Tutorial Sweet Simmered Shiitake Bento Timesaver

Today's tutorial post is about another trick I have up my sleeve, sweet and simmered shiitake mushrooms, which is essentially a bento timesaver recipe. This is a perfect recipe if you know that you will be busy for the rest of the week and have no time to prepare every item individually in mornings. If stored well in the refridgerator, this sweet and simmered shiitake mushroom bento timesaver should last up to a week.

Sweet and Simmered Shiitake - Bento Time Saver and Space Filler

Ingredients:
10 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons mirin (dry sherry can be used as a substitute)

How to:

1. Soak the dried shiitake in cold water until soft. This takes about 1 hour. 

Tip: Usually I'll soak the mushrooms while I'm preparing dinner. By the time Mr Bear and I have finished eating dinner and finished all the cleaning up, it will all be soft enough. If you like, you can soak the mushrooms overnight as well.

How I soak dried mushrooms

Tip: This picture shows how I soak the mushrooms. Because the dried shiitake mushrooms tend to float (which I find rather annoying), I used a dipping dish as a weight so that all mushrooms will get soaked evenly. 

Do not discard the water which you used to soak the mushrooms.

Once the shiitake mushrooms are soft, remove the stems and cut them into bite size pieces.

Tip: As shown in the very first photo, I have cut them into different shapes. This is a personal preference because I figured that if this sweet and swimmered shiitake timesaver is going to appear on me and Mr Bear's bento for the next 2 days, it might be more interesting if they don't look the same everytime we open up the bento.

2. Put the shiitake in a pot with enough soaking water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and add all the other ingredients. Continue simmering until the liquid is almost absorbed completely.

Let it cool completely and portion it into little containers or small silicon cake molds. Store in the refridgerator.

This shiitake bento timesaver might taste a little sweet on it's own because it is designed as a side dish to go with rice. If you like you can serve it together with a plain salad as well.

This is how I make the Sweet and Simmered Shiitake Bento Timesaver, I hope you find the recipe and tips helpful too.

Bento Babybel Bird

Yesterday Mr Bear and I had an oven dish. It consisted of potatoes, mushroom, ham and lots of cheese. There was a handful left over and there was also 1 piece of mini babybel sitting in the fridge, so I decided to use them to make this happy Babybel Bird bento.

Bento Babybel Bird in Ojue lunchbox

Close up of Bento Babybel Happy Bird

I used the deepest compartment of the Ojue lunchbox here because I am intending to use this on its own.

First, I lined the lunchbox with a large piece of lettuce. Next I put in the left over potato dish, taking care to push all of them to one side, so that the food surface is almost in line with the top edge of the bento.

Then I stuff julienne strips of lettuce into the rest of the lunchbox and I top it up with the piece of mini babybel cheese.

Sidenote: the beak I used here is from the wax covering the babybel. If the bento is intended for kids, I would replace it with a piece of carrot or surimi, just to be safe.

Bento Mushroom with Jus and Cod Roe Sprinkles

This is a bento with some quick and easy left overs from the dinner the night before. I sliced some mushroom and gave them a quick stir fry with the meat sauce from the previous night. Then I pack in the rice and sprinkle some Tarako Furikake, which is a Japanese Sprinkle made from Cod Roe. I had used a plastic strip cut from a soda bottle as a sort of stencil for the Japanese Sprinkle. My only mistake was that I pushed the strip too far into the rice and it looked a little messier than what I had in mind. If you are trying this out with the round strip from the soda bottle, try to make sure that you have about 2cm of it sticking out above the rice. Try to pour the sprinkle from as close to the surface of the rice as possible, it helps!

Bento with Mushroom and Tarako Furikake

Recipe: Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

Recipe: Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad

This recipe sounds like a mouthful: Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad but it's really simple and easy to make.

Ingredients:
-Chicken fillet (1 slab of about 150grams)
-Mushrooms (about 200grams)
-Penne Pasta (about 2 handfuls)
-Red capsicium pepper
-Pesto sauce
-Cooking oil

How to:
Boil some water in a saucepan. Pour some cooking oil into the boiling water (this will prevent the pasta from sticking onto each other later on). Put in the penne pasta and let it cook.
In the meantime, prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Clean and slice the chicken fillet. Leave aside.
Remove dirt from mushrooms with a damp paper towel and sliced the mushroom.
Dice the red peppers into small 1cm cubes.

Heat a teaspoon of cooking oil into a frying pan. Once the oil is hot enough, add in the chicken slices. Stir-fry quickly till chicken is pink and almost cooked. Add in the mushroom and red pepper. Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Once the pasta is cooked, remove from heat and run it under cold water from the tap. This will stop the cooking process, making the pasta a little more al dente (chewy, bouncy, less soggy). Remove pasta from cold water and place it in a mixing bowl. Add in all the ingredients from the frying pan and stir in some pesto sauce. Keep tasting and adding the pesto sauce until you are satisfied with the taste. Sprinkly some salt and pepper for that extra ooomph.