- Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento - http://lunchinabox.net -

Shumai “burger” lunches

Posted By Biggie On March 23, 2007 @ 8:33 pm In bento, dumplings or buns, for kids, pasta or noodles, recipe, tips, tutorial or how to | 25 Comments

Morning prep time: 5 minutes (10 minutes for two lunches). We’ve got leftover spaghetti puttanesca (with tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil), steamed broccoli and kabocha squash (cooked together quickly in a [1] microwave mini steamer, speeding up cook time 50%), and pan-fried frozen shumai (a.k.a. siomai or siumai). I saw the pan-fried shumai in a Japanese bento cookbook, described as a “Chinese hamburger” — I got a chuckle out of that. I keep a few sauce bottles pre-filled with dipping sauces we use a lot (such as soy, dumpling dipping sauce, hot sauce, Lizano, etc.), so I was able to just grab a couple and throw them into our lunches. Tiny green grapes and a cherry tomato act as “gap fillers” to stabilize the lunch for transport.

Speedy puttanesca lunch

The shumai “burgers” were fast and easy, using frozen shumai (Chinese dumplings). I microwaved the frozen shumai until soft (30 seconds on high in my 1100W microwave), heated a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, sprayed it with vegetable oil, and pan-fried the dumplings until crispy, mashing them down with a spatula throughout.

[2] Shumai [3] Shumai

Bug does better if I cut up his spaghetti for him, so I did this quickly with clean kitchen scissors after putting the pasta in the bento box. Bug actually doesn’t like olives or capers, so I pulled those out of his puttanesca so he’d eat the whole thing. Success! He made a beeline for the finger food shumai “burgers” first, grabbed one of mine, then attacked all of the broccoli and pasta. He wasn’t interested in the kabocha, though — you never can tell (he usually likes it). Bug’s lunch is packed in a 350ml container, just about right according to the [4] Japanese nutrition and bento box size guidelines. I used a little plastic divider (”baran”) to keep the crispy shumai away from the moist broccoli, and threw in a tiny pick for the kabocha.

 Speedy puttanesca lunch for toddler

READ MORE:

Share this post:
  • [9] StumbleUpon
  • [10] TwitThis
  • [11] Facebook
  • [12] del.icio.us
  • [13] Kirtsy

Article printed from Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento: http://lunchinabox.net

URL to article: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/03/23/shumai-burger-lunches/

URLs in this post:
[1] microwave mini steamer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunchinabox/388209604/in/set-72157594150632817/
[2] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunchinabox/431757928/
[3] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunchinabox/431757929/
[4] Japanese nutrition and bento box size guidelines.: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/03/07/guide-to-choosing-the-right-size-bento-box/
[5] Need for speed: A mommy’s lunch manifesto: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/04/23/need-for-speed-a-mommys-lunch-manifesto/
[6] Food safety for packed lunches: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/05/08/food-safety-for-packed-lunches-updated/
[7] How to pack a bento lunch and use “gap fillers”: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/06/11/guide-to-bento-packing-and-gap-fillers/
[8] Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and equipment reviews: http://lunchinabox.net/top-tips/
[9] Image: http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Flunchinabox.net%2F2007%2F03%2F23%2Fshumai-burger-
lunches%2F&title=Shumai%20%22burger%22%20lunches

[10] Image: http://twitter.com/home?status=http%3A%2F%2Flunchinabox.net%2F2007%2F03%2F23%2Fshumai-burger-lunches
%2F

[11] Image: http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Flunchinabox.net%2F2007%2F03%2F23%2Fshumai-burger-lu
nches%2F&t=Shumai%20%22burger%22%20lunches

[12] Image: http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Flunchinabox.net%2F2007%2F03%2F23%2Fshumai-burger-lunches%2F
&title=Shumai%20%22burger%22%20lunches

[13] Image: http://www.kirtsy.com/submit.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Flunchinabox.net%2F2007%2F03%2F23%2Fshumai-burger-l
unches%2F&title=Shumai%20%22burger%22%20lunches