Bento #41 - Dining with the Elephant

It started with 2 or 3 picks and then Kimi wanted to add this and that. I had to stop him or he would use ALL my picks!! haha! Kimi loved the chocolate pearl I used for the elephant's eyes...not how it looked but how he loved the chocolate! Lol!

This was a last minute bento which I decided to make for Kimi. The worst thing was, when I was about to decorate it, I realised that I was COMPLETELY out of ham, cheese slices, seaweed to decorate my elephant. Yes, hardly looked like one but the little one was happy so that's all that matters! :) He finished the whole bento with only about 2-3 spoons of rice left. So proud of him! :)

I added a little green colouring to the water when cooking the rice to creat this green coloured rice to symbolise the elephant on the grassland. The chicken cutlet is homemade and I added another piece cos I know Kimi loves all these crispy stuff. There's also strawberries, corn, sugar beans, edamame beans and Japanese pumpkin (Kabocha - you can look here to see how you can cook Kabocha) simmered in sweet sauce.

Sweet sauce simmered Kabocha

• 3-4 wedges of Japanese pumpkin
• Japanese soya sauce (or the regular will do too)
• Mirin
• Sugar or maple syrup
• Water

Method

1. Boil the pumpkin till just starting to be soft. Remove and set aside.
2. Place all the rest of ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to boil.
3. Taste to ensure saltiness/sweetness is acceptable (should taste like teriyaki sauce).
4. Add the steamed pumpkin and let it simmer on slow fire for 10-15 mins.
5. Remove and serve.

Bento #40 - Strawberry Breakfast

A quickie breakkie consisting of butter and strawberry jam sandwich and fresh strawberries. I realised that to make these 'open-face' sandwich, the top piece for cutting through for the shapes will hold better if it is smaller and less intricate.

Really a quick one that I didn't have much time to decorate the penguin which I thought looked like a space-ship! I used up the last pack of seaweed here and thought I had more but then ... I didn't.

Mickey Mouse Fried Rice

I saw this cute Mickey Mouse fish cake from Giant and quickly grabbed it.  I was keen to encourage Kimi to take some fish ball or fish cake, hoping that the pix will entice him.

Well, my plan did not work and he still does not take any kind of fish ball or fish cakes.  Anything that taste like rubber food except gummy which is his favourite snack now.

Japanese Curry Rice

I'm so frustrated!  Why is it that recently some of my pix when uploaded onto this blog becomes upside down? Including the one above, I rotate and rotate till I could get this straight! (*upset*).

Anyway, when I served this to Kimi, he said, "Pikachu again?"  Then I remembered I used this to cut Kimi's sandwich in the morning! Oops, sorry!  Again, too rush so I didn't decorate the face.

This is Kimi's first Jap Curry meal and he loves it!  He has tried a few mouthfuls some months back.  But I decided to try it today as a meal and we are so glad Kimi likes it cos hb and myself are big Jap Curry fans.  Now we have another fan!

I bought Vermont's Mild Curry and made Pork cutlet.  Kimi loves the cutlet cos it is so crispy.

Ingredients

• 1 pack of Vermont Mild Jap Curry
• Half yellow onion sliced
• 1 large carrot cut in chunks
• 2 potatoes cut in chunks
• Water
• 4 pcs of pork loin
• Some plain flour
• Some Panko (Nissin brand)
• 1 egg beaten

Marinade

• Pinch of salt, pepper and sugar
• 1 tsp of minced ginger

Method

1. Butterfly the pork loin and place it in 1 clean plastic bag.  Use a pestle and pound on meat till it has increased about 50% in size and the meat is flattened. This helps to break down meat fibre, making the cutlet tender.  Also a thinner cutlet reduces cooking time and the panko will not be over-burnt.
2. Marinate and leave for at least 30mins.

Curry

1. Heat some oil in a saucepan and let onions soften and caramalise, add in carrot and fry lightly.
2. After 3mins, add potatoes and fry another 2 mins.
3. Add water and bring to boil and add in the curry pieces. I used about 4 cubes.
4. Add more water and let it simmer for 20mins.
5. Remove from fire and set aside.

Pork Cutlet

1. Heat oil in pan and reduce fire to low. Do not use too high fire cos it will burn the panko and the pork may not be cooked.
2. Dust pork cutlet in flour, dip in egg mixture and then coat with panko
3. Place into hot oil and let it cook on 1 side.  Once golden brown, turn over and let it brown.
4. Remove and let it sit on paper towel to absorb excess oil
5. Cool lightly and cut into slices.
6. Serve with fluffy white rice.
7. ENJOY!

Cutlet Baked Rice

Yes, we are having baked stuff again since I still have some mozarella cheese left and I want to finish it up quickly.  This is another speedy meal for me.

Kimi is not exactly keen on overly cheesey or milky stuff and recently he is really into all things crisp.  So I over-baked the cheese a little to entice him and let him have a crunch.  He simply loves the sound of crunch and will ask me if I can hear the crackling sound. :)

Normally, I would prefer to make a cheese sauce to stir into the rice but Kimi is not big on cheesy food so I just made sure the rice is not overly dried up by the fying process and stirring in some mayo and cheese to give it some moisuture without being overly cheesy.

For convenience, I just used fish fingers.  You can prepare homemade cutlets or pork, fish, chicken, salmon, etc or whatever you wish. :)

The dish just before going into the oven

Yummy!

Ingredients

• 
  
  Some steamed rice
• Mixed vegetable
• 3 fish fingers
• 1 egg, beaten
• Some mayo
• Dollop of butter
• Some mlk
• Mozarella cheese
• Pepper
• Nori seaweed (optional)

Method

1. 
   
   Add some butter to pan, once it sizzles and all melted (keep fire low when butter is sizzling in pan as it can get burnt easily), scoop steamed rice into it and allow the rice to be coated by the butter.
2. 
   
   Fry lightly, add the mixed vegetable and continue to turn the rice.
3. 
   
   Sprinkle some milk/water so that the rice do not dry out. Turn for 30 seconds
4. 
   
   Pour beaten egg all over rice and let it set lightly before turning rice again.
5. 
   
   Sprinkle pepper and turn rice.
6. 
   
   Lastly, add the nori seaweed and turn lightly before transferring rice to oven safe dish.
7. 
   
   Meanwhile, lightly fry or bake fish fingers till 80% cooked or you can use any other home-prepared cutlet. Set aside.
8. 
   
   Add some mayo to buttered rice and mix well.  Stir in some shredded mozarella.
9. 
   
   Place the cutlet on top of rice and cover with shredded mozarella.
10. 
    
    Bake in 200 degrees celsius oven till cheese is melted.
11. 
    
    ENJOY!!

Bento #40 - Teriyaki Salmon Rice Set

A quick meal for Kimi - Teriyaki Salmon with oven roasted vegetables and seaweed rice.

 

For those who are concerned about the texture and whether the salmon will be dry, the best way is to bake it in a foil envelope.

This way, it is cooked by internal steaming so most of its juices are retained. However, I would normally, remove the foil once it is almost cooked and bast it again with sauce and grilled it on high uncovered.

I didn't decorate Pikachu's face as I felt it was colourful enough. The broccoli and baby corn were so juicy and sweet. I didn't add anything except the Teriyaki sauce, which was brushed on top of the salmon.