Toddler Bento Archive (14, 15, 16, 19, 20 May)

• Tomato&Red Wine Humburg Steak
• Carrot Saute 
• Spinach Saute
• Potato glatin
• Tomato&Avocado salad

• Fried Bihon (Click to see the recipe)
• Corn, Broad beans and halloumi saute
• Spinach with sweet and soy sesame sauce

• Rice with Salmon flake and Seaweed
• Carrot, avocado, bacon and avocado butter and soy sauce saute
• Hash potato

A new bento box

• Fried rice with spring onion and Karaage (Japanese style fried chicken) 
• Hash potato
• Corn, carrot and spinach saute
• Tomato and avocado salad

Karaage (click for the recipe) is the leftover of the previous day's picnic

• Bread pudding 
• Potato, sausage and tomato saute with soy sauce
• Carrot saute 

Bread Pudding Recipe

1. Soak bite sized bread in the beaten egg and milk.
2. Prepare caramel in a baking sheet over a baking tray.

3. Cut sultana into small and add into the pudding.
4. Bake the pudding for 10-15 mints over 160C in the oven.

Chicken and Toasted Cashew Nuts Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

• Chicken thigh: 2 pieces
• Salt: pinches
• Mirin: 1 tablespoon
• Grated garlic: 1 teaspoon
• Grated ginger: 1 teaspoon
• Corn flour (to dust chicken): 1 tablespoon

• Spring onion: 2 pieces
• Zucchini: 1/2
• Vegetable oil: 1 tablespoon
• Bamboo shoots: 1/2 cup
• Cashew nuts: a handful

<Seasoning ingredients mixed together in a bowl>

• Soy sauce: 1tablespoon
• Oyster sauce: 1 tablespoon
• Chicken stock cube: 1/4
• Sesame oil: 1 teaspoon
• Hot water: 200cc

Directions

1. Cut chicken thigh into small bite sized pieces and dress with salt, mirin, grated garlic and ginger in a bowl.

2. Cut zucchini and spring onion into 1cm cube/length. Heat up a frying pan and stir fry veggies with vegetable oil. Set these veggies aside.

3. Dust the chicken pieces with corn flour. Stir fry them to brown. Meanwhile, toast cashew nuts in a separate pan or in oven.

4. Once the meat is ready, add veggies and seasoning into the pan. Bring it to boil. 

5. Add toasted cashew nuts to mix.

• Deepfried Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus, parmesan and truffle oil salad
• Chicken and Toasted Cashew Nuts Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce
• Tofu miso soup
• Rice

Time to prepare: 25 minutes
Total cost of the dish: 2.4 pounds (1.7 for chicken thigh and 0.7 for the rest of the ingredients)

Toddler Bento: Deep fried plaice with seaweed 

• Deepfried plaice with seaweed
• Grilled potato and meat sauce with mozzarella cheese
• Avocado and tomato salad
• Rice with sour plum leaves

Saved some portion of plaice from previous dinner and soaked with soy sauce and sake overnight. Adding seaweed powder into the deepfry batter is known as "Isobe-age". The hint of seaweed makes normal deepfried fish very tasty and flavoursome.

Directions

1. Cut the plaice into bite sized and soak with a pinch of salt, soy sauce, mirin and sake (or white wine) 1 teaspoon each for a while.
2. Dust plaice pieces with cornflour and  seaweed powder.

3. Deepfry the pieces with small amount of oil (do not have to use a lot of oil to deepfry) until they get nice golden colour.

Direction of  Grilled potato and meat sauce with mozzarella cheese

1. Slice the potato into pieces and microwave for 20 seconds.
2. Put the potato, meat sauce and mozzallera into a baking cup and grill in the oven for 5-6 mints.

Total time to prepare: 25 mints

Sweet and Sour Miso Chicken

To provide readers a broad image of this dish, roughly saying, it is deep-fried chicken and veggies dressed with sweet and sour miso souce with a hint of sesame oil. 

It is a very good company for steamed rice or noodles. 

Ingredients

• Green veggies (mange tout, asparagus, broccoli, etc.)
• Red veggies (1/3 paprika or 3 cm carrot) 
• 6-7 cherry tomatoes
• 2 pieces of chicken thighs
• spring onion (not necessary) 
• 2 tablespoons of sake
• pinches of salt
• corn flour
• Vegetable oil to deep-fry
• (Crushed Chilli)

Dressing

• 1 tablespoon of miso
• 1 tablespoon of vinegar
• 1.5 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 2 tablespoons of water

Directions

1. Cut the chicken into bite sized and season with sake and salt in a bowl. 

2. Fill vegetable oil in 1 cm depth in a large frying pan and heat up over medium temperature. Deep-fry veggies roughly till they get nice coloured (about for 1 minute) and then set aside over a paper towel.

3. Dust the chicken pieces with corn flour and deep-fry them for 2 minutes for both sides. Empty the oil from the pan and wipe the rest with paper towels.

4. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl.

5. Heat up the pan and gently boil the sauce ingredients (also add chilli if you like) then add chicken chicken pieces to dress.

6. Add the rest of veggies to dress and serve. 

• Sweet and sour miso chicken, 
• Cucumber and Halloumi salad, 
• Dried sardine from Katsuura, Japan, 
• Tofu with wasabi, 
• Seaweed soup, 
• Rice

Total time to prepare: 25 minutes

Total cost of sweet and sour miso chicken: 2.3 pounds (1.6 for chicken and 0.7 for the rest of veggies and seasonings)

Le Cordon Bleu Breakfast Baking Class

I attended to the Breakfast Baking Course at Le Cordon Bleu London. 

It was one day intensive baking camp preparing croissant, pastries, varieties of brioche and muffin from the dough.

Preparing the brioche dough

Pain au chocolat and croissant are ready for proving

The chef shows the technique for brioche moulding

Chocolate brioche pieces just came out from proving

My pastry pieces including Lego (around middle in the bottom)

Croissant and Pain au Chocolat are done!

Part of my work including Lego pastry

Another pieces of my work

As always, the course of Le Cordon Bleu provides heavy input as well as lots of output to take back to home. This course was so informative, well designed, very busy and a great fun!

Total cost: 175 pounds
Total time of the course: from 9am till 4.30pm including 20 mints lunchtime 

Phytochemical Charge from Veggie Peels

The positive effects of phytochemical to our health though the intake of vegetables is introduced here:
http://www.phytochemicals.info/.

However, preparing meals with varieties of veggies is not always easy especially when we are busy or sick.

To gain rich amount of phytochemical easily, I often make a broth by using peels of veggies. 

Root and outer skin of veggies are often removed and disposed. However these part of veggies contain higher amount of phytochemical as they are to protect the inside (Orangepage, February 2014, P. 121).

Direction of veggie broth

1. Wash veggies well before preparing them. Save peels and roots of veggies and store in a reclosable bag to keep in the fridge. 

Ex: Skin and root of garlic, round onion, ginger, outer leaves of cabbage, peels of potato and carrot, the bottom of mushrooms, the hard part of spring onion.

Better to avoid broccoli and cauliflower as they make the broth bitter.

2. Put the peels and roots in a deep pan and fill with cold water. Heat the pan over small temperature and gently cook for 20-30 mints.

3.  Filter the broth with a dense net with a gauze or paper towel.

4. Store in the fridge and consume in 3days. 

 

This broth is very nutritious, economical, ecological and importantly, very tasty attained through the layers of flavour and taste from various veggies. 
Can be used any types of soup.

A soup with sausage and veggies with the broth

I intend to make this broth whenever my family gets sick. 

Phytochemical soup for the fast recovery from sickness

Mmmmm.

Time to prepare: 30 mints

Total cost: 0

Deepfried Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus, parmesan and truffle oil salad 

The great taste of deepfried jerusalem artichoke has been introduced:

http://japanesegourmet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/deep-fried-wedges-of-jerusalem.html.

Asparagus, tomato and parmesan is a great company for the deepfried jerusalem artichoke. The perfume of truffle oil makes this salad a gorgeous dish!

Directions

1. Peel the skin of jerusalem artichokes.  Cut the veggies into bite sized.

2. Heat up a frying pan with oil (less than 1cm depth) and deepfry veggies separately until each get nice colour.  

3. Place them over a paper towel to remove the extra oil.

4. Mix with some cherry tomatoes and top with parmesan cheese, pinches of salt and some truffle oil to serve.

Time to prepare: 20 mints
Total cost:1.4 pounds+ (60p for asparagus, 50p for jerusalem artichoke, 30p for cherry tomatoes, + vegetable oil, parmesan cheese, truffle oil)