Archive for the 'equipment' Category

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North Carolina pulled pork sandwich

Spent Sunday smoking a couple of pork butts on our kludged-together flowerpot smoker for pulled pork sandwiches. All packed in my Nissan Stainless thermal lunch jar to keep the cole slaw fresh and cool.

bun cut to fit the container
homemade pulled pork, smoked for 15 hours
vinegar hot sauce for the pork
homemade buttermilk coleslaw
blackberries and “mango nectarines” — a new kind of nectarine with a slight taste/texture of mangos (quite good!)

Here’s the pork shoulder on the smoker.

Insulated smoker kludged together from flower pots and an electric coil burner a la Alton Brown’s Good Eats — our first smoker (details here). We’re looking at getting a proper smoker now that we’re really into it.

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Published by Biggie on July 17th, 2006 tagged equipment, meat, salad, sandwich or wrap, thermal lunch jar | 2 Comments »

Williams Sonoma for egg molds?!?!

How did I make this barnyard snack bento for my son without a traditional rice ball mold or egg mold?

So my bento fixation is getting worse, and I’ve been browsing shops all over San Francisco looking for bento accessories in unexpected places. I wandered into Williams-Sonoma seeking inspiration. Usually I walk out empty-handed because of their prices, but full of ideas of things to buy somewhere cheaper. And then I saw these ice cream sandwich molds in cute shapes.

At first I thought, $14 for three molds that you’d only use a few times a year? Uh, pass. Then I realized that they could do quadruple-duty as cookie cutters, onigiri (rice ball) molds and boiled egg shapers for a child’s lunches. Perfect!!! Maybe even Alton Brown would approve — not a uni-tasker!

This is what the finished ice cream sandwiches are supposed to look like with the molds:

Each mold consists of three pieces, with a cookie-cutter portion, little cap for the bottom, and a shaped plunger with a raised plastic design to create the pattern (giving you the cow face, etc.).

I figured they’d work just fine as ice cream sandwich molds, cookie cutters, and onigiri molds, but I was most curious about how they’d do as hard-boiled egg shapers. You may have seen these crazy gadgets before (photo below): you hard-boil an egg, peel it while it’s hot, pop it into a plastic mold while it’s still hot and pliant, and click the lid shut. Dump the whole thing into cold water for 10 minutes, and you’ve got an egg that looks like a rabbit head or a star. Only thing is, they’re hard to come by outside Japan, and they don’t seem to have many other uses. (July 2008 EDIT: You can get the egg molds below cheaply at Ichiban Kan’s online store for US$1.50 per pair (US shipping only), J-List starting at $3.20 per pair (international shipping), and from eBay sellers. Check out my list of online bento stores for additional sources.)

I boiled three eggs, peeled them while they were still very hot, and plopped them into the wet molds. But because these molds weren’t originally designed for eggs, they don’t have little latches to keep everything closed tightly around the egg while it chills in water. I improvised by looping a thick rubber band around the plunger & mold to apply even pressure. Here they are taking a cold bath:

Fresh out of the mold, this is what they look like:

The star and pig shapes turned out okay, but the cow shape would have been better had I used extra-large or jumbo eggs instead of large. Had to be careful removing the plunger from the face of the egg. Next time I may spray the face of the plunger with a little Pam (vegetable oil spray) before putting the egg in the mold.

Deciding to dye the star and the pig eggs, I filled a couple of ramekins halfway with cold water and mixed in a little food coloring (blue and red). Left them in for a few minutes until they got to a color I liked.

Voila! Dyed, molded eggs from an ice cream sandwich maker!!!

I looked around on the web for other places to find them, and found Tovolo ice cream sandwich molds on Amazon.com slightly cheaper, and in additional designs. Mission accomplished! (July 2007 EDIT: Evidently WalMart is now selling the cow/pig set for US$5, and Williams Sonoma has the three-piece set back in stores on sale for US$10. Full update here.)

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Published by Biggie on June 22nd, 2006 tagged bento, eggs, equipment, for kids, onigiri or sushi, recipe, rice, tips, tutorial or how to | 139 Comments »

Shrimp and snow peas, a new way

A new way to pack lunch. Rice packed separately in a 300ml thermal food jar by Thermos Nissan — kept the rice soft and warm for five hours. Shrimp and peas in a 350ml Asvel bento box (with clear lid).

* shrimp in chili sauce with onions (recipe from berry_mix’s mom)
* Chinese quick-fried snow peas
* rice

From Thermos Nissan: a 300ml small thermal food jar for hot soups, stews, curries, rice, etc. (or cold items like yogurt, cold soup, salads, etc.). Dishwasher-safe. This has excellent heat retention: better than all thermal lunch jars I’ve tested, and better than all-plastic thermal food jars because it’s metal. They make a larger version as well for bigger appetites, and I’ve seen this sold at big stores like Target.

The lunch with both lids on.

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Published by Biggie on June 20th, 2006 tagged bento, equipment, fish or seafood, food jar, rice, tips | Comment now »

Toddler lunch with octodogs

* cut-up hiyashi chuuka (Japanese pasta salad: tomatoes, egg, cucumber, and salami slices with cold pasta and soy sauce-based salad dressing)
* fresh pineapple (still using that up!)
* octopus-cut hot dogs on a bed of cucumber slices
* container of ketchup for hot dogs, container of yogurt/herb dip for cucumber
* drink container with apple, berry and cherry juice cut with water

I cut the tops of the octodogs because my toddler chokes on full-width hotdogs. Also substituted salami for the traditional sliced ham in the hiyashi chuuka. In my new Lock & Lock bento set,

An exploded view of the little Lock & Lock bento set — the Korean tupperware by Hanacobi Co. You can see that the bottom right container is divided, while the bottom left container is not. The bottom two containers are 350ml each (12 oz), with a 300ml drink container/cup on top. Microwave/dishwasher/freezer- safe, and water/air-tight.

The containers all stack and fit into their own little fitted carrying case with zipper.

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Published by Biggie on June 17th, 2006 tagged bento, equipment, for kids, meat, pasta or noodles, salad | 1 Comment »

Thai green curry

Thai green curry with salmon, broccoli and shimeji mushrooms — in my Chinese knockoff lunch jar.

Got the knockoff jar for like $8 in an Asian discount store here in San Francisco. Not as good quality as the Nissan Stainless or Mr. Bento, but man, the price was right.

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