Spice Up Your Life With a Taste of Japan

*Fun Bento Box**Cute and Natural Food From California*

10/29/2012

Cheese pumpkin hamburger with ghost mashed potato


Had a great Halloween dinner with my bf last weekend!
I moved to SF from LA recently..so now we are doing a long distance thing.
It's much harder than I thought, but he is trying his best to make this work.
So thanks to him, I think we've gotten much close than before:)

Here is a dinner idea for happy Halloween!
To make a cheese pumpkin burger, cut cheddar cheese into pumpkin shape and make eyes and a mouth by using a knife.
Use seaweed to make eyes and a mouth for a ghost.
How easy it is to make a dinner cuter!

Want to have a healthy Halloween?
Here is the hamburger recipe made with TOFU!!

1lb  ground meat
1pk(about 300g)  silken tofu
1cup Japanese Panko
1/2  onion
1  egg
1/2p  consomme cube
1/4tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Place tofu into a blender and make it smooth.
Add panko and let it absorb the water of tofu (about 5mins)
Add meat, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix well by hand.
Add minced onion and minced consomme cube.
Form into 4-6 patties.
Cook on the preheated skillet over high heat until nice brown. (both side)
Add 1/2 cup of water and place a lid. Steam over medium heat until you don't see water.

8/19/2012

Vegetable Quiche



*Crust*
1 Egg
30g Olive Oil
1/2tsp Salt
150g Flour

Mix oil and egg well.
Add salt and flour. Mix well.
Form a ball and roll out. Place in a pan.
Make holes with a folk.


*Filling*
2 Eggs
100ml Soy Milk
A lot of vegetables!

Mix eggs and soy milk.
Saute vegetables with butter.
Put sauteed vegetables on the crust above.
Pour egg mixture.
Bake at 350F for about 30 mins.


Lemon and Salmon Chirashi Sushi



Add lemon to regular sushi vinegar!


For 3 cups of rice (3cups, before cooked)

3Tbs Lemon Juice (about 2-3 lemons)
2Tbs Vinegar
4Tbs  Sugar
2tsp Salt

Microwave the ingredients for about 30 seconds and mix well.
Add to cooked rice.

Cheese Souffle with Japanese Panko Crust





Japanese panko(bread crumbs) is not only for fry! You can use it for sweets too.
This panko crust is very easy to make!
You need just 3 ingredients each for the crust and cheese souffle. Simple is the best:p

*Crust
90g  Japanese Panko
50g Butter (room temperature)
2Tbs  Honey

Place all the ingredients in a Ziploc. Mix well.
Push the mixture into a cake mold.
Bake at 320F for about 15mins.
(That's it!)

*Cheese Souffle
150g Creme Cheese (room temp)
3 Eggs
80g Sugar

Mix creme cheese and egg yolks.
Make meringue with egg whites and sugar.

     <some tips to make meringue>
Use cold egg whites
Put a hint of salt in egg whites before you start whisking.
Whisk egg whites slowly until it gets smooth.
Add 1/3 of sugar and whisk fast.
Add another 1/3 of sugar and keep whisking.
Add the rest of sugar and whisk again.

Mix meringue and creme cheese mixture.
Pour into the crust.
Bake at 320F for about 30-40mins.

7/21/2012

Sushi Flowers



Sushi flowers! Make 5 sushi balls and set those on a plate. Put scramble egg in the middle. To make a leaf shaped wasabi, mix paste and powder wasabi so that you can shape it easily.

★Easy sushi vinegar recipe (for 3cups of cooked rice)★

5 tbs Vinegar
4tbs Sugar
2tsp Salt

Mix all and microwave for about 30 seconds. Pour into the cooked rice and mix well. Do it when the rice is hot!



Cover your sushi mat with plastic wrap. Place a seat of seaweed and put rice and spicy crab meat ( just add mayo and spicy sauce in crab meat to your taste). Leave a little space on top.


Roll and tighten with the sushi mat, making the shape of a flower petal.

7/04/2012

Flag Breakfast


Happy 4th of July!!
Found a great idea for the breakfast on Pinterest:)
With homemade bread.

6/13/2012

Bear Bagel



Baked bagels and just played with it<3
Here are some tips to make character food!

 *Tips*
 -Use fried pasta to joint the parts, instead of toothpicks. (so that you can eat everything!)
 -Seaweed, cheese and carrot are very good for making eyes , noses and cheeks.

4/08/2012

Easter Bento



Happy Easter!
Coloring egg shells is fun, but isn't it nice if you can make edible colored eggs?
It's cute to put the eggs in your lunch box:)

~How to make edible colored eggs~

Yellow
tsp2 curry powder
tsp2 soy sauce
tsp1/2 sugar
200ml water

Put all the ingredients in a pot and bring to boil.
Turn off the stove and add eggs.
Leave until it gets the nice yellow color.

Blue
about 1/4 purple cabbage
500ml water

Boil the cabbage until the water gets dark purple.
Pour the purple water in a cup and add eggs.
Leave it until it gets the nice blue color.

Pink
Add some lemon juice into the purple water above.
Add eggs and leave it until it gets the nice pink color.

3/06/2012

Shamrock Spinach Cheese Bread. Happy St. Patrick's day!!



Here is the vivid green bread for St. Patrick's Day!
I used a fridge for the second rise so that I can make the dough at night and just bake it in the morning to enjoy the fresh baked breads to start a day!


Spinach has a lot of health benefit.
Found a great article about spinach! Here is the link:
http://www.well-beingsecrets.com/spinach-health-benefits/




*I just created my facebook page! Please like it:)
https://www.facebook.com/SpiceUpYourLifeWithATasteOfJapan

★Shamrock Spinach Cheese Bread★

Bread flour 250g
Spinach 1bag(about 80g)
water 70g
Soy milk 40g
Sugar 20g
salt 3g
Dry yeast 3g
butter 5g
Shredded cheese

Place spinach in a large pot of boiling water. Cook about 3mins.
Drain well, placing it on paper towels and squeeze.
Mix the spinach and soymilk together in a blender.
Place the spinach mix and all the ingredients but cheese in a bread machine and mix, knead and let it rise on DOUGH mode.
When it's done, divide the dough into 4 and roll each portion into a ball.
Cover with wet paper towels and rest for 15mins.
Make each into a oval shape. (about 15cm)
Put the cheese on the middle.
Fold left and right sides toward the center.
Fold the bottom and top together(folded side inside) and make a rounded triangle shape
Cut the middle, making the top 1/3 part left.
Open from the middle and make a heart shape.
Place shaped dough in a plastic container and rest it in a fridge over night.(make sure to use a lid)
(Should be doubled in the next morning. If not, leave it in a room temperature until nearly doubled)




Bake in the oven at 400F for about 15 mins.

3/05/2012

HOT "DOGS"




★How to make the dog bread★

Make the dough from your favorite bread recipe, using a bread maker.
Select DOUGH mode.
When it's done, push all the air out of the dough with your hands.
Divide it into 10(if you make the dough with about 250g flour) and roll each into a ball. Cover with wet paper towels and rest for 15mins.
Make each into a oval shape.
Cut with a knife to make the ears of the dogs, and let the dough rise until about double in size.
After the rise, make eyes and noses with black beans.
Bake for about 10 mins at 400F.



adapted from http://cookpad.com/recipe/1196284