Bento # 41 : Triplets Bento

Bento # 41 – Triplets Bento

A late post of yesterday Bento.

Whats in the box :

• 3 rice balls for the triplets
• 1 pc tumeric seasoned fried chicken
• Mango chilli salad
• Veggie salad & melinjo crackers

Mango chilli salad :

• 1 green mango
• 1 table spoon brown sugar
• 1 – 2 chilli
• 1/2 tea spoon salt
• 1/2 tea spoon grilled terasi (shrimp paste)

Steps :

1. Wash and peel the mango skin, cut into julienne or matchsticks size.
2. Blend the chilli, add the rest of ingredients, mix well.
3. Toss mango into the chilli sauce and mix until mango is coated with chilli sauce.

 

Bento # 40 : Winnie The Pooh Bento

Bento # 40 : Winnie The Pooh Bento

Late posting of last week Bento. Made this Winnie The Pooh based on special request by Kinoi , the big fan of Pooh.

What’s in the box :

• Few slices of peanut butter and cheese sandwiches (cut into Pooh’s face using cookie cutter)
• Nori for Pooh’s facial expression
• Store bought Green tea sponge cake (cut into leaves shape)
• Few marshmallow and icing sugar and cheery tomatoes

Only only 15 minutes to create this Bento, thanks to the good quality Nori puncher from Disney (might explain why they are more pricey than the others). The punch is sharp and cut nicely so I got the perfect shape , all I did was slightly dip them in honey and stick them to the sandwiches.

Hope you enjoy this as much as Kinoi did

Oriental Chicken Curry

Oriental Chicken curry

To avoid any disappointment , I will admit from the very beginning that nothing fancy nor sophisticated on the curry sauce , been using instant curry seasoning mix.

No special preference on the brand as well, the thing that attracted me was the nice picture on the packaging.

The “how to” in the packaging seems to be very easy  and since I still stock some chicken in the fridge, I decided to give it a try and the result turn out to be yummy…. although my chicken curry looks very simple compare to the picture in the packaging.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 kg of chicken ( I use about 4 pieces)
• 1 pack of instant curry mix
• 250 ml water
• 1 table spoon of cooking cream (optional)

instant curry mix

Steps :

1. Stir fry the instant mix until fragrant and add the chicken.
2. Mix well and then add water (the instant mix that I bought already have coconut milk inside , otherwise you may substitute the water with coconut milk to enhance flavor, after all curry is strongly associated with coconut milk)
3. Cook over low heat until chicken is tender and sauce is thickened as desired (I add 1 table spoon of cooking cream to thicken the curry, can substitute the cream with coconut milk too)
4. Serve while still hot.

 

 

Sinful yet yummy….The crispy deep fried chicken skin

It’s been a while since my last post.

I was moving to a new place and had not yet organized the new kitchen.

But finally… it was done, so now Rabbit is back to cook…

And I don’t always cook or eat healthily, matter of fact I always love to eat  something unhealthy yet yummy… hence my all time favorite ..the crispy fried chicken skin.

Ingredients :

• 250 gr of chicken skin -> rinsed and dried
• 1/4  cup corn flour
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 1 tea spoon pepper

Steps :

1. Drizzle the dried chicken skin with salt and pepper, mix well and then tossed them into corn flour, mix well.
2. Deep fry until golden brown and look crispy , set aside on kitchen towel to drain excess oil and  attack them while still hot.

Note : I love to dip or drizzle my crispy chicken skin with a little Worcestershire sauce (cook over low heat until simmer :  1 table spoon Worcestershire  + 2 table spoon water + 1 table spoon sweet soy sauce or honey + 1 table spoon butter)

Yam/Taro dessert (Kolak Talas / Bubur Cha cha)

Yam and sweet potato dessert

Late posting of this yam sweet dessert which cooked by mum on the weekend.

This Yam/Taro dessert said to be the origin dish of Teochew tribe  and it is known in South East Asia by different name. In Indonesia we call it Bubur Talas (Bubur = porridge , Talas = Yam), and I know some friends in Spore and Msia will call it as Bubur Cha Cha.

This sweet porridge dessert can be served both warm or cold and there are many variation to the recipe but the main ingredients are Yam/Taro.

Mum’s recipe :

• 1 big size purple Yam/ Taro ->  cut into cubes
• 2-3  medium size orange color sweet potatoes  -> cut into cubes
• 2-3   pisang kepok -> steamed and cut into slices
• 1 can of sweet corn -> drain the water
• 8 cup of coconut milk  (mix the shredded coconut with 3 cup of water and squeeze to get  5 cups of coconut milk)
  6 Tablespoons granulated sugar (to taste)
• few pandan leaves

Steps :

1. Steam the Yam and sweet potatoes  until tender, set aside for cooling.
2. In a  medium / big pot, combine coconut milk with pandan leaves and sugar and cook under low heat until it boil,  occasionally keep stirring the coconut milk to ensure the sugar did burn at the bottom and to ensure the consistency of the coconut mixture.
3. Once the mixture start to boil, reduce the heat and remove the pandan leaves.
4. Add in the steamed ingredients  into the coconut milk and stir for about 5 minutes until the coconut milk boil again.
5. Remove from heat

 

 

Banana Fritter (aka : Pisang goreng)

Banana Fritter

2 reasons why I made  banana fritter for today afternoon snack

1. Mum received  plenty of fresh banana from her friend and when I visited her on the weekend I help myself  and brought few pieces  back.
2. A friend of mine brought me the similar banana fritter snack last weekend  (thank’s to Ms. Ladyrein for the snack) and it reminded me to the long forgotten snack.

This fritter is very simple to make, basically just cut the banana into 2 pieces, brush with a little corn flour, dip into beaten egg and then roll on panko breadcrumbs.

Deep fried until golden brown and serve with caramel sauce or kaya jam or any sauce of your liking or you can just consume them as what they are.

Notes :

• The only thing I would like to note here is : It is highly recommended to use this type of banana : Pisang Kepok  (Pisang = Banana, Kepok = is the name of the banana). I don’t know the name in English, this type of banana (pisang Kepok)  is very popular in Indonesia, either for banana fritter  (pisang goreng) or banana dessert (kolak pisang).
• I forgot to take the  fresh pisang Kepok photo  , below picture was the one I google from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kepok_banana_Indonesia.JPG the banana might look a bit ugly and not as nice as those other  yellow banana, but believe me , they taste good.

Mum said this type of banana is  good diabetic diet   as it is not too sweet and contain less sugar.  She love to consume this banana for breakfast and her cooking preference is steam. She will steam it for about 15 minutes until the skin turn brown and the meat soften.

Well…this bring back another memory of  childhood’s food/snack.

Bento # 39 : Sport Day (Walkathon) Bento

Many of my friends join Walk-A-Thon (Walkathon)  yesterday and me myself  of course  did not join and just  lazying at home . Not that they were not try to pull out me to join … nice try friends , appreciated …  but I just  lack of motivation to walk up early on Sunday morning and I hate to sweat myself under the sun.

To me… the only place worth to spend under the sun is  beach… out of that, don’t count me in.

However upon seeing many of friends posted photos of the Walkathon event on their picture profile , I decided to contribute by creating a Bento with the sport theme.

Today I present you “Sport day aka Walkathon Bento”.

Bento # 39 : Sport Day (Walkathon) bento

What’s in the box :

• 2 steam rice balls – decorated with Kani stick to make their headband and cheeks, sesame seeds for the eye brows, Nori for eyes and smiley.
• 2 steam Shu Mai
• 1 piece of yesterday butter and Worcestershire sauce chicken
• 1/4 of hard boiled egg and 1 piece of steam carrot
• Few yellow cherry tomatoes, black grapes and tangerine – for the vitamin boost

Happy Monday

 

 

Ayam goreng mentega (aka : Butter and Worcestershire Sauce Chicken)

Few bloggers friends and personal friends whom had been following my blog had been asking this question “why I only post Bentos and  no new recipe post lately?”.

Well I was kind of occupied with works for the last few weeks  and currently I am in the midst of moving to a new place so some of my cooking utensils had been packed. I only keep my Bento tools and some basic utensils with me at this old place.

Hopefully I can get back to my cooking routine once I settled down in new place.

Since today  is Sunday and the weather was just too hot for me to go out I decided  to stay at home and cook.

Ayam goreng mentega in Bahasa means butter fried chicken ( ayam = chicken, goreng  = fried, mentega = butter) and this is a classic standard dish you can find in the common Chinese eatery place. Though butter is used in the cooking yet the main ingredients of the sauce are oyster and Worcestershire sauce.

Ayam goreng mentega

Ingredients :

• 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces, rubbed with a little salt.

Ingredients (sauce) :

• 2 tablespoon  butter/margarine
• 2 table spoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 table spoon oyster sauce
• 1 table spoon soya sauce
• 1 table spoon sweet soya sauce
• 1 table spoon lemon juice (optional)
• 1 tea spoon sugar
• Pepper to taste
• 2 table spoon water
• 1 table spoon water mix with corn starch (optional)

Steps :

1. Deep fried the chicken with vegetable oil until the skin is crisp and color turn to golden brown, set aside. (I like to melt another 2 table spoon of butter/margarine to get the richer butter taste)
2. Melted butter or margarine in a skillet , add the rest of other sauces and mix well (add the corn starch liquid the last and only if you prefer a thicker sauce, otherwise you may skip this)
3. Let sauce simmered for 30 seconds and then stir in the fried chicken, stir until chicken are coated with sauce.
4. Serve while still hot.

Notes :  A little out of topic, finally I had decided to only post my blog with photo of the final  cooked dish instead of the step by step photos as usual. I had been rather clumsy recently,  just last month I dropped my blackberry into water and ruined it entirely, had to get myself a new phone.

Then today when I was taking the photo of my chicken in the frying process, I almost drop the camera into the fryer… phew… almost…though no damage occurred and  I still have my beloved camera, I had decided to avoid the risk of really ruining it.

So no more step by step photo, in the case if any of you have questions on the steps,  please ping me or email me separately at rabbitcancook@gmail.com.

Cheers

RCC

Bento # 38 – Mr & Mrs Hedgehog Bento

Bento # 38 - Mr & Mrs Hedgehog Bento

Today Bento idea was inspired by  http://www.parenting.com/gallery/how-to-make-a-hedgehog-bento-lunch-box

Mine is the simplified version because I skip the steps to cut the croquettes into oval shape with the fear it might ruin the whole pieces (bought just 2 pieces croquettes and no room for mistake).

If I compare mine  side by side with those in the magazine, mine looks  a bit dull. But stand alone they looks quite acceptable and it was considered fair enough since I did not put much effort in beautify them.

What’s in the box :

• 2 pieces of Cheese croquettes
• 1 slice of cheese and 1/4 slice of cheddar cheese
• Sesame seed -> for the eyes
• Lettuce , broccoli and strawberry

Bento # 37 – Chicks Bento

Bento # 37 - Chicks Bento

More of chick series Bento.

It’s been a while since the last time I experiment using hard boiled egg and today I got the chance to use my Bento craft set to craft the egg yolk into egg shell shapes. The Chick’s yellow colors did not turn out to be really striking despite the fact I had been adding 1 egg + 3 quail egg yolks, it might  be due to me using the brown rice instead of white rice. Nevertheless they still looks adorable and had been screaming…eat me …eat me…

What’s in the box :

• Brown rice added with Egg yolk
• 1 hard boiled egg -> cut the shape the egg shell
• 1 deep fried chicken drumstick -> I use the instant KFC style seasoning flour
• Nori, carrot and tomato ketchup -> for the eyes, beaks and cheeks
• Broccoli
• Strawberries
• 2 mini steam cake (mini bolu kukus) -> for dessert