Tutorial Bento Time Saver Carrot Kinpira Meatfree

Today I will share with you how I make a bento space filler that also happens to be a bento time saver, my own Carrot Kinpira. Many people have asked me recently, how on earth do you find time to make all these bentos. Well, let's say that making bentos does take a bit of effort. BUT sometimes I do get lazy, that's why I have to devise ways and means to make things more efficient. hehehe!

Kinpira 金平, きんぴら is a japanese style of cooking that can be roughly translated as "sauté and simmer". This technique can be used with many different types of root vegetable, such as carrot, burdock and lotus root. Sometimes the kinpira technique is also used on other foods such as tofu, wheat gluten and also meats like chicken, pork and beef. So in a way, I guess you can also call it Japanese stir-fry.

Carrot Kinpira Bento Time saver and Bento Filler

Ingredients
Half a carrot (julienne into strips about the size of matchsticks)
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Mirin
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Dash of ketchup (you'll be surprise what this can do)
Sesame seed (optional)


Here's what I usually do

Carrot Kinpira - Julienne carrot

Carrot Kinpira - heat the sesame oil

Heat the sesame oil in a frying pan for less than 1 minute over moderate fire. Take care that the temperature does not get too hot, else the sesame oil will burn a little and it will taste bitter.

Carrot Kinpira - Quick saute and simmer

Add in the carrot strips and quickly toss it around a few times to make sure that they get evenly coated with the sesame oil.

Add in the sugar and give it a quick toss. If you like you can wait a little for the sugar and the sugar to caramalize a little.

Next add in the mirin and toss. At this stage, I will also add in a dash of ketchup. You will be surprised that an American invention such as the ketchup has made its way to a normal japanese kitchen (think omurice and spagetti Napolitan). The reason why I like to use a bit of ketchup here is that the tartness (sour-ness) of the vinegar and the tomato puree in the ketchup actually gives another dimension to the otherwise just sweet taste of the dish and it makes the carrot look good too!

Finally, I add in the soy sauce. I always add soy sauce the last because overcooking soy sauce changes the chemical content and also the taste of the soy sauce. Give it a quick stir and sprinkle a few sesame seeds and you are done!

This carrot kinpira recipe gives me about 4 side portions. I portion them out and place them all in a couple of silicon cake molds. This can be stored in the refridgerator for a few days and it means that everytime I want to make a bento with it, I can just take whatever I need and place it in the bento immediately. This is also great on the days when I run out of bento ideas and makes a great bento space filler too. I hope you like this bento time saver tutorial the meatfree Carrot Kinpira.

Bento Meatless Monday grapefruit write up

Today we are having a simple meatless grapefruit salad bento for lunch. I have decided to make this meatfree fruit salad because we had eaten a lot of junk food over the weekend and I am feeling really quite guilty. hahaha! Yesterday, Mr Bear and I ordered Surinaamse take-out with a full portion of chicken curry and roti (for me), a full portion of lamb and roti (for Mr Bear) AND a full portion of Java-style Saoto soup (Soup soto) with rice! Hahaha basically it was rather big portions even for 3 big adult eaters. We sat in front of the TV and basically binge ate. hahaha, and before we knew it, we had finished EVERYTHING and the takeout boxes were all licked clean. Come to think of it, its rather unbelievable. LOL!

Sorry, I had digressed, hahaha! Other reason why I had made this meatfree bento with grapefruit is because of its high vitamin C content and its high fiber content. Pink and red varieties of the grapefruit also contain high amounts of an antioxidant called lycopene (which can also be found in tomatoes). What is also good about the grapefruit is that it can help lower cholesterol, which makes it ideal (at least psychologically, hahaha) after yesterday's food binge. There is one very important thing to take note though, if you are on medication, please check with the healthcare professional before eating a grapefruit because studies have shown that grapefruit might give certain drug interactions, often making the drug more potent than it is supposed to be.

Bento Meatless Monday Red Ruby Grapefruit Salad

Previously I have also made a Grapefruit Salad Bento, but this time round, I made a variation. Instead of laying pieces of lettuce to filter out the grapefruit juice, I cut the grapefruit into a half. Then I removed all the juicy grapefruit flesh from one half and sliced them into manageable bite-size pieces and pop them back into the grapefruit "basket". This way, all the grapefruit juices stay IN the basket and not everywhere else. For the other half, I sliced it into wedges and stack them on top of the basket. I top it up with a sleeping bunny food pick and a few small slices of the lettuce for the colour. I hope you like today's Meatfree Monday Red Ruby Grapefruit Salad.

Bento Elf Babies - Inari Sushi - Meat-free

These two elf babies are essentially Inari sushis, simply tofu pouches and rice balls.
I made this Bento Elf Babies with some leftover tofu pouches from the Ninja Bento I made for Mr Bear on Friday. Even though I am carnivourous (most of the time), I really will eat meals without meat if its delicious and presented in an appealing way. I guess you can say that I am a big kid in disguise. hahaha!

Bento Elf Babies Inari sushi, shown here with 2 black Ojue compartments

Hope you like this Meat-free Inari sushi Elf Baby Bento!

Tutorial Thursday - remove apple seeds with cookie cutters

Its Tutorial Thursday again! Today's tutorial is on how to remove apple seeds with cookie cutters and/or vegetable cutters. Here is a quick and simple way of coring those apples while entertaining yourself (and of course the bento receiver). All you need is an apple, a knife and a small cookie cutter or vegetable cutter.

Apple rings as a bento space filler - see more examples towards the end of post

Here is how I made the apple rings:

Apple rings and cookie cutter tutorial - Step 1

Step 1 - Slice the apple as shown in the picture above. I sliced the apple into slices about 1 cm thickness. You can also sliced them paper thin for a different effect :)

Apple rings and cookie cutter tutorial - Step 2

Step 2 - Take a small cookie cutter or vegetable cutter. The ones I used here are about 2-3 cm in diameter. Shove it right into the centre of the apple, where the seeds are.

Apple rings and cookie cutter tutorial - My favourite photo

I like this photo a lot, it reminds me of my design school days for some strange reason. Ops, sorry I digressed, hahaha, got lost in my thoughts. This is where I place the cutter.

Step 3 - Push the vegetable or cookie cutter hard and VIOLA! You have just de-cored an apple and got a pretty shape, without actually doing anything much :D

Here are the results of my experiment with various vegetable cutter shapes.

Using a vegetable cutter on apple slices - Part 1

Using a vegetable cutter on apple slices - Part 2

Here's another way you can use these apple rings as a bento space filler

Apple rings cut with vegetable cutter or cookie cutter - Bento Space Filler

I hope you like this Tutorial Thursday post! It's a quick and easy way to remove seeds from apple  slices without too much effort because your trusty cookie cutters and vegetable cutters had done the work for you :D 

Tutorial - Bento space filler - cucumber flower

Due to popular requests, I have decided to do a tutorial today on how I made the cucumber flowers which was feature in previous bento posts. It is much simpler than it actually looks and its also a fantastic space filler for bento boxes.

Bento Space Filler Cucumber Flower - shown here in a Ojue Lunchbox compartment

Here is a series of simple step-by-step instructions:

Slice the cucumber as thinly and evenly as possible

Cucumber slices - I cut about 15 slices in total

For illustration purposes I have sliced the cucumber into little discs which are slightly less than 2mm. If you like you can try slicing them into paper thin slices for a more delicate look.

Sprinkle salt on the cucumber slices

Place the cucumber slices in a bowl. Sprinkle some salt onto the cucumber slices and mix thoroughly. Squeeze out the excess liquid and rinse away the salt crystals under running water.

Cucumber slices in a ice water bath

Prepare some ice water and place the cucumber slices into the icy water.

Line the cucumber slices up like this

Lightly pat dry the cucumber slices with a paper towel. Line the cucumber slices up as shown in the picture above, making sure that the slices overlap each other.

Here comes the magical part - roll the cucumber slices towards yourself

Starting from the furthest end, roll the cucumber slices towards yourself. It might be a little slippery, so using both hands might be helpful. (I had to struggle here a little because my right hand was holding the camera...^^,")

Soon you will end up with something like this

Soon you will end up with something like this. If there is a lot of liquid, gently squeeze out the excess liquid as shown below:

Squeeze! *gently please*

If you are planning to use the cucumber flowers immediately as a single space filler for the bento box, you may omit the steps below.

Push uncooked spagetti into the cucumber flower

Take a piece of uncooked spagetti and push it throught the cucumber flower until you can feel that it's pushing through to the other end. Break off excess spagetti. Repeat the step, taking note of the order of the arrows.

Voila! Cucumber flower bento space filler

This is how it looks like. This cucumber flower bento can also be prepared in advance and placed in the fridge. Usually I will make 3-4 cucumber flowers at the same time and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Usually they can last for a couple of days and they are fantastic especially when I need to pack a bento fast. Hope you like this cucumber flower tutorial! :)

Bento Apple Cucumber Lettuce meat-free

Its Monday again and for many people it's either another back-to-work or back-to-school day. After a weekend of eating a lot (of junk), I thought maybe making a healthy meat-free bento is a good idea, just to kind of detox a bit. This is what I have for lunch today: Bento Apple, Cucumber and Lettuce

Hope you like this Meat Free Monday bento!

Bento Healthy Grapefruit Bunnies Salad

After binge-eating with Mr Bear last night, I woke up feeling like I had a food hangover. So I decided to go super healthy with this salad bento : Grapefruit Bunny Bento with lettuce. Detox!

First I put a few layers of lettuce and then the grapefruit. Not only does the lettuce looks pretty with the grapefruit, I've discovered by chance that the lettuce have an extra function. The lettuce layers "lift" the juicy bits of the grapefruit and I got to enjoy the texture of the grapefruit without them swimming in the juice. So I get to eat the grapefruit, then the lettuce and finally slurp up all the remaining juice that had collected at the bottom. What a nice discovery!

Healthy Meat-free bento featuring Grapefruit Bunnies

Close up of bento Grapefruit Bunnies

I used 2 large pieces of lettuce and 1 whole grapefruit. Just like the honeydew bunnies, I used the seed as eyes for the Grapefruit Bunnies. The bento box I used here is a 200ml air tight box I bought from Hema. Hope you like this healthy meat-free bento salad : Bento Grapefruit Bunnies :D

Cook a pot of Curry Day : Potato Curry

Potato Curry

Dry ingredients:
3-4 pcs red chilli
1/2 tbsp coriander seed
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp whole black pepper
2 tblsp coconut flakes

First, dry roast and grind the dry ingredients above. Do not add water. This will be the Masala Powder for this dish. Set aside.

*sidenote: In case you are reading this in preparation of the Cook a pot of Curry Day event on the 21st of August, you are at the right place.  Do note that this dry roasting process may give off the smell of spices, so please be considerate and switch on the kitchen exhaust when cooking ;)

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Main Ingredients:
2 big potatoes (peeled, washed and dice into cubes about 2cm. Keep immerse in water)
1 big onion (cut length wise)
1/8 tsp tumeric
3-4 pcs of curry leaves
Salt to taste
1tsp Mustard
1tsp black lentil (aka Urad Dal/black gram) [mung beans OR azuki beans OR pigeon peas can also be used as a substitute]
2tsp cooking oil


How to

-Heat oil in saucepan and add mustard and urad dal. Then add curry leaves and onions.  Stir fry till onion turns golden brown.

-Drain and add the cut potatoes, salt and tumeric to the saucepan. Fry in medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

-Add in the grounded masala powder and add just enough water to get the potato cooked.

-Mix well and cover with a lid in medium heat until the potato becomes cooked. (Keep turning to avoid burning the ingredients)

-After the potato is cooked, sir-fry it till most of the liquid evaporates.

-Serve with rice :)
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Here are some pictures of the ingredients, just in case they go by different names in your region.

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Urad Dal (aka Black Gram, Black Lentil, Vigna mungo)

Cumin Seeds

Spicy Garam Masala Powder - Cook a pot of Curry Day 21 August 2011

Garam Masala Powder for Vegetarian Dishes
This spicemix requires slightly more ingredients than my previous post, and is recommended for Vegetarian Dishes. Oh yes, and if you happened to be preparing for the coming Cook a pot of Curry Day on the 21st of August, and you are trying to make a point, this is the process of curry cooking that gives out the smells :D Enjoy Roasting!

*Sidenote: If you are puzzled by all these curry posts, do check out "Singaporean Story about Curry" on what I think about the whole Curry Feud.

1-2 star anise

6 black cardamoms

2 1/2 tsp black peppercorn

10 inch worth of cinnamon sticks

1tbsp cloves

8 green cardamom

1gram mace powder (aka javitri)

4 tbsp coriander seeds

3 tbsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp nutmeg (grated)

1/2 tsp salt

Heat the saucepan on high heat. Do not add any oil or water. When the saucepan gets hot, put in all the ingredients above. Stir constantly for about 5-8 minutes or until you can smell the fragance. Remove  from heat and wait for it to cool. Grind it up into powder form and use it immediately. Or simply store the powder in airtight containers and put it in the fridge for later use. 

Uses:
- as a marinate for meats and vegetables
- in a gravy/curry
- as a seasoning salt

Best of all, it smells sooo good and I don't have to use too much salt to make anything taste good.

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Star Anise

Black and Green Cardamom

Left: Black Peppercorn

Cinnamon Sticks

Cook a pot of Curry Day 21 August 2011 - Simple Garam Masala Powder

As part of a protest which stems from Singapore, (which you can read about from here ) I have decided to post my favourite recipes featuring Curry spices. Over the next few days,  I'll try to put up different recipes on how to make your own Curry Spice mixes.


So here it goes:

Simple Garam Masala Powder
This spicemix is good for almost all types of meat and vegetable curry dishes.


First get hold of equal portions of the following ingredients:
-green cardamom
-black cardamom
-peppercorns  (whole black pepper or whole black/green/pink/white pepper)
-caraway seeds (which is quite similar to fennel and cumin seeds)

 Simply dry roast all ingredients together and then grind them into powder. After they are cooled, simply store them in air-tight containers till you need the Garam Masala powder.

The way I see this spicemix is that it's one of those multi-purpose ingredient. I use it for almost everything, from marinating meats, to making gravy out of it, to throwing it over my stir-frys. Every family has their own versions, every region has their own versions, and even different brands can taste completely different. 


And to top it all, there's even different spice mixes for different dishes (check out the right sidebar) and sometimes they go by different names as well. Sounds complicated? Nah, its not that complicated actually because there's never any hard and fast rules when it comes to cooking. What is the most important is that you or your love ones get to enjoy your cooking :) 


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I've included some pictures, since these ingredients might be named differently in different countries.

Green and Black Cardamom

Black and White Peppercorn

Black, Green, Pink, White Peppercorn

Caraway seeds (aka Meridian Fennel or Persian Cumin)

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