Bento 23 November 07

My second bento for this month! Onigiris with furikake is the "main course" for this bento. Side dish includes blanched cauliflower, carrots, cherry tomatoes and the star of this bento - chicken egg roll!! Saw the recipe from a bento cook book I purchased some time ago and was keen to give it a try cos it looks fantastic inside any bento lunch box. :p

Ingredients are generally easy to prepare but the tricky part is the rolling of the minced chicken and scrambled eggs around the long beans and carrot sticks. I actually did not manage to do it on my first attempt and I have to do it again the second round before I was successful. Even then, I think it was not as well done and I would have to do a better job again the next round.

Chicken Egg rolls (makes 1 roll about 7 -8 pieces)
Ingredients
50g minced chicken
2 tblsp beaten egg
2 tblsp breadcrumbs
1/4 onion, diced finely
A pinch of salt

2 eggs, beaten
Long beans, cut into small long sections
Carrots, cut into sticks

Method
1. Mixed minced chicken, 2 tblsp egg, breadcrumbs, onions and salt together in a bowl. Set aside for use later.
2. Scramble the eggs in a pan till they are firm but not dry. Remove from heat.
3. Place a piece of aluminium foil over sushi mat. Oil it slightly.
4. Spread the minced chicken mixture over the aluminium foil followed by scrambled eggs.
5. Place the long beans and carrot sticks in the middle.
6. Roll the chicken egg roll the same way as sushi.
7. Steam the roll for about 7 -8 mins. Cut into 7 -8 pieces before packing into bento box.

Mini Donuts

Donuts craze has come to Singapore and it is not uncommon to see long queues forming at donut outlets at any time of the day or any day of the week. Rather than queuing up to an hour for donuts at these chains, I decided to make my own this weekend. After all, I like to cook and bake and it is an opportunity to have fun along the way.



I have already decided to make other varieties besides the normal glazed donuts (those with icing sugar on them). So I went to the store to buy the ingredients for the donuts topping and before I know, I have chopped peanuts, sliced almonds, strawberry shavings, baking chocolate, coloured rice, frosting, icing sugar..........I am quite sure I will definitely eat more than one since it's very likely I would try all the different variety to have a feel of how each of them taste. So to make sure that I don't "over" eat, I decided to make small mini donuts. This way, I can have more than one at one go without having to feel too guilty. :p



The donuts were pretty easy to make, from the kneading, the shaping using the donut cutter, the proofing and the frying part. The hard or the tedious part is actually the "decoration" of the mini donuts. Being mini, they are actually quite a handful to handle especially frosting and adding the toppings on them. Maybe I have clumsy fingers which explains why I find this decorating part difficult. *lol* But the biggest surprise of the day is that my dad is also very enthusiatic about the donut making! Wow, I have to say I am very surprised cos my dad seldom give me a second look when I am baking or cooking at home. So I was quite surprised when he offer to fry the donuts and volunteer to help decorating them.......and guess what? Both of us have lots of fun doing it.



Took me about 3 hours, from preparation, waiting for the donuts to raise, frying and decorating them. The eating takes a shorter time......hahaha.....generally, old folks at home like the traditional glaze donuts, say it's less sweet while young kids like the donuts with chocolate toppings and strawberry shavings.....definitely will make these donuts again!

Black Pepper Chicken Bento 161107

Hooray! Finally got down to cooking and packing my first bento after "hanging" up my pots and pans for weeks. Hahaha. Since I have not been cooking for ages, I thought I had better stick with a simple bento. Black pepper chicken stir fried with green pepper is a breeze to prepare with ready mix black pepper sauce. I am a big fan of those ready to use sauces as they are such a great help in coming out with nice and decent looking meals without having to spend too much time preparing the ingredients from scratch. However, I am always conscious not to use too much or too often because of the high salt content in most of these sauces. In any case, this is a good sauce and the green pepper really enhance the taste of the black pepper. I will definitely do more of this..........:)

Black Pepper Chicken Stir Fry with Green Pepper
Ingredients
1 pc chicken breast (you can use other chicken parts) cut into cubes
Half a green pepper cut into cubes
1 tblsp black pepper sauce (I use NTUC brand)
1 tblsp water
Cooking oil

Method
1. Heat oil in non-stick pan.
2. Stir fry green pepper and chicken until chicken is almost cooked.
3. Add black pepper sauce and water and continue to stir fry till sauce starts to boil.
4. Remove from heat and serve hot over a plate of white rice.

Ham Pasta Salad

I have not been cooking for the past few weeks. Finally decided to cook something simple for tomorrow so that I don't have to get out of office in the wet weather just to get lunch. It has been raining almost everyday and it can be quite a hassle to go out into the wet. As I don't have much ingredients at home, the simplest thing I can think of is to cook pasta. I have always been a fan of pasta salad and so here it is.

Ham Pasta Salad
Ingredients
Pasta of your choice (I use spiral pasta)
Ham, cut into cubes (I use Gourmet brand Chix n Ham roll)
Green pepper, cut into cubes
Cherry or honey tomatoes
2 tblsp mayonnaise
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tblsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp mustard

Method
1. Boil pasta till al dente.
2. Drain and run under tap water. Set aside for use later.
3. In a big bowl, mix mayo, olive oil, vinegar, mustard together.
4. Add ham, pepper and cherry/honey tomatoes to cooked pasta.
5. Toast them together with the sauce in step 3.
6. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving or eating.

Sushi for Lunch

My niece wanted to eat "sushi with the egg on top" and requested that I made them for her this weekend. As I have a craving for sushi myself, decided to make a few other varieties for lunch today. I made tamago nigiri sushi (sushi with egg on top), inari sushi (rice in a tofu puff pouch) and jumbo sushi roll. I used "sweetened" tofu puff purchased from Cold Storage (Misuzu brand - in the frozen food section). It is pre-cooked and sealed in 2 individual packet of 8 inari pouches. I just need to defroze them and it definitely saves me a lot of time compared to if I had to cook them from scratch. And they have a sweetness to it which goes well with the vinegar rice and toppings you added. In case you are wondering why my tamago sushi looks weird, they do not have seaweed around them cos my niece don't like seaweed and so they are bare of weed.....*LOL* Making the tamago is a bit tricky though. Control of the heat is crucial to ensure your eggs don't burnt and yet not too wet for you to fold it up. Lunch in a box has a very good illustration on how to make the egg omelet(www.lunchinabox.net).

Inari Sushi


Ingredients
Cooked sushi rice
8 Inari tofu pocket
Canned tuna flakes (drained and mixed with mayonnaise)
3-4 imitation crabsticks (boiled and shredded then mixed with mayonnaise)
Slices of cucumber

Method:
1. Fill the tofu pouches with sufficient cooked sushi rice (about 2/3 full). Use a metal spoon to press the rice down slightly so that they do not drop off so easily when you bite into them.
2. Top with tuna mayo or crabstick mayo.
3. Add slices of cucumber on the side of the tofu pouches.

Jumbo Sushi Roll


Ingredients
Cooked sushi rice
Seaweed
Tuna mayo
Boiled imitation crabstick (sliced each crabstick into 4 long sticks)
Tamago (sliced into long sticks)

Method
1. Place seaweed (shiny side down) on bamboo sushi mat.
2. Spread sushi rice on the seaweed leaving about 1cm at the front and 2 cm at the end of the seaweed uncovered.
3. Arrange crabstick, tamago and tuna near the edge of the seaweed.
4. Place your thumb under the bamboo mat while holding the ingredients in with your second and third finger, start to roll the sushi tightly.
5. Unroll the mat and cut the roll into 8 pieces. Wet the knife between each cut.

Tamago Eggs
(makes 2 tamago egg rolls)
Ingredients
4 eggs
3 tbsp of dashi stock
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce

Method
1. In a bowl, crack the eggs and mix all the seasoning into the bowl. Stir gently.
2. Grease a rectangle omelet pan with oil (I used kitchen paper folded into a small square and dipped it into oil for greasing the pan).
3. Heat up the pan under medium flame. When it gets hot, pour half a ladleful of the egg mixture in, tilting the pan to ensure the egg mixture spread from corner to corner.
4. When the egg is set (slightly wet on the surface), fold the egg towards you to make a 3-fold egg omelet.
5. Rub the surface of the pan with the oiled kitchen paper. Slide the omelet to the far end of the rectangle pan and oil the other end as well.
6. Pour another ladle of the egg mixture, lifting the egg roll made in step 4 to ensure the egg mixture gets underneath the egg roll. Roll the egg omelet towards you when it is set. Repeat until all the egg mixture is used up.
7. Take out from pan and slice into thick slices

Cranberry & Chocolate Chip Muffins

I was browsing through my stack of cookbooks and recipe books when I stumble across my old Home Economics textbook which I used way back in my secondary school days. As I flip through the book, i came across a muffin recipe which I used to like when it was taught during one of my lessons. Memories of the muffins we used to bake came back and I decide to "revive" the recipe. *LOL* The original recipe calls for raisins. I added cranberry in one batch and chocolate chips in another and they taste just as good. Folks at home like it cos it is just the right consistency, not too moist or dry and most importantly it is not too sweet.

Cranberry/Chocolate Chip Muffins
(makes about 10-11 muffins)

Ingredients
200g plain flour
150g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
150g butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g sweetened dried cranberry/100g chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk to mix

Method
1. Sift flour and baking powder.
2. Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer till light and fluffy.
3. Add in beaten egg gradually and continue to cream.
4. Fold in the flour n cranberry (or chocolate chips if baking the chocolate chip muffins) using a metal spoon.
5. Add sufficient milk to form a soft dropping consistency.
6. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full with the batter and bake on 200C oven for 15mins.
7. Cool baked muffins on trays and stored them in air tight containers.