pickles in 24 hours

A few years ago, I saw a recipe for miso-yogurt pickles in a (manga) cookbook that I own. I remember thinking that it was weird at the time, but I decided to try it out. And they are DELISH. And so easy. And they don't taste overly miso-y.

Traditionally, you'd make the pickles by sticking them in straight miso, but the miso flavor can be overpowering and it's hard to submerge the veggies in there because the miso is so thick.

miso yogurt pickles
1 c miso
1 c plain yogurt
veggies

Mix the miso and yogurt together. Submerge veggies overnight. Remove veggies, rinse, and eat.


Putting napa cabbage into the mixture.




Doesn't it look like Russian dressing?




So far, I've used carrots, zucchini, radishes, celery, and napa cabbage, all of which turned out great. And the pickling mixture can be re-used until the yogurt goes bad. Every few days, add a few teaspoons of salt to the mixture, since the veggies soak up the salt and it gets less salty over time. You can also use it as a fish marinade. It works best on salmon and firm white-flesh fish. Soak overnight, remove, rinse, and broil. Though if you marinate fish, you can't put veggies in there after that without the risk of food poisoning.


The miso yogurt pickles were part of my lunch yesterday.



top: white rice with yukari
bottom: local duck sausage, carrot, zucchini, and celery miso yogurt pickles; marinated and grilled tofu and radishes; kiriboshi daikon with abura-age

Long time no post!

Hi Y'all! I'm still alive...barely. Here are a few until I get around to taking more pics. :)

My personal bento. Greek salad...mmmm!

This one's for Rick. Rice, filet mignon wrapped in bacon and sliced, and veggies.

For the kiddos. Onigiri, sliced pork roast, and celery in the first tier. Grapefruit slices with a little sugar sprinkled on top in the second tier.

And a teddy bear bento. The bear is made out of brown rice with some soy sauce. I rolled it in bonito flakes to give it that fuzzy look. Also in that tier are edamame, and breaded chicken. Second tier has watermelon.

New Tiffin Bento

I got some new stainless steel bento boxes, otherwise know as Tiffin, or Tiffin style.

I have a triple tiered one and also a double tiered one.

This is what the tiers look like.

I packed pan seared Sockeye salmon, and a lemon wedge in one tier.

A salad in another.

And fruit in the last.

Hello Kitty rice

I finally got around to using the Hello Kitty rice mold and nori puncher that my mom got for me. It's hard to pick up the little pieces of nori! I ended up using a dampened toothpick to pick up the pieces.



top: brussel sprouts and Hello Kitty rice
bottom: pancetta and chard; lamb, carrot, onion, green bean, red pepper tomato-harissa sautee; Hello Kitty rice

Whoa....backlog!

I know, it's been forever since I have posted. I have been packing, but time restraints have kept me from posting. I have put together a backlog. While it's not everything, it's something, right?

Here I made a mini sub sandwich, cucumbers (marinated) and some Girl Scout cookies (Thin Mints).

Here is a Nightmare Before Christmas sandwich bento box.

In it, I packed chicken salad sandwiches, cheddar bunnies, and carrot sticks.

Here is a healthy grilled chicken lunch with sauteed snow peas, brocolli, and rice with a tiny pickled plum.

Top tier of a bento filled with watermelon.

Bottom tier filled with steak, brocolli, rice crackers, and Lauging Cow cheese.

Another top tier with fruit.

And bottom with grilled fish and rice with furikake.

And here is a BLT sandwich bento with grape tomatoes. And the lower tier has string cheese, mandarin oranges and spicy rice crackers.

Jang Jorim Bento

This was probably one of my favorite foods as a child. My mom would make it for me. It is a really salty beef that you shred and eat with rice. Here is the link to the recipe from Korean Cuisine. http://korean-cuisine.blogspot.com/2008/09/jang-jo-rim.html My children LOVED this.

The Jang Jorim is in the silicone heart. There are some sliced marinated eggs that were cooked with the meat, vinegar and soy marinated cucumbers, baby carrots and rice.

The same in Bryce's box.

Here are the bento boxes I used.

I have to tell you, my bento box buying reprieve has ended. I have a really great new stash of boxes that I will be posting soon.

Easter Bento

Today was the last day of school before Spring Break, so I thought I would do an Easter themed bento. They didn't come out perfect, but still kind of cute, right?

I used tarako (cod roe) sauce for the egg-shaped rice balls and decorated them with nori and imitation crab meat.

I made a sunflower with a sheet of egg and a slice of hot dog.

I added some slices of crabmeat, baby carrots and put everything on top of some baby lettuce leaves.

new bento box

My dear friend Jen gave me a new bento box. She spent most of last year living in Africa and traveling Europe and found the bento box in Norway and got it for me.

I adore it, especially since tomatoes are my favorite food.


The first bento using the new box!

top: white rice with furikake
bottom: roasted kabocha; steamed rapini; poached chicken; ginger-oyster-green onion sauce


My mom came to visit last week and cooked a bunch of stuff for us. I miss her cooking so much. The chicken and sauce are something I haven't eaten since living at my parent's but it's the easiest thing in the world. And the sauce is delish on any steamed green, fish, or chicken.


Ginger Garlic Green Onion Oyster Sauce
-knob of ginger, grated
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-a few green onions, sliced thin
-enough oyster sauce to cover the ginger and garlic
-dash of soy sauce

If you have a microwave: put the ginger and garlic in a microwave safe container and pour soy sauce on top, just enough to barely cover the ingredients. Microwave for 45 seconds or until fragrant; mix in at least twice as much oyster sauce as soy sauce, then mix in the green onions. If you like a thinner consistency, add water or more soy sauce.

If you don't have a microwave: in a shallow pan, gently heat the ginger and garlic with a teeny bit of water, until fragrant. Transfer into a container and add a dash of soy sauce and at least twice as much oyster sauce. Then add green onions and stir. If you like a thinner consistency, add water or more soy sauce.

The sauce will keep in the fridge for a while.


We've always poured the sauce on steamed or parboiled greens -- such as rapini, broccoli, napa cabbage, green beans, kale, chard, spinach -- and poached chicken. It's delicious either hot or cold (proteins, veggies, and sauce) and pairs so well with rice.

If you poach the chicken, leave the chicken in the poaching water until cooled. If you take it out while hot and slice it, the chicken will end up dry and flaky. Another tip if you make poached chicken: add some ginger to the water and keep the water afterwards to make soup!


Here's what it looked like for dinner before it became my bento:

cute bento goods

I don't use a lot of bento goods when preparing my bento. Mostly out of laziness. But since I had some new ones I thought I'd try to incorporate them.

A monkey pick:



I think this pick is cute, but it's really just for decoration. I prefer to use things that also have a practical use. The bottom of this pick is like a comb.

bento contents
top: tamagoyaki (egg omelette), mini weenies
bottom: roasted beet and orange salad; chicken livers with chard


Bear sauce bottle and food dividers:



Sauce bottles are great, but they are such a pain to fill and clean. I do like the food dividers, though. I'm not picky about food not touching but it's nice to be able to physically separate things from time to time.

bento contents
left: beef gyoza (potstickers); roasted veggies and tofu
right: brown/white rice onigiri with shichimi togarashi furikake (top 2) and umeboshi (bottom 1)

And here's a recipe for you all, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe that I found. It was really tasty!

roasted veggies and tofu

ingredients
2 tbs veggie oil
3 tbs soy sauce
teeny bit of Chinese mustard
3 carrots
4 stalks celery
1 package firm tofu
2 tbs ground toasted sesame

directions
-preheat oven to 425
-drain tofu for 30 or so minutes in a colander
-cut up carrots, celery, and tofu into bite size pieces
-mix together mustard, oil, and soy
-in a roasting dish or lasagne pan, lay out celery, carrot, and tofu and coat with the marinade
-put in oven 30 minutes
-take out of oven, coat with ground sesame
-put back in oven and turn the broiler on low for 10 minutes

I will be gone for a few weeks, but when I come back I will have photos and hopefully some new ideas. Hope all of you continue bento-ing!

And the winner is...

Ask A Life Coach!

She says, "I loooove the pork loin idea in baguette that is my favorite because it loooks SO delicious and my husband would love it.

(I've been packing him bentoes for lunch.)"

The winner was chosen using the random generator.

Thank you all for the comments, it was fun to see everyone's favorite posts. I'll do another giveaway... I'm hoping to go to Tokyo late this spring for a friend's wedding and hope to pick up some bento goods while I'm there.

bento giveaway contest!

I hope you'll find today's post from me an exciting one. Announcing a bento goods giveaway contest open to readers of this blog living in the U.S.!

To enter:

• Leave a comment to this blog entry
• Comment must include:
• A valid email address (so I can contact you if you win)
• A link to your favorite entry on this blog
• An explanation of why the entry you've chosen is your favorite (please don't say this entry is your fave)
  
• Comment must be left by the end of the day CST February 16, 2009.
  

The winner will receive an assortment from the goods shown in the below photos.





A mini apron, adjustable bento belts:





Assorted animal picks, animal-printed plastic muffin trays, food-themed dividers:





Onigiri molds, bento bag:





sausage animal makers, onigiri molds, nori face punches:





more printed muffin tins, chopsticks holder:




So, a couple of disclaimers:

• You will not win ALL items shown
• Some items may not arrive in original packaging / a few might be missing (I hope you understand that I have promised small bits and pieces of the above to IRL friends)
• One comment per person please

Questions? Leave me a comment here!

Good luck all!!

EDIT BY KP- I WILL ALSO ADD TO THIS GIFT FROM MAMICHAN!! Whomever Masami picks as a winner will also receive a new bento box set and bento book from me:) Thank you, Mamichan!!

Still bento-ing

Yup, still here! Still packing lunches! But I have been overwhelmed with life and have not been posting:( My appologies.

Here is today's lunch.

Spicy breaded chicken on a bed of spinach, rice with furikake, sliced fish cakes, and a tomato.

Second tier has oranges.

One of my favorite boxes, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And Spongebob!

Here is lunch for wednesday, I think.

Sliced steak, edamame, and rice with soy sauce in the cute bunny container.

And an equally cute bear container.

Watermelon.

Blue Dragon bento box.

Dreamy Friends bear bento box.
Miso glazed salmon, rice rolled in Korean nori, cut up celery, tomatoes, and lemon slices.

Bento box:)