping sauce (recipe follows), reserve about 1/5 of the marinade before it comes into contact with the raw chicken and set aside. Trim and cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Skewer the chicken, leaving enough room at the end to grab onto later. Pour the marinade over the chicken pieces. Preheat the broiler for at least 5 minutes and position the rack so that the skewers will be 3 inches from the heat source. Line a baking tray with aluminum foil. Place each skewer on the pan, arranging them so that the meat is in the center of the pan and the skewers slightly hang over the outside, and slide into the broiler. Broil until the chicken develops a few char spots, about 5 to 6 minutes. Turn each piece over to brown the other side, an additional 5 to 6 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Test for doneness by cutting into the thickest part of the skewer.Serve with peanut dipping sauce and/or lime wedges for squeezing.

Sweet-and-Tangy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Reserve about 1/5 of the marinade before it has come into contact with the raw chicken. Take desired amount of peanut butter and dilute with enough marinade so that a dipping consistency is reached.

Konnyaku and Carrot Tossed in Creamy Tofu Sauce (こんにゃくと人参の白和え)

shiraae

This was part two of this month’s Washoku Warrior challenge. The first part was Saikyou Yaki (Miso-Marinated Broiled Fish). Oh so many things went wrong with this recipe.

I made the sauce (shira ae) first. I think I squeezed too much water out of the tofu, and I used firm tofu. For this sauce I should have used a silkier tofu and I should have used a food processor. I thought that this yet another time that I could get away with using a blender instead, but it didn’t work. I tried adding in more liquid and the sauce was still very dry, like a dough.

I also chose to use instant dashi granules instead of homemade dashi stock, but for some reason the container does not have any instructions on how to create the stock using the granules. I used about a teaspoon for a 1/2 cup, which is double the amount I was supposed to use (apparently?).

Even though there were a lot of components to the dish that made it take much longer to make than I thought it would, I loved the complexity the final dish’s flavor had. It was sweet, salty; light and rich. All at the same time. It’s not pretty to look at, but now that I’ve made it I’ll be including it in every bento for this week and eating it whenever I can.

Faralle Arcobaleno & Anpanman Quiz

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My boyfriend made dinner last night and I convinced him to make some extra so I could pack it for lunch (see my sneakiness?). He packed it in the bento box I originally got him. Later in the night I took it out of the fridge and smushed the pasta over some to make room for half of a custard bun, some raisins and an Anpanman chocolate! The Anpanman character is actually Baikinman (ばいきんまん) which means “bacteria man”. The chocolate came with a trivia question too:

アンパンマンクイズ
Anpanman Quiz

ジャムおじさんがつくった メロンパンで できてるこだあれ?
Who is the girl Uncle Jam created out of the melon bread he made?

(こたえ)
Answer

メロンパンナちゃん
Melon Panna-chan

The pasta is rainbow bowties that I picked up on sale from World Market. The Italian word for it is faralle arcobaleno. The sauce is just jarred tomato sauce from Whole Foods with added basil and some jalapeno chicken sausage. The basil is homegrown by the way~ (not my house–my boyfriend’s mom’s). I wrapped everything up in a Totoro handkerchief that I bought from the loveghibli store. Surprisingly, the handkerchief is two centimeters larger than my furoshiki that I also ordered from there.