Bento Osaka-a japanese reminiscence

it's hard to get words to write about food under 2 scenarios:

A) you are too busy eating them

B) you are too busy making them

for me, i think it's a case of both. but to be faithful to my dearest readers, here's a winning homemade meal/ bento that you would definitely want your loved ones to enjoy:

roasted sweet potato and pumpkin onigiri and tsukune + toriyaki chicken skewers

to be honest, has been a while since i last made these, mainly because it's so time-consuming. so recalling the recipe is difficult. but i'll try the best with my goldfish memory:

Onigiri

Ingredients:

short/med grain japanese rice (cooked and mixed with sushi vinegar and roasted black sesame seed)

seaweed pieces

roasted pumpkin and sweet potato ( cubed and roasted with olive oil and 2TB brown sugar, 1 tsp black pepper mixed- or replace olive oil with sesame oil for more asian taste)

1) Using a plastic bag, scoop out warm and moist cooked rice and press in palms (gloved)

2) place piece of roasted pumpkin/ sweet potato in centre of pressed rice

3) form into triangular shaped balls

4) place a piece of roasted seaweed over

Tsukune Skewers

Ingredients for meat balls: 300g miced chicken/pork, 1/4 onion, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 TB cornflour, 7 TB bread crumbs, 1 inch ginger (grated and extract juice)

Ingredients for sauce: 4TB sake, 5 TB shoyu, 2TB mirin, 2 TB sugar (i used brown sugar), 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp cornflour, 2 tsp water

1) Mix all ingredients for meatballs and set aside for 20 min

2) Bring 2 cups water to boil in a pot. Wet hands and shape balls into desired size and drop into boiling water (shunz' s note: 1 TB spoon size is good measurement for amt of pork mince to use for 1 ball)

3) Cook till meat balls float. Remove and drain.

4) Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius and skewer alternate roasted pumpkin/ sweet potato/ zuchinni with meatballs ( you'll get the idea from the picture above!)

5) Grill for 4 to 5 minutes and keep brushing with sauce. Repeat process for at least 3 times for lovely flavour! You can't play cheat with effort when making jap food!

Terayaki Skewers

Ingredients: 300g chicken thigh/ breast meat (for breast meat, watch the temperature of your grill or oven because they dry out faster), 2TB sakae, 2TB sugar, 1 TB miso paste, 4TB shoyu, sprinkle of pepper

1) Marinate bite-site chicken pieces with the above sauces and leave for at least 30 min or overnight

2) Skewer them and alternate with green spring onion/ cucumber

3) Brush excess marinate as sauce during grilling at temperture of 200 degrees ( i trialed 180 degrees for breast meat)

ok i'm tired from blogging now. till then!

get-well-soon bento

i'm sure any of you who have been sick before would agree that falling sick is one of those times when you feel the most vulnerable and helpless and most in need of some T.L.C (tender loving care) from mummy.

but unfortunately for us overseas people who are staying without our family here, receiving T.L.C treatment can be rare. so it's nice when we can extend abit of our time and effort to care for those around us. here's a get-well-soon bento that i've prepared for a friend of mine to cheer her up and to whet up her lost appetite when she fell sick recently:)



what's in the bento: stir fried miso vegetables, portobello mushroom omelette, honey soy chicken and star-shaped rice. it's all simple home-cooked food and sigh...it was supposed to look more appetising than this...i wanted to create a lunchbox full of rainbow colours and exciting visuals but the limited space in the lunchbox forced me to squeeze everything within a small box:(
adding on to the sides were grilled miso tofu. it was supposed to be golden brown but ended up looking slightly burnt because i had to tend to the chicken in the oven at the same time. it was chaotic madness trying to stop the timer and the grizzling pan both at the same time!
last but not least, a portion of freshly baked banana, walnut and choc chip bread for them as dessert:)

and tada! get-well-soon bento (and a hello bento for her housemate, another dear friend of mine) all ready to go >_O !!!yay!

oh and not to forget, always covering our friends and family in prayers to make sure they are in the pink of health!

much love,

granny bear

pancakes breakfast treat-加油 bento:)

i woke up one morning at 6am with this need to pray. and usually, i would begin to pray in tongues or in English, which is often urgent and rushed. yet, for some strange reason, i felt led to pray in mandarin that morning. this slowed me down alot because i was not as proficient in praying in mandarin. but somehow, the slowness of my prayers calmed down my soul alot and i was not as anxious to start off the day with all of my plans as compared to other days.

and when i opened my Bible to read, these few verses from James4:13-14 struck me:

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

now, i have been making plans since my holidays to do some nice breakfast treat for my housemates, who have been working so hard in comparison to me. but day after day, i have pressed on the snooze button of my handphone to sleep a little longer, thinking 'oh maybe i'll try harder to wake up tomorrow to make breakfast' or 'hmm...i have too many things to be done for today already' :( naughty me right?

but the message of my temporal existence through those Bible verses indicated to me that i ought to make full use of my free time now(before it's all gone) to bless the people around me! so i got up in a minute or two after my quiet time and started to cook up a 'storm' in the kitchen!

and below are pictures of the surprise breakfast bento for my dearest junejune n lyds!fresh from the pan...banana, choc chips and walnut pancakes with dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg powder with vanilla icing...
for a closer look... the black parts are the melted choc chips and not burnt pancakes!LOL

in the end, the 2 girls were both in a rush to get to their classes that i decided to transfer the pancakes to paper plates in plastic bags so that they can eat on the way to school! and below is the simple recipe for sharing:

Pancakes In a Go

Ingredients: 1 cup AP flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 2.5 TB sugar, sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg powder, 1 cup buttermilk/ milk with 1 TB lemon juice, 2 eggs (beaten), 1 large banana (sliced thinly), choc chips and walnuts

Steps:
1) Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda, salt, sugar and spices into a large bowl.

2) Add in beaten eggs and buttermilk and stir till well combined ( ensure no clumps!)

3) Heat the pan in high heat and add small amount of olive oil. Wait till sizzling sound of oil can be heard and add in one ladle spoonful of batter.

4) Place sliced banana, choc chops and sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon powder gently on cooking batter. Wait till bubbles form and sides harden before flipping to the other side

5) Pancakes can be removed once golden brown. Serve warm with toasted walnuts and some choc or maple syrup for a decadent treat.

and there you have it! a high energy breakfast for a busy day ahead. 加油 guys!

much love,
granny bear

care and share bento- 爱心便当:)

after all the pigging out at fraser island last week, i was determined to lead a healthy lifestyle this week. so it's full on gym junkie mode for me and thankfully, i have the lovely companionship of jazi to get me started:)

since i've resolved to be healthy, i decided to encourage my friends to be so by making them a healthy bento dinner for tuesday (which is good timing since we are usually rushing to church for worship practice on tue:P)...and here's what i've made: rice burger with broiled beef , veggy and tofu patties in sweet red wine sauce!

bearing in mind the different preferences of the recipients, i came up with the following combinations for the burgers:

here's the picture of jazi's pre-assembled HIGH FIBRE and LOW CARB burger...hahaha tried to stack as much veggy as i could on hers but they kept falling down:(

and tada! the above is the final product for jazi! monster veggy burger!next burger! for ron who also joins the body attack class (really tough!) is the HIGH PROTEIN and HIGH CARBS burger...not sure if i should add in lettuce in case i couldn't close up the burger after all the huge stash below!hmm...decided to add in more greens after all! more veggy is more fibre and vitamins!hahaha...last but not least...an ALL BALANCED burger for wins, our beautiful and dedicated choir mistress! she's so funny because she sometimes don't eat dinner till late on tuesday even though she has the day off! but that shows how committed she is to being on time for music pract and she deserves a little care and share package too:)

and in case you're thinking that all 3 burgers look the same, here's proof that there were indeed, 3 of them!

now...drumroll for the recipe, proudly concocted by myself after assembling a mixture of recipes from previous experiences:

ingredients: 500g beef mince, 150g firm tofu (make sure well drained), 1/2 red capsicum (diced), 1 large portobello mushroom (diced), 1 medium sized onion (diced), 2 TB coriander or chopped spring onion, 1 TB garlic (minced)

seasonings (mainly by my estimation and by memory, maybe wrong): 2TB soy sauce, sprinkling of salt, sprinkling of coarse black pepper according to taste, 1 TB sugar, 2TB red wine, 1 TB dashi/beef stock powder/ terayaki sauce (whichever available), 2TB sesame oil, 1TB cornflour or some breadcrumbs to bind

burger: 2 cups medium grain rice makes 6 rice patties and some small leftovers, season with japanese rice sprinkles (comes in small packages of wakame, sesame seed etc), sprinkle of sesame oil and rice vinegar (white vinegar will do too)

sauce:3 TB light soy sauce, 1TB dashi stock/use soba noodle sauce for convenience, 3TB red wine, 1 TB honey, 1 TB brown sugar

Steps:

1) Mix all ingredients for beef patties together with the stated seasonings till well combined.

2) Shape the beef mixture into patties according to preferences and add some cornflour or breadcrumbs (can use day-old bread and crumble in blender if unavailable at home) if not too solid.

3) Prepare sauce: Simmer sauce ingredients over low heat and stir well and consistently ( this IMPORTANT! the honey can cause yr sauce to burn if u r not careful!). turn off heat once well combined.

4) Preheat frying pan. Add oil (use olive oil for healthier options) and wait till bubbles form. place meat patties gently onto frying pan and let it brown on both sides. be careful not to burn your patties! carbon is NOT GOOD! but a little carbon is TASTY!hahaha

5) once both sides of patties have browned, add in warm sauce and let the meat patties broil in the sauce for about 10 min on one side (depends on your stove and the size of your patties) and 5 minutes on the other. turn down fire abit if sauce is burning ( you want a thick sauce, not a burnt sauce!)

6) when sushi rice cooks, keep moist in rice cooker and add in seasoning as stated. using clean and wetted hands, shape the sushi rice into balls, press down and compact on sides to make a patty ( need some skill here! wear food handling gloves if u can't take the heat! the hot rice burnt my hands quite a bit yesterday)

7) now...pretty pretty time...shred some carrots and lettuce and start assembling the burger! add thickened sauce on top of patties/ veggy for extra taste!

don't be daunted by my long instructions! it's not as tedious as you think! try it and tell me you love it! or wait till i open my own restaurant (Gramps Kitchen) to have a taste! hahaha

oh can't wait to make more of such bentos! it feels good to care and share!

much love
granny bear