DIY bento accessories - flat round rice burger mold

Today I had a strange find. I was just about to go to the plastic recycling station with my bag of household food plastics and something dropped out of that bad. It was the lid from a yoghurt dessert I had some time back. Something struck me and I decided to keep this into my bento accessories drawer.

This can be used as a rice mold for something you want to be round and disc- like. This is the perfect bento accessory or tool especially for those who wants to make a rice burger for lunch. Simply pack the rice in and pop it out just the same way you would when you build a sandcastle. Heat a pan and give those rice disc a quick toast on both sides. Totally disposable and no commitments! :D

Bento Honeydew Bunnies Mapo Tofu

Over the next few days, I will be featuring some of the bento's I have made before but forgot to mention here in Adventures of Bento Cat. Today's Past Bento is Mapo Tofu with Honeydew Bunnies and slices of Nectarine. I had made this shortly after I came back from my summer vacation and accidental Bento equipment haul (^^,)

Bento Mapo Tofu with Omelette

This photo above shows the bottom layer of Bento Mapo Tofu. The egg omelette serves an aesthetic purpose and also acts as a edible seperator (baran). This prevents the rice from soaking up too much of the liquid from the spicy Tofu. Honeydew Bunnies and sliced nectarines are stored on the upper deck of the bento box.

Bento Honeydew Bunnies with sliced Nectarine

Tomorrow I'll write a post on a step by step tutorial on how I made Bento Honeydew Bunnies Mapo Tofu! So Stay Tuned!

DIY bento accessories - rice and pasta mold - flower

Last week, I wrote a post on how to make your own leaf shaped and heart shaped bento accessories. This time round I will show you how I make my own flower shaped rice mold out of the remaining plastic "bottle". Simply cut the end of the bottle according to the desired height.

This can also be used for certain types of pasta. As long as you work fast and the rice is not too hot for your hands, you can just pack the rice into the mold and pop it out just like how you make sandcastles.

For a more detailed write up on tools and basic steps on how to DIY bento accessories, you can check this out. 

Bento Nasi Lemak recipe- Coconut Rice , Omelette & strawberries

I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow is going to be the Cook a pot of Curry day in Singapore! More than 50000 people are going to cook curry dishes for the event. Yesterday, I have written a post on Devil's Curry and today I am going to post something that's less spicy. Bento Nasi Lemak paired with cucumber and strawberries!

Bento Nasi Lemak

Here's what I put into the rice cooker:
(serves 3, I saved a portion rice for this bento and had the rest for dinner with Mr Bear)
3 cups rice
1 small packet of coconut cream (aka Santan, available in most supermarkets)
water
pinch of salt

While the rice is cooking, I sliced the cucumber, fried the chicken, omelette and dried anchovies and there you go! Nasi Lemak Bento with Coconut Rice with Egg omelette, chicken, cucumber, dried anchovies and strawberries.

Cook a pot of Curry Day - Devil's Curry

Come Sunday 21st August 2011 more than 50000 people in Singapore (and probably many parts of the world) will be cooking a pot of curry as part of a silent protest on the now famous Curry Feud. Here is a recipe on a typically Eurasian dish - Devil's Curry. This fiery and sour curry usually served together with bread and rice during Christmas in places like Singapore and Malaysia.

Ingredients:
250grams pork (beef/mutton/chicken can also be used as substitute)
4 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon tumeric powder
2 tablespoon mustard
*2 tablespoon chilli powder
4 tablespoons vinegar
salt and sugar to taste


Ground Ingredients:
2 onions (large)
12 shallots
7 cloves garlic
2-3 cm ginger piece
1 candlenut [ aka kemiri in Indonesia, kukui nuts in Hawaii. ]

*omit the chilli powder if its unavailable. Simply add about 15 fresh chillis to the Ground Ingredients

How to:
- Gather all the Ground Ingredients and grind them with a food processor or pound them with a pestle and mortar.

- Heat oil in sauce pan and fry the grinded ingredients until fragrant. Add the meat and salt and fry for a few minutes on high heat.

-Take a small bowl and mix the chilli powder and tumeric with a little water to form a smooth paste. Add this paste to the saucepan with meat and salt. Stir well, add a little more water and cook over low heat.

-When the meat is just about cooked, add in the mustard, sugar and vinegar. Stir and simmer for another 10 minutes.

- Serve hot with bread or rice.

Serve Devil Curry hot with Bread or Rice

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because some ingredients can have different names in different countries, I have included some pictures here as reference:

Tumeric Powder

Shallots

Photo credit: http://www.importfood.com

 Picture above shows a packet of Candlenuts from Indonesia. Some packaging might come with a warning. As much as they look like macademia nuts, NEVER EVER eat candlenuts raw! Candlenuts can only be eaten after they have been cooked and never be eaten raw as a snack. This is a very common food ingredient in many parts of South East Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Lego Bento Box : Tricolour Bento with Ikea meat balls

This is one of my favourite bento boxes which I bought near the Dam last winter. Its really quite big for a lunchbox because its as big as a real BRICK. which is quite funny... life-sized lego brick. hahahaha!

That's why you can see in this photo that I only filled up half the brick with rice and left the other half for the pickled mango. If you are thinking that the contents look familar, yes, that's because the pickled mango were also in yesterday's bento box. Am I bored of it? Nah I'm not, I like mangos and I like this side condiment. It stores pretty well too in the fridge, so its really great as a "instant" bento condiment.

Ikea meat balls are wonderful as well. I just have to grab the number I want and nuke them in the microwave or if time permits, give them a good bake. Thats all :D

My favourite Bento Box: Lego Bento Box

Oh yes, if you are wondering how I make the mango side dish, you can find the recipe here "Bento Tricolour Furikake and Mango Pickle"

Follow me on Twitter! @bentokato

Bento Tricolour Furikake and Mango Pickle

After all the weekend food binge, I have decided to make a light and easy bento. Here is my version of a tricolour bento using only 2 condiments, namely the Mango Pickle and Furikake Tarako, which is sometimes called Fish Cod Furikake outside Japan. The whole process of packing this lunchbox only took me only about 5-10 minutes. So this is definitely ideal if you are in a rush in the morning and/or you are out of bento ideas. Haha, that said, its definitely perfect for the hectic Monday mornings when you overslept just because you don't feel like going back to the office or school :D

Tricolour Bento with Mango Pickle and Furikake Tarako (Cod Roe Furikake)

In case you are wondering how I made the Mango Pickle, here's how:

Ingredients:
1 Mango (slightly ripe)
2-3 teaspoon Sugar
A dash of Thai Fish sauce (or light soya sauce)
A sprinkle of Shichimi Togarashi (which translates as 7-flavour chilli powder)

*If Shichimi Togarashi is unavailable, Chilli Powder or freshly cut chilli slices can be used as substitute as well.

How to:
- Remove skin from the mango. Julienne the mango into thin strips. Put in mixing bowl.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix evenly.
- Taste and add more sugar, fish sauce or chilli according to personal preference.

Store in an airtight container and it will last a couple of days if left in the fridge.

Follow me on Twitter! @bentokato

Bento for myself

  

04/01/11

I woke up a little later today and couldn't rush out a pretty bento for Mr Bear this morning. There was still quite a number of tofu skins in the opened inari package and I had to rush to the library to study for the coming exams. 

I quickly cooked some rice in the rice cooker and let it do what it's supposed to do. In the meantime, I started chopping up a carrot into little thin 5 cm (2 inch) strips. Next. I heat a little cooking oil in the pan and threw in the carrot strips, letting the natural sugars in the carrot caramalize a little in the pan. I add some soya sauce for taste and add in a little more brown sugar just so to give it an even more caramel-y taste. If you happen to have some white sesame seeds in the kitchen, you can sprinkle some on top of the carrot too. It gives the carrot some extra "umphh!". I realised I didn't have any sesame seeds so I just went without them. So I set some aside the carrot to cool one of my trusty green sillicon molds and started munching on the rest as breakfast.

A few minutes later, the rice is cooked. I spread it out in a big flat container, fanning the rice so that it will cool down faster. Next I mixed about 2 teaspoon of rice vinegar and sugar together and sprinkle it all over the rice, mixing it and fanning it all at the same time. Adding this "rice vinegar + sugar" solution will give the rice a nice shine and add some flavour to the rice as well.

I mold the rice with my hands into little round balls (about 3-4cm in diameter) and stuff the rice balls into the tofu skin (inari). Since everything is still a little warm, I decided that I should get dressed to go out in the meantime.

By the time I was done, the foods are cooled enough to be placed into the bento boxes. So I did that, and realised that I forgot to add a piece of fruit. I grabbed a banana and tried to stuff it in. Alas, it didn't fit at all and I had to improvise: I ate half of the banana there and then and stuff the rest into the box. haha!

As for the eyes and mouth, there are made from nori strips that I had cut last night, with a pair of scissors. In fact I had a whole bunch of simple basic shapes that I like to always keep aside. My favourite is long nori strips thats cut about 1mm wide. When I need them, I'll just cut them into suitable lengths for slitty, winky eyes, chicken feet, chicken footprints, or even hair.

- rice

- tofu skin ( inari )

- nori

- carrot

- banana