Halloween Bento - Green Eyed Wizards

To be honest, I have never celebrated Halloween in my life. Even though I am quite fond of watching thriller and horror films ;), I was never interested to join in the 'fun' of Halloween.

This is the first time that I make Halloween-themed meal, which, I am aware, looks more cute than scary :-). Well, I don't really like the idea of disgusting-looking food. It's interesting to see, but I don't think that I have the guts to eat something that looks like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs ;).

I have seen so many other bento sites with Halloween-themed bentos. Today I finally had the chance to make one as well!

I made two soy-sauce flavoured wizard rice balls. Somehow the wizards look a bit like Powerpuff Girls ;)! I guess, it's because of the humongous eyes! I used cucumber to make the green eyes, nori for the pupil and goat cheese for the shiny, starry-eyed look. The wizard's hat is from nori and cheese.

The three little Jack-o-lanterns are quail eggs which I coloured with orange food colouring. I also made two radish Jack Skellington look-alikes (next time I'll make the eyes bigger!)

Happy Halloween, everyone! I will spend the evening watching a horror film with my husband :-).

Basil Pesto Linguine with Crunchy Pork Cutlet

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.
  

Coconut Chicken Bento

Two days ago I made this bento for my husband. It contains rice sprinkled with black sesame seeds topped with umebosi, stir-fried coconut chicken, two rolls of chicken sushi maki, three pieces of pan-fried gyoza and salad.

My husband really liked the stir-fried coconut chicken. Unlike me who prefers her soups and noodles, he would always opt for wok dishes.

Stir-Fried Coconut Chicken - serves 2

• 2 chicken fillets, cut into bite-size pieces
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon Maggi seasoning
• 1/4 cup cooking wine
• 1/2 cup coconut juice
• 1/2 cup cabbage, sliced thinly
  
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Instructions

• Heat oil in a wok and saute chicken over medium high heat until lightly browned.
• Add garlic, onion, cabbage, soy sauce, Maggi seasoning, salt, sugar and pepper. Stir-fry for around 2 minutes.
• Pour in cooking wine and coconut juice and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• Add green onions and stir lightly before serving.
  

Happy Brown Bears Bento

Hey, guys! How are you all doing? I am enjoying my weekend here, even though I still need to finish some household chores like dusting and vacuuming the floor...:(

I made another bear-themed bento today, so boring I know, but at least the bears this week are brown and the the ones last week were white ;).

The brown bear onigiris are made from soy-sauce seasoned rice. The eyes are from konbu, nori and white rice and the nose from gouda cheese and the smiley from nori.

I also made some kimbap filled with tamagoyaki, crabstick, avocado and mayo. Kimbap tastes very similar to sushi, but the rice is seasoned quite differently. The rice for kimbap typically also uses some sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds, instead of just plain vinegar, salt and sugar.

I also had some homemade pan-fried gyoza, store-bought BBQ chicken wings and cucumber kimchi in my bento.

Two Hungry Bears Bento

I had wanted to make another picnic bento for some time. Even though picnic bento requires more time to make, it's totally fun to see the end result - at least for me :). I thought about making many different types of onigiri with various colours, shapes and so on, but I got too lazy in the process, so I ended up making plain white onigiri only. Well, I did add a bit of chopped umeboshi (pickled plum) and chopped green onions to the triangular onigiri and toasted black sesame seeds to the round-shaped onigiri, just to make sure that my bento doesn't look too boring.

The beautiful bento box is from CasaBento. It's called 'Bento Box Petals Jyubako Red'. This bento box is perfect for picnic, because it's quite spacious (height: 11 cm, width: 19,3 cm and length: 19,3 cm).

As you can see the bento box has two compartments. The top part comes with a plastic lid on.

When you open the plastic lid, you'll see that top compartment has two extra small compartments which can be removed as you wish.

My triangular onigiris are filled with prawn tempura and mayonnaise and the circular onigiris are filled with chicken katsu and cucumber. If you have been following my blog for some time, I am sure you have noticed that I am very fond of tempura and chicken katsu, as they make their appearances in my bento boxes on a quite regular basis ;).

I also made tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) and this time, I added slices of black olives and chopped umeboshi and green onions - a real great combo by the way! I really like how the umeboshi makes the omelet tastes slightly sour :).

The two hungry bears are also onigiris filled with chicken katsu, cucumber and mayo. The hats worn by the bears are food picks which I also got from CasaBento. I think they look really adorable....)!!

Next to the bears are pasta salad (pasta, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, dried basil, black pepper, a pinch of sugar olive oil and chopped parsley) and a few slices of mandarin and two pieces of chocolate.

Pink Bunny-Bears Bento

These two little creatures look like a hybrid of a bear and a rabbit, that's why I name this bento 'Pink Bunny-Bears Bento' :). This bento was made yesterday, mainly just for fun, really. I still had a bit of pink rice left after I made the Mameshiba bento, and I didn't want to throw it away, so I thought why not make another simple bento?

The two pink onigiri balls are filled with umeboshi (pickled plum). There is also a heart tamagoyaki decorated with cheese flower.

Deluxe Bento

This is the other bento which I made yesterday. I call it 'Deluxe bento' because I think it looks quite festive :).

I don't use this bento box very often because it's very big, but I think it's great for special occasions, even though this bento wasn't made to celebrate anything.

So now let's see what's inside :) - rice sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and pickled plum (umeboshi), two pieces of fried kimchi dumplings, a few slices of carrot/green onion tamagoyaki, chicken katsu, salad (carrot and cucumber sticks) and chicken teriyaki.

Enjoy with a bowl of miso soup and a few slices of mandarin!

Mameshiba Bento

I am amazed by how productive I have been (in the kitchen, that is) this week despite of not having any holidays...:-)! I even made 3 bento lunches today ;)!! This Mameshiba bento was the first one I made, I also made another more traditional one for my husband and the third one was a simple bento I created just for fun - but I'll save these two other bentos for another post :).

I have made a Mameshiba bento in the past. If you want to know what Mameshiba is, you can read it in my previous bento post featuring Mameshiba here.

I really like the little flowers with the little yellow birds - things you can do with cookie cutters...!! The flowers and birds are from cheese by the way, and the red dots are from chili sauce.

The other bento box is filled with chicken teriyaki, tamagoyaki, kimchi gyoza and salad.

Before I end this post, I would like to say thank you to Arudhi from A Box of Kitchen for passing me the Versatile Blogger Award :)!! She's got many beautiful recipes in her blog, do pay her a visit, it's worth it :D)!

I have just recently written 7 things about myself - so please hop over here if you're interested to read it :).

Till next time!!

Froggy Sushi Bento

I made this bento yesterday: maki sushi filled with chicken katsu, lettuce, mayo, egg and kani, two slices of carrot/green onion tamagoyaki and frog quail eggs.

Cheeky Little Bears Bento

This is another bento which I made yesterday. I used my bear sandwich cutter to cut out the bear shapes and I used a nori puncher to make the facial details.

The round bento box contains Korean-style stir-fried chicken, cucumber and grape tomatoes.

Little Chicks in Nappies Bento

I had noticed that I have quite a lot of cookie/bento cutters which I hardly ever use. Since I didn't really know what to make anyway, I decided to experiment with my cutters and the little chicks in nappies bento is the result.

The chicks are made from gouda cheese, the beaks and the feet are from carrot, the hair and the eyes from nori, the red cheeks from chili sauce and the nappies from goat cheese.

The two mini umbrellas are made out of cucumber, decorated with goat cheese and nori.

The branch of the tree is from nori and the leaves from cucumber and the two mini hearts are from radish.

The other bento box is filled with store-bought fried shrimps coated with potato noodles, homemade ebi fry and Korean-style stir-fried chicken with green peppers.

Spicy Ramen with Pan-Fried Gyoza

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 ;).
  

Homemade Japanese Lunch

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.

Totoro Cake

This is the Totoro cake that I made yesterday. I used fondant to make the Totoro figurines, flowers and leaves. The cake itself is choc-chip vanilla cake covered with dark chocolate.

I love the expression of the grey Totoro, I find him so adorable...:)!

I made the cake because today is a special day for both my husband and I. We'll see later if the cake is edible because I am absolutely no baker...;).