Diana from Bento Concept and her friend KaraChiwie are still traveling around the world with bento. Last month was Indonesia and this month is Japan! Since Japan is the birthplace of bento, Bento Concept chose to make the Japan stop have maki as a requirement. I haven’t made sushi in several years, but this sushi was okay. Everyone is welcome to join the bento-around-the-world adventure!
Top tier: salmon maki and grapes
Bottom tier(s): ingredients for enoki/scallion/shirataki/egg miso
For this month’s Washoku Warriors, the theme was vinegar. We had to make Tangy Seared Chicken Wings with the choice to make one or more of the following: Tart Miso-Mustard Sauce, Classic Sweet-and-Sour Sauce, Kelp & Mushroom Relish, and Red & White Radishes. It seems like a lot, but I was actually able to make all of the recipes and also made a vinegar-based Salted Plum Dressing and Enoki Miso Soup.
The image above is the Chicken, Miso-Mustard Sauce, and a salad with plum dressing. There seemed to be a lot of prep work involved in the chicken but I didn’t like the flavor profile. I chose to use chicken thighs instead of wings, but our local supermarket only had boneless, skinless thighs. Even though I know all of the ingredients that went into this dish were Asian, the end result tasted like Chicken Marsala. The sauce was was too strong for me, and was mostly miso instead tart or mustard-y. Unfortunately, we both agreed that the best part of this dish was the non-Washoku related salad.
I used the sweet and sour sauce to make the red & white radishes (this is a very versatile recipe!). I chose to use the pink, ume-su based sauce instead of the rice-vinegar and kombu based one. I haven’t had an opportunity to try the radishes that much, but I have mixed feelings. I like my radishes smaller and the sauce seemed a bit strong and dirty (maybe from the radishes). I prefer Just Bento’s version since it tastes better and is seems easier to make.
I haven’t tried the Kelp-Mushroom Relish yet, but I did make it! I tried to make onigiri with it as a filling, but the relish was too wet. I made inari with the relish as a topping and will take a picture and my thoughts later. The relish is a good way to use up leftovers, but I did not like cutting the many squares of kombu. I chose to cut them into half-inch strips, which was tedious when cutting almost twenty squares of seaweed (I halved the recipe). My cutting board got a bit slimy after a while too.
I had full plans to make the soup the way the book laid it out, but my tofu had gone bad! I was just going to use enoki and scallion, but I dropped an egg in for some added protein. I realized I don’t like enoki or scallion and the miso didn’t dissolve into the soup so I had one nasty bite that was just miso.
I made these snickerdoodles early Sunday morning (Oct 4th) for my Dad’s birthday. He loves Guava Chiffon Pie, macaroons, shoefly pie (I think), and snickerdoodles. He likes coconut and hates chocolate, so I thought I’d try my hand at the easiest recipe out of the bunch. Unfortunately, I cooked these on the broiler rack (~3″ from the top of the stove), so they didn’t cook that evenly. They also seemed a little too buttery for my taste, but it might be because I didn’t incorporate the butter/crisco as well as I should have. When making the balls, I found a whole chunk of butter not even blended into the batter. I chucked it out, but these were still too rich for me. I think I’ll try Smitten Kitchen or Bakerella‘s version next. This recipe was from my boyfriend’s mother. We’ve both had her cookies using this recipe and they taste so much better, I wonder what else went wrong on my end?
Snickerdoodles
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix Crisco, butter, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Sift together dry ingredients and mix in. Roll into small balls. Roll balls in mixture of 2 T. sugar and 2 t. cinnamon. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes.
Oct 1st – Bacon flavored turkey half-sandwich with hummus and lettuce’ chocolate harvest cookies; grapes; lemon yogurt
Oct 2nd – Veggie fried rice; salad; grapes; bunny(?) with homemade salted plum dressing; anpanman chocolate
A local restaurant, Zentan, has a salad with a dressing that I really like. The only problem with this dressing is that it has insane ingredients and weird proportions. You can see the full recipe here, but I tried to quarter it and skip the blender step.
Whisk until all ingredients combined. If you want a smoother texture, place in blender and purée until smooth.
In a medium saucepan set over high heat, combine all the ingredients. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Decrease the heat to medium-high and cook for another 5 minutes, then decrease the heat to medium. Cook the mixture for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions and leeks are crispy and brown. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the oil into a bowl through cheesecloth. Discard the solids. Let the oil cool before transferring it to a jar. Keeps in the fridge for up to 1 month (which is good considering the dressing only calls for a little bit of it)