Archive for July, 2007

Burgers in flowerpot smoker, recipes

Last year for Father’s Day I made my husband a claypot “flowerpot smoker” as shown on Alton Brown’s TV show “Good Eats”. It’s basically a makeshift insulated smoker that could easily cost US$1000 if you bought a Kamado or Big Green Egg ceramic smoker– the benefits of this general type of smoker are the heat retention and ability to cook at low temperatures for extended periods of time (think pork butt) or super-high temperatures. We pulled it out for that classic Fourth of July meal: hot dogs and hamburgers, with a smoky twist.

Contents: Tuna and bean salad with vinaigrette (recipe below), marinated cucumber and tomatoes in ponzu-sanbaizu dressing (recipe below), tangerine teriyaki tofu, smoked hamburger and barbecue sauce in container, and hot dog bun. I wound up putting the burger pieces, lettuce and barbecue sauce in the hot dog bun, and eating it like a sandwich.

Morning prep time: 8 minutes, using leftover smoked hamburgers and tuna/bean salad. The tofu (leftover from grilling) was already prepped and marinating in the refrigerator; I just quickly pan-fried it to give it a nice sear. While that was on the stove I quickly sliced and dressed an English cucumber and some cherry tomatoes, and filled the sauce container.

Packing: I used lettuce as an edible divider around the smoked hamburger, and cut both hamburger and tofu into bite-sized pieces as it’s difficult to cut things already packed up in a lunch. A reusable silicone mini muffin cup holds the tuna & bean salad, keeping the vinaigrette from mingling with the tofu. Packed in my 500ml Leaflet box, there’s also a little pick for the tofu and cucumber/tomatoes, and a little clear spoon for the tuna/bean salad.

Cooking: Both hamburgers and hot dogs were wood-smoked for an hour in our flowerpot smoker (details below), with guidance from recipes in the informative barbecue cookbook Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue by James Beard Award-winning authors Cheryl and Bill Jamison. This is the fastest thing we’ve ever smoked; the pork butts below took 15 hours last year! The smoked hamburger was a standout, with seasoning mixed in, a dry rub on the outside, and a mop sauce during cooking. My lord, they were tasty!

Click for recipes for quick bean salad and salad dressing, flowerpot smoker details/review, and kid + husband meals

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Published by Biggie on July 6th, 2007 tagged beans, bento, equipment, for kids, lactose free, meat, recipe, sandwich or wrap, tofu | 25 Comments »

Spinach bite lunches

No tasty leftovers today, so I fell back on frozen food. Having a small stash of bento-friendly frozen food items can really save you on crazy mornings when the refrigerator’s not helping you out with lovely fresh food. I look at the freezer as my emergency backup system, and it came in handy today.

Contents: Spinach and artichoke cheese bites (Veggie Patch brand, info here) with chipotle cream dipping sauce (recipe below), chicken and apple sausage (excellent, Aidells brand), cherry tomatoes, orange slices, and kiwi.

Morning prep time: 10 minutes plus cooling time for the spinach bites and sausage, during which time I was able to totally pack the remaining items in the two lunches. I could have put this together in 3 minutes had I microwaved the spinach bites, but the texture suffers that way. I cut a chicken and mango sausages into rounds, nuked quickly for best food safety, and cooled it in a mini strainer and bowl.

Packing: Juicy kiwi went into a silicone-coated cup to keep any liquid away from the crispy spinach bites, and the little number pick did double duty for both sausage rounds and kiwi. I put the dipping sauce into my widest-mouth rectangular sauce container as our other containers are too small for comfortably dipping the large spinach bites. Packed in my 500ml Leaflet box. This was a little small for an adult woman according to the bento box size guidelines, so I picked up a freshly made onigiri after Japanese playgroup to accompany it.

Ingredient: My friend Monique recently started packing bentos for her son and recommended the Spinach and Artichoke Cheese Bites from Veggie Patch. Bug tried one of hers and liked it, so when I saw them at Costco I picked some up (evidently they’re widely available in regular supermarkets in the natural food refrigerated section). They’re not bad; if Bug were pickier about eating vegetables this would be an easy way to get some spinach into him. You can either bake them in the oven or toaster oven, microwave them, deep fry or pan fry them — I liked putting them in the oven to crisp up the outside without adding fat. Verdict: Pretty good when crisped, unexciting when microwaved. I may keep some around in the deep freeze for days when I don’t have good vegetable leftovers or fresh veggies around that lend themselves to quick morning prep.

Click for preschooler lunch details and chipotle cream recipe…

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Published by Biggie on July 3rd, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, pasta or noodles, phyllo or pancake or other, poultry, recipe | 13 Comments »

Tip: Use cookie cutters as onigiri molds

Shaped rice balls (onigiri) add an element of fun to a child’s bento lunch, but it’s limiting to feel that I need to buy a special onigiri mold to make them. You can shape them by hand, but looking through the kitchen drawers my eye settled on cookie cutters to provide a variety of shapes. The twist is lining them with plastic wrap to ensure that the rice ball will unmold neatly without sticking to the cookie cutter. Actual onigiri molds often have textured interiors that help keep the rice from sticking, so using plastic wrap is a low-tech approximation that also helps keep the food sanitary. You can also make onigiri in advance, wrap and freeze them, and microwave to refresh (see my tutorial on freezing onigiri here).