Archive for the 'poultry' Category

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Hanami cherry blossom viewing picnic

On Sunday our family did a version of hanami, the Japanese spring tradition of having a party under sakura cherry trees during that brief moment that they’re in bloom. We went to Golden Gate Park, where we were able to enjoy our little picnic without the crowds of Japan. I remember quickly thrown-together hanami parties in the afternoon or evening with friends and colleagues in Japan, with all kinds of food from sparse sandwiches or pre-made bentos bought from convenience stores, to elaborate barbecues cooked on portable hibachi grills accompanied by beer and sake. Hanami parties in the evening usually wound up being unpredictable and fun, with the drunk salarymen next to you wanting to share their food and try out their English.

In my old residential neighborhood in Tokyo, people would reserve their spots at popular picnic locations by writing their names and desired times on a piece of paper by the cherry tree in question. There are even official blossom forecasts (sakurazensen) by the weather bureau reporting exactly where the trees are in bloom, and where they’ve peaked. My mini version of these cherry blossom reports for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park follows — this is the week for it! If you have tips on good hanami locations near you, please let us know in comments.

Contents of picnic bento for three (two adults, one preschooler): The top tier holds a variety of onigiri rice balls, some mixed with shrimp-flavored or vegetable-flavored furikake rice sprinkles, and filled with either Gohan Desu Yo! nori seaweed paste or leftover Chinese-steamed trout. The middle tier holds removable containers of shrimp salad, chicken salad and plum tomatoes. The bottom tier holds strawberries, blueberries, and little food cups of homemade blueberry-raspberry juice jiggler cups (how-to here).

Morning prep time: 25-30 minutes, using shrimp and chicken salad from Costco’s deli section, and homemade juice gelatin cups that I’d made earlier. What took the most time was making the variety of onigiri rice balls by hand. (Read on for cooking notes, my San Francisco blossom forecast, and an additional preschooler lunch.)

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Published by Biggie on April 1st, 2008 tagged SF Bay Area local, bento, fish or seafood, for kids, onigiri or sushi, poultry, rice | 53 Comments »

Breakfast for lunch bento

Sometimes it’s fun to pack breakfast food for lunch, as I’ve done before with French toast, pancakes, waffles, and my version of an Egg McMuffin. Kids especially like the do-it-yourself aspect to the toppings and spreads that come with breakfast foods, like maple syrup, Nutella, jam, etc. You don’t have to be stuck making a fresh batch of pancakes or waffles on a weekday morning, though — make a little extra if you make them on the weekend when you have time, and then freeze them for a quick lunchtime option. Check out the full how-to posts on freezing pancakes or waffles for a refresher.

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Blueberry mini pancakes, little pork sausages & ketchup, cucumber slices, cheese triangle, car-shaped molded quail egg, simmered red bell pepper with Korean barbecue sauce.

Morning prep time: 12 minutes, using frozen homemade mini pancakes and the multi-boiling speed cooking technique. In the morning, I microwaved the little frozen pancakes, sliced the cucumber, and briefly boiled the sausages, sliced bell pepper and washed quail egg together in the same tiny pot to save time. Because the quail eggs are tiny, they boil in just a few minutes. Once they were cooked, I peeled the two and molded them in a quail egg mold (the big yellow multi-egg mold in the photo below; see my earlier post on molding eggs). (Read on for full lunch packing info and an additional bento lunch.)

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Published by Biggie on March 15th, 2008 tagged bento, eggs, for kids, meat, pasta or noodles, phyllo or pancake or other, poultry | 23 Comments »

Mac & cheese lunches: Hot vs. cold

I’ve used thermal food jars before to pack curries, stew, oden, chili, hotpot, and even rice — keeping everything warm and soft until lunchtime. Given how stiff macaroni and cheese can get once it cools, I wondered if it would benefit from being packed in a food jar. My three-year-old doesn’t complain about cold pasta (yet), but I tried some of Bug’s leftover pasta after picking him up from school, and it was still soft and warm in the jar. Success! Think outside of the box if you’ve got a thermal food jar and no access to a microwave at lunchtime; what else would be good warm?

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Organic shells & cheese with sauteed zucchini, onions and diced bulgogi (Korean marinated, grilled beef) with a little leftover Japanese curry stirred in at the end. Steamed broccoli with Korean barbecue sauce, carnitas braised pork, cherry tomatoes, blueberries and homemade apple crisp (recipe is from Cooks’ Illustrated’s The New Best Recipe, but online subscribers can find it on their website).

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using leftover mac & cheese, apple crisp, and Del Real carnitas from Costco. In the morning I pre-warmed the food jar with hot tap water while I microwaved the mac & cheese with a splash of water to restore the texture. I also nuked the carnitas to take the chill off, and cooked the broccoli in my microwave mini steamer.

Cooking: As an aside, I recently saw Alton Brown’s new Good Eats show on broccoli, which mentioned that “a study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that microwaving broccoli reduced its antioxidant compounds by 74-97%.” Ack! I’m having double thoughts about microwaving broccoli now; it looks like steaming or pan-frying are much better. I’m going to all this effort to make sure Bug gets his vegetables, I don’t want them to be nutritionally crippled… (Click for packing info and an additional preschooler lunch with panda bento band.)

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Published by Biggie on February 26th, 2008 tagged bento, equipment, food jar, for kids, leftover remake, meat, pasta or noodles, poultry, sandwich or wrap | 16 Comments »

Rice cube & mushroom bento lunch

One of our two cats has started scratching under our bed and on our door when we shut her out, so I wake up early some mornings when Squirrel decides it’s time for us to get up (grrr). I’d rather be sleeping, but figure as long as I’m awake I may as well do something a little more ambitious for Bug’s bentos than throwing something into the microwave and reheating leftovers. (On the cat front, please feel free to give me advice on how to change our cat’s behavior! I’ve tried squirting her with water and putting contact paper under the bed, so now she jumps at our hair through the headboard slats. I’d love to get that extra hour of sleep in the morning again, but short of putting her in a cage I’m not sure what to do…)

Contents of preschooler lunch: “Rice cubes” with salmon-flavored furikake rice sprinkles, Moro blood orange, teriyaki chicken cubes (recipe below), Chinese egg custard tart, and roasted mushroom cap stuffed with chevre, pancetta, sauteed broccoli rabe, garlic and butter (recipe below). This is the lunch I referenced last week in the recipe for roasted mushroom caps.

Morning prep time: 20 minutes, using frozen rice and a quarter of a leftover egg custard from a cheap takeout dim sum meal (from Good Luck Dim Sum in San Francisco). In the morning I popped the mushrooms in my convection toaster oven to roast while I microwaved the rice and made the onigiri rice cubes with a little rice cuber (details and how-to here; you can also use a shaped silicone ice cube tray for similar results). The chicken and mushroom filling took the remaining time — I was ambitious for this lunch as I was awake anyway. (Darn Squirrel! At least her brother Moose is chill.) (Click for cooking and packing details, plus an additional preschooler lunch.)

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Published by Biggie on February 20th, 2008 tagged bento, for kids, glutenfree, lactose free, onigiri or sushi, poultry, rice, vegetarian | 46 Comments »

Miniature fruit & sandwich bento lunches

When I’m grocery shopping I like to keep my eyes peeled for miniature fruit that can be packed whole inside of a bento lunch, like Manzano or red bananas, Lady apples, or tiny tangerines. Although I can always cut up full-size versions and dip them in citrus juice to keep the fruit from browning, packing whole fruit is safer from a food safety standpoint, especially during warm weather. Japanese-language bento books tout packing whole fruit and vegetables during the summer for this reason, thus we see such accessories as the Banana Guard or the Banana Bunker that protect the delicate fruit from bruising in transit. I like to think that a miniature apple can rival cut fruit like apple rabbits and banana wedges in cuteness, but I may be deluding myself.

Sandwiches don’t have to go into a plastic baggie and get smushed in your bag before lunch. Roll or wrap sandwiches lend themselves nicely to a sushi-style presentation in a bento box, while bulkier sliced sandwiches can fit pretty much intact inside the larger collapsible sandwich cases that I like to take along for airplane meals. These are a couple of quickie sandwich lunches from last week (yes, I’m backlogged).

Contents of preschooler lunch: Turkey and Swiss cheese rolls, tangerine and a tiny Lady apple. Bug adores these darned rolls from Costco, although I find them to be a little bland and in need of mustard. They’re easy finger food, though, and they make my son unbelievably happy, so I humor him.

Morning prep time: 3 minutes, using store-bought wrap sandwiches. In the morning I just peeled the tangerine and scraped the white pith off with my fingernail. (Click to read the full post with packing notes and an additional preschooler lunch…)