#52 Christmas Kitty Bento

I believe that most of bento-fans know about cooking gallery blog. Her blog is awesome, there are a lot of mouth watering cuisines, pretty bento(s) and loads of delicious dishes too. I recommend that her blog is a must read blog as you’ll find  a lot of tips and tutorial as well. Now, she is holding a bento contest that everyone can participate ...yes it’s applicable to worldwide contestants. If you would like to know more about the contest please visit her blog very soon before contest expires. If you want to know more about the contest please click here.

I also participate to the contest even though I am just a beginner in bento-making. I feel that it’s so much fun to make bento and join the event as well. I never think to be the winner as I am aware that there will be many pretty bento(s) submitted by other participation / bento bloggers which are certainly more beautiful than mine. This is truly my confession.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! Happy Holiday too.

Here is my entry:

#51 Baby Bear

I layered white rice into the box and put seasoned rice with soy sauce into bear food cup and locate in the middle of white rice. Since the food cup is a small cup then I name it baby bear. Inside the box: fried chicken, crab sticks, roasted sliced meat, kimchii, stir-fried garlic chay sim and two-tones quail eggs.

#50 Bear Croquette

I bought some croquettes yesterday at Jusco supermarket. As there is still one piece then I decide to decorate this left over store-bought croquette. The first comes into my mind is Rilakkuma. Yeah, I wanted to make Rilakkuma shaped croquette but it ended up dissimilar to my wish. It’s like a bear, hahaha…even though Rilakkuma is also a bear character but it has more adorable looks, isn’t it?

#49 Inari Sushi Quail-Eggs Fiesta

It has been quite sometimes to try out using the quail egg cutters but it was delayed since I forgot to buy the quail eggs whenever I went to supermarket. It sounds weird but I think I have forgetful syndrome already, hehehe….

It was quite fun to decorate the eggs although I could say that it’s not really easy as I thought. I think it’s because of the tiny shaped eggs.

Finally, I can show you the parade of quail eggs in the box. There are little bird, chick, little pig, little ox and rabbit. Beneath the quail eggs are inari sushi coated with chukka wakame, sliced salmon and sakura denbu. While the others are tofu sandwich, cherry tomato, lettuce, flower-cut carrot, apple wedge and English parsley.

#48 Miffy Bento

Hi…I’m miffy. I made of rice decorated with seaweed and flower-cut carrot. Ayam bumbu bali, recipe click here and stir-fry baby bok choy, corn kernels, baby corn, carrot and cayenne pepper. Papaya cut in cubes and mint leaves as the companion.

#47 Purple Onigiri

Purple Onigiri is made of rice with purple decofuri. The eyes and lip are cut out from seaweed using facial expression puncher. Seaweed puncher is really helpful as there will be trouble free and I can save a lot of time on this facial decoration. The other dishes are cherry tomatoes, blanched lady fingers and broccoli, tofu sandwich topped with star-cut cheese, fried hard boiled egg and few pieces of grapes.

#46 HelloKitty Snack Bento

Hello Kitty character frequently appears in my bento-making. Yes, I do fancy Hello Kitty. The character is so adorable and it makes almost everyone love it, isn’t it? I used my Hello Kitty cookie cutter to shape the plain bread and draw the face outline using the choco pen and strawberry jam to make the facial expression more visible. While the brown color Hello Kitty shaped is made of Pancake. In the other box consisted of sliced orange, peeled rambutan and half cut grapes decorated with food picks to have pretty looks.

#45 Kitty Floral

It’s a very simple bento. It’s made of rice covered with flower-cut chicken ham and Hello Kitty shaped cheese, lettuce as food divider, chicken katsu, blanched broccoli, quail egg and cherry tomato.

#44 Strawberry Bento

It’s an onigiri again. Yeay! Strawberry-shaped onigiri made of rice and sprinkled with black sesame seeds and added leaves food picks as well. The other dish inside the bowl: pink coloured quail eggs topped with sesame seeds, blanched flower-cut daikon, maki sushi, blanched asparagus, meat roll, fried triangle-shaped tofu and stripped & checkered green apple wedges.

#43 Pinky Onigiri

My intention is to make Ringo Onigiri (apple-shaped Onigiri) but I failed. The Onigiri didn’t look as an apple at all.

Inside the box are fish nuggets, decorated quail eggs, Japanese fish sausage, cherry tomato, lettuce and broccoli.

#42 Gloomy Puppy

Gloomy Puppy was inspired by one of Japanese bento books, it was made from rice and mixed with decofuri. As for decoration I used baby asparagus, cheese, seaweed and cucumber and heart-shaped food picks. The companion dish were thinly sliced pork belly rolled with asparagus and carrot, tofu sandwich, flower ham, carrot and sliced navel orange.

Mini Bibimbap

My latest cooking experiment is a bibimbap, a Korean Cuisine. The recipe is adapted from Maangchi website. If you like Korean cuisine then you must check her blog promptly as you can find variety of Korean cuisine which is very yummy and delicious for sure. I made a petit size bibimbap so I named it Mini Bibimbap as the actual bibimbap serving will be much bigger than mine & it’s normally served in hot-stone bowl. Since, I do not have it then I use ceramic bowl instead

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Lotus Root-Pork Ribs Soup

I am not expert in cooking. I start learning to make simple dish for my family. Today's post is about Lotus Root Soup with Pork Ribs. It's an easy dish what I need is rib or meat (here I use pork ribs). It's also alright to use beef-ribs or chicken as an alternative choices. Another ingredients are sliced cut lotus root, pepper-corn, Chinese red-dates, garlic, soy sauce and salt. Chinese celery or coriander leaves and spring onions as sprinkles.It also obtains a fragrant smell to the soup.

Here is the photo:

#41 Sleepy Bear Sandwich

This is simple sandwich for today. I cut the sliced squared bread into half & spread with butter and layer it with sliced cheese, green coral lettuce and mayonnaise adding the blanched flower-shaped carrot as decoration. Besides, flower-shaped ham, rolled cheese-ham, octopus & flower-shaped wiener as companion to the sandwich.

#40 Kiiroitori Bento

I made Kiiroitori shaped Bento using yellow decofuri while wakame is used to decorate facial expression.Bear-shaped Cocktail wieners, store-bought potato cutlet (bought at Tesco), fried potato wedge, brocolli and flower-shaped carrot are all I have inside the box. The other box consisted of round-shaped Vietnamese dragon fruit.

Here is the look:

Ayam Bumbu Bali

Here I made Ayam Bumbu Bali. This cooking style is widely found in East Java especially at the food stalls where the economy rice is served.

Recipe was adopted from http://dapoerkoe.blogspot.com/2007/05/telur-balado.html.

Here is the look

#39 Sakana Bento

Happy Monday to everyone..

I made this fish-shaped sushi bento last September and I just managed to post it today. It's quite easy and handy since I used mini fish shaped sushi-mold, you can also try it out. The colored rice used decofuri. The other The other dish: flower-shaped hams, seafood tofu, sliced chicken with worcestershire sauce, sliced azuki red bean mooncake ( I bought it from Jusco as it coincided with mooncake festival), few slices of orange, blanced broccoli, lettuce and red radish.

Here is the look:

Sauted Squid

This is my favourite food during my childhood time. My mother used to cook this dish for us. All my siblings enjoy eating it too especially when the dish added with cut-bird chillies and stir-fry together with the squid and other ingredients. We could taste the spicy yet chewy-yummy squid at once. Finally, I tried to cook this dish however it's still not comparable to the mother's cooking. I think my sister cooked better than me.

Here is the appearance:

#38 Bow-tie Onigiri

Today's date is Friday 11th November 2011 and it's very unique number 11.11.11. isn't it? And tomorrow will be weekend again. Happy weekend to everyone...hope you have a great fun. I am posting bento again. It's cubed rice tied with chive resembling a wrapped gift. I used tomatoes & chili sauce to color the rice and stuffed rice with spicy chicken floss mixed with mayonnaise. Ribbon picks used to secure the knot. The rests are lettuce, few slices of blanched carrot, strawberry & green kiwi. Both small containers filled with mayo and chili sauce respectively.

Here is the look:

#37 Fish Bone Bento

Hello......

I'm back after being idle for some times. Here is my fish bone bento for today. I used small cube rice mold & colored few cubed rice using purple decofuri. I also used mini puncher to cut out the fish bone shaped. The rests are fried chicken strips, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, grapes and several types of egg-cooking styles such as two-tones tamagoyaki, chives omelette and flower egg-sheet. Ahaaaa..yeaaa...a lot of egg cooking varieties.

Blossom Canape

I saw half baguette still lying down on the table so I decided to make canapé with tuna spread and cheddar smoked cheese. I cut the baguette into thin slice and spread over the tuna adding with blossom cut flower cheese & chili sauce as garnish.

Here is the look:

#36 Halloween Party Bento

I supposed to post this Halloween themed bento yesterday but I couldn't make it. Instead I do posting today and hope it's not too late. This bento is made to participate the Halloween Celebration which was due on 31th October 2011. My bento box consists of few slices of fried chicken, tamagoyaki, rolled ham baby corn, sweet peas, cherry tomatoes, Korilakkuma wearing witch's hat made from rice ball, half-cut orange and carrot resembled to Jack O Lantern, Boo the cutest ghost made from cheese and nori and stick them to a food pick.

Here is the look:

#35 Layered & stuffed Bread

This is another home-made simple sandwiches consisting of cheese, ham and lettuce salad spread with mayonnaise & chili sauce. I arranged them horizontally into a lunch box and combined with two pieces of stuffed breads (blueberry jam filling). Cherry-tomatoes & sliced strawberry as companion.  I also used food picks as decoration.

Here is the look:

Soto Ayam

This dish is one of the most popular in Java Island especially in the Eastern region, it’s called Soto Ayam Ambengan. I believe that everyone in this region does enjoy eating it, as much as I did. Actually, if I refer to “soto” there will be many similar serving with various cooking style depending on each region of different provinces which has its particular name, dissimilar ingredients and its unique taste. 

Here is Soto Ayam Recipe adopted from Primarasa recipe book with slightly changes as below:

Ingredients:
Whole chicken (cut quarterly)
2 stalk of lemon grass (cut & bruised)
2stalks of spring onion
3 stalks of celery
2000ml of water
4pcs of Lime leaves
Salt to taste
Spice Paste:
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper
3 onion (chopped)
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2cm of turmeric (peeled and chopped)
2-inch piece of ginger (peeled and sliced)
2-3cm of galangal (peeled & bruised)
4pcs candle nuts
chopped spring onion & celery 1/2 pack (150grams) of vermicelli
2 limes, cut into wedges
3 hard-boiled eggs (half cut)


Method:

Bring water to boil. Add salt, cut & bruised lemon grass, chicken then cook over low heat for 20-30mins or until chicken tendered. Drain the chicken.  Fry the chicken till light golden brown. Put aside to cool & shred.

Blend the spice paste, add water if necessary.

Add some oil in a pan & stir the blended spices till fragrant. Put into boiled chicken broth. Add lime leaves, shredded chicken cook over low heat and simmer for another 20mins.

Soak vermicelli before blanching. Put in half hard-boiled eggs and sprinkle spring onion & celery to the soup. Serve with lime wedges and sambal.

Here is the appearance:

#34 Mini Deco Bread Platter

This is another bread platter which I cut using decora cutter set. The first layer was flower-cut bread cover with cheese and ham or I arrange the reserve way such as ham & cheese as final topping.

Here is the look:

#33 Flower cut bread (Snack Bento)

It's a very super simple snack. The most longest time consuming is to cut the checkered apple wedge. While the fastest job is to poke prune with leaf food pick, haha...The sliced breads are cut using flower cookie cutter. Ham and cheese are shaped using decora cutter set. Meanwhile, I have also taken picture for decora-cutters so as  to share with everyone and also to eliminate any curiosity on the aforesaid product.

Here are the photos:

Decora cutters' photo:

Curry flower crab & baked-butter crab

Curry flower crabs & baked butter crabs are posted today. It’s very easy cooking as I just used ready-mix curry powder adding with a pinch of salt and curry leaves for its aromatic. Coconut milk was omitted so as to avoid creamy gravy. While I decided to bake the 2^nd batch of crab spreading with salted butter before I put inside the oven. However, I prefer normal crab as flower crab has a thin layer flesh and taste is not as tasty as normal crab.

Here is the look:

#32 Kaeru Bento

I made burger to resemble a frog (it's called "kaeru" in Japanese language) decorated with round-sliced cucumber, cheese and seaweed for the eyes. While its maw and nose used wiener and crab-stick. Burger’s filling made from minced chicken meat, mayonnaise, chili sauce, lettuce and cheese. As for sandwich it’s just a simple one, double sliced toasts filled with butter, ham and cheese. Flower-cut slice bread stacked up with flower-cut cheese and wiener and secured with tooth pick as sandwich’s topping. Lettuce and blanched broccoli as garnish.

#31 Bear Fried Rice

This is a very simple lunch box. It’s fried rice made with chopped broccoli, thinly sliced wiener, chopped ham & chop red capsicum,. While another box is consisted of sliced fried chicken, blanched broccoli, blanched carrot, two-tones sliced cheese, bear-shaped flour sheet decorated with nori and cubed-cut watermelon. Lastly, food pick as a final decoration.

Here is the look….hope you like it

Bah Kut Teh

I made Bah Kut The using Eu Yan Sang’s herb packet. It’s very easy yet delicious. The direction is also given at the back of the package. I added fried bean curd (tau kee) and cut shili padi & soy sauce as the companion. Alternatively, it can be served with you tiao/ yau ja gwai (油条)or Chinese cruller and boiled lettuce as well.

Hello Kitty Cupcakes

Happy Monday to everyone.........

Again, it’s my first experiment dealing with butter-cream. I got the recipe from my best friend, Lili. She is expert  in cake making as well as the cake decoration.. She has a wonderful blog too. To find more about her collection please visit her blog. Here, I used Pillsbury lemon cake-mix and pour the mixture into cupcake case. It’s very easy and hassle free to use the ready mix. However, I will try to make the mixture myself next time.

Here I used an edible image as a cupcake topper & frame with butter cream in the whole edges. As you can see the result is 

Cake Pops

Hi,

This is my 1st cake pops I ever made. I keep in mind that someday I have to try out cake pops making. Besides, its pretty-unique form, cake pops are booming now. IFurthermore,  can also have a lot of fun with it. Yeaah, I can put some colourful sprinkles onto it or shape cake pops into cute character as desired.

I did google search to learn more about how to deal with cake pops before I decided to start making it. At first, I can say that it looks like very easy to make the cake pops, but I confessed that it was not as easy as I have seen in the videos. Why did I say that? because most of my cake pops fell off from the stick after dipping into melting chocolate. I wonder why it could happen as I also refrigerated to harden the cake pops to be firmed enough. Finally,  I have come into conclusion that my cake pops were not turn well because there was too much frosting added or I do need a cake pops mould hahahaha...

At the end, I am still quite happy as I can still be able to share the final result of my first cake pops experience!!

Here is the look:

#30 My Melody Bento

Hi Everyone, I am sorry for not posting any update for few weeks.

This is my first attempt to experience with flour sheet making. The chosen theme is My Melody. Here I used 3 coloured flour sheet i.e.: pink, white and blue. It’s quite difficult and I may say that it’s still far from the neatness. Hopefully, I can do it better in the future **big grind**

The other box consisting of shredded omelet, cocktail wiener, cube spam, cherry tomato, swirled cheese, broccoli, half-cut red radish and red dragon fruit.

Here is the result:

Korean Rice Cake Ball (Gyungdan 경단)

Hi,

I decided to post this snack which I received it from my neighbour. She is a Korean. I learnt from her few Korean dish such as Kimchii, BBQ Chicken and sweet pancake as well. If I am not mistaken, this snack is called Gyungdan 경단 in Korea. This is made from rice flour & stuffed with red bean paste. Sesame Seed powders (white or black colour) or mugwort powder are used as a sprinkle. 

If you're interested in making this snack, please click here which is a quite similar recipe wrote by Maangchi. Besides, you may have a try various numbers of authentic Korean delicious recipe in her website too.

Here is the look:

Steamed Egg

I love eating this steamed egg especially during my childhood time. It’s very simple to make this dish. We just need chicken eggs, a pinch of salt & whisk them till well-combined. Here I added the mixture with sliced ham as topping & sprinkle with spring onion. If you want to have silky look on it, please strain the egg mixture before steaming.

Wish List #1

Bento gadgets or pretty baking tools are really adorable items which many people love to collect them. It also makes me addicted to bunch up. There are some of them which I really want to have it. and I will put them on to my wish list. Let's sneak a look. Here we go:

Decora Cutters

Hi Everyone,

I am posting a new tool which is simply cute.This adorable cutters came with 3 different designs in a pack. It can be used on to ham, cheese, bread and many more. It's also applicable to fondant! A great idea to use for sandwich decoration or as a topper for cupcakes before decorating with other figurines. If you're interested and would like to know more about it please click here.

Here is the photo:

#29 Two-tones Bears (Bread Bento)

This snack bento is also adopted from Miyazawa bento-making. I love her bento-making. I like on how she arranges, decorate & shape the foods. They’re always very beautiful & neat too. Please hop on to her website to see her creation.

The two-tones bears snack bento is cut using two different sliced bread (chocolate & plain toast bread) different size of round cookie cutters, small oval cutter, face expression cutter. I also made small heart-shaped from the remaining bread. Hope you like them.

#28 Hello Kitty Sushi

This is my 1^st attempt on sushi making. I tried to use  Hello Kitty Sushi Maker. The instruction is in Japanese while I am not able to read Japanese so I need to use my feeling for the correct measurements. Actually, it is quite easy to use the maker but I am still not able to make the exact amount to be inserted into each mold so the result is turn unwell. The Hello Kitty face is not well shaped, it looks a bit chubby. Well, I will try it again next time & I hope to have a better result.

I’m a bit shy to post this result however I confide myself that this is only for my memorable food experiment so nothing to be embarrassed. Perhaps I’ll have friend’s advice to improve my cooking trial.

Kits & stuffs

Here is another collection which I want to post & keep as my record:

Rilakkuma Pan