Bento Corner

Pancake Sandwich:

1 ½ cups of flour, sifted
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of melted butter
¾ teaspoon of salt
1 egg, beaten
¾ cup of room temperature milk (or more as needed)
Cream cheese
Strawberry jam

Combine all dry ingredients. Beat the egg, butter, and milk together. Add the egg mixture to the flour mix. Cook batter over medium heat in a frying pan. Once little bubbles form, then turn it over and cook on the other side.

Once pancakes are formed make cut outs with desired shapes. Spread cream cheese on one side and jam on the other to make sandwiches.

Pancake recipe from the magazine:

Hotcake mix (can be purchased from Japanese market) 100grams
Carrot juice ¾ cup
1 egg
Oil for frying
Cream cheese
Strawberry jam

I suppose you could probably substitute the milk for carrot juice in the pancake recipe above if you cannot locate the hotcake mix at the Japanese store. I have not tried it though, so I have no idea how it will turn out. If anyone tries it, please let me know the results!

Pancake sandwich bento with sausages and vegetables.

I actually found this bento idea in the latest issue of NikoNiko Park (an insert of the magazine I buy for my daughter once in a while). I didn't follow the exact recipe in the magazine, but just used the regular pancake recipe I had on-hand. Well, really, my husband made the pancakes on Sunday morning and we had left overs. :o)

Bento also includes mini-sausages with red bell peppers and vegetables with mayonnaise for dipping. No dessert since the pancakes are already desserty with the jam filling.

Gomoku Gohan

2 ¼ cups of rice

¼ pound of chicken, cut into small pieces

½ carrot cut into thin slices, parboiled

3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water, then thinly sliced

½ konnyaku, sliced, parboiled

1 aburaage

2 cups of dashi stock

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of sake

2 tablespoons of mirin

Wash rice until water runs clear and set aside.

Cut chicken into small pieces and set aside.

Cut carrots and konnyaku into thin slices then parboil these ingredients.

Boil the aguraage for 2 minutes to get rid of the excess oil, and cut into very thin pieces.

Soak shiitake in water for 15 minutes, cut off the stem and then cut them into thin pieces

Add the stock, soy, sake, and mirin to the rice. Place chicken, carrots, konnyaku, and aburaage on top of the rice. Cook ingredients in a rice cooker. Let rice set for 15 minutes, then mix all the ingredients evenly.

If cooking by stove top, cook on high heat until boiling, then lower heat and cook for 15 minutes. Let rice set for 15 minutes and then mix ingredients evenly.

Inari-zushi

2 cups of sushi rice

5 aburaage

1/3 cup of dashi

2 ½ tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cut aburaage in half to create 10 aburaage “pockets”. Then boil 1 ½ cups of water in a pan and place aburaage in the water for 2 minutes to get rid of excess oil. Pat aburaage dry and discard the water. Then place the dashi, sugar, and soy sauce in the sauce pan and add aburaage. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed. Allow the aburaage to cool, then stuff with sushi rice.

Inari bento with mini sausage flowers and fruit.

Made inari this morning with left over gomoku gohan from the freezer. Here is the recipe for inari along with how to make gomoku gohan from scratch. Mini sausage flowers with red bell peppers in the middle. The heart and rabbit is made of hanpen (fish cake). Mandarin oranges and kiwi for dessert.

The weather is gorgeous today and part of yesterday was great too. Finally took the kids to the park for a playdate. Can't wait for summer to get here so the kids can splash around in the kiddie pool.

We also seem to be getting more natural light despite the hour difference since daylight savings. I guess all we need now is a better camera.