La petite biscotte

Contents:
- Whole-wheat spaghetti “à la provençale”
- Snow peas
- Tamagoyaki
- Apple rabbits

As it’s getting hotter around here in Germany (surprisingly it hasn’t rained since 3 days) I’m naturally leaning towards lighter meals and bentos. This recipe for pasta is great because it tastes even more delicious when it’s cooled off. You can freeze leftovers in portions and just put them in the bento box quickly in the morning. While the spaghetti unfreeze on the way, they also cool your bento, which is especially important in summer. The only thing I actually had to make in the morning was the tamagoyaki, the apple rabbits and the snow peas (15 minutes including time to pack up the bento).

 Spaghetti à la provençale

• 150g spring onions
• 100g celery
• 1 yellow or red pepper
• 1/2 zucchini
• 1 tomato
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 250g whole wheat pasta
• salt, pepper
• herbes de provence

Put water to heat in a large saucepan for the spaghetti. Meanwhile cut the vegetables in bite sized pieces, slice the spring onions and dice the tomato. Heat the olive oil in the pan and start by adding the spring onions. After 1 min add the other vegetables beside the tomato and cover the pan with a lid. Stir occasionally and finish cooking the pasta, then drain them and sprinkle with a little olive oil so they don’t stick. After about 5 minutes remove the lid from the pan, add the tomato and season to taste. Cook for 2 more minutes and add the herbes de provence. Finish by putting the pasta into the pan and tossing it with the vegetables. Serves 4, enjoy!

Eating a piece of tiramisu must be the biggest sin you can commit when you are watching your weight. But when you look at this delicious treat, it looks so innocent and actually also tastes fairly light, one has a hard time believing that a portion contains more calories than a human should consume during a full meal. The treacherous ingredient that makes it a calorie-bomb is the Italian triple-cream cheese mascarpone, made from crème fraîche and cream, which contains about 80% fat. Luckily there is a low-fat alternative which contains only 40% fat and tastes almost just as good, which I used in this recipe. With 420 kcal per portion I still wouldn’t recommend eating loads and heaps of this tiramisu, but it does make indulging in this all time favorite dessert weigh a little less on the conciousness And the best part for me is that this is made entirely without eggs, so there should be no risk even if you keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Tiramisu “light” (inspired by “meine Familie & ich”)

• 500g low-fat mascarpone
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 200 ml very strong coffee (cold)
• 4 Tbsp Amaretto
• 150g lady fingers (Italian sponge-cakes)
• Unsweetened cocoa powder to dust the top

Combine the mascarpone, sugar, zest and vanilla in a bowl and stir well. Pour the Amaretto into the coffee, prepare a form (square) to stack the tiramisu in. Now drop the lady fingers into the coffe, flip them and start layering the bottom of the form with them. Once done, if you like the sponge cakes to be well imbibed with coffee sprinkle the layer you just made with 2 additional Tsps of coffee. Cover with a layer of the mascarpone mixture and continue this way until you are out of mascarpone and finish with a layer of it. Put the tiramisu in the fridge for 2 hours and dust with cocoa powder short before serving.

Enjoy!

Been a long time yes, but I was simply overwhelmed by my internship. I found the time to make this delicious bento though and surprisingly the highlight was the little pile of pickled radish that was actually just an experiment. With some preparation this bento can be assembled in 15 minutes (I used left over zucchini tempura, the only thing I actually had to cook was the stir-fry and the omelet, I also used frozen rice which I unfroze in the microwave).

Contents:

• Japonica rice
• Quick-pickled radish
• Sliced omelet
• Cabbage / spring onion / red pepper stir fry (seasoned with soy sauce only)
• Zucchini tempura

Quick-pickled radish:

• 100g of grated or sliced radish (the red ones make  for a pretty color)
• 4 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp salt

While you are making your bento, start out by grating the radish and combining it with the other ingredients in a bowl, stir well so the salt gets everywhere. Cover the bowl with a plate or a lid and put it in the fridge. By the time the rest is done, spread a cheese cloth over your sink or another big bowl and spoon the pickled radish on it. Wrap the cloth together and squeeze the radish through the cloth as hard as you can so all the excess liquid is removed. It’s ready to be used. While packing it, best put it in a seperate container within the box.

Contents

• Cherry Tomatoes
• Salmon Rolls
• Octopus Fried Wieners
• 1 Egg cut in a half
• Onigiri
• Broccoli

Today I decided to have a little fun with my bento. Usually I’m not making octopus wieners because I have to take my bento to university, but today we simply made a bento for eating lunch at home. Unfortunately I think I’m addicted to it now. I mean, I tried to shape a face for the octopus wieners from squished rice corns and sesame seeds and now the sausages have their own personality! By observing this endangered species closer, we notice clearly that the left octopus’s character and behavior seem to differ entirely from the right octopus’s. Smarty (on the left) seems to be the intelligent and cynical leader of the octopus family, contemplating the injustice of life itself. Meanwhile Dooley (on the right) has a rather blank expression, signalling that his mind seems to be mostly void of complex thoughts and that the sole purpose driving him in life is the quest for yummy food. Venturing further in our analysis, it is safe to say that Smarty seems to be the female octopus while Dooley is most certainly a male. As, you see, octopi always wander in pairs - like Pinky and the Brain - scheming and plotting to take the world over. Indeed, that is what truly happens under the lid of your lunchbox.

Biggie over at lunch in a box has posted a great tutorial on how to make octopus sausages, click here to view it. I tried it out today for the first time and it worked perfectly.

And here is a more or less informative video on how to make onigiri. I don’t say that because of the quality of the recording but as you’ll notice for yourself, making onigiri is mostly about practice until you get the shape right and of course keep those hands wet!

Does it happen to you sometimes that late in the evening you think all of a sudden, “I really feel like eating cookies”? Of course it’s always in those moments that you don’t have any cookies left, neither in the pantry nor in the freezer. Then you start contemplating if you should really get up and make a batch and after half an hour of yes/no/maybe you make up your mind and go for it.

While frantically searching for anything that could fit into a cookie, I stumbled upon a jar of peanut butter, sugar, eggs, flour, almonds and… and that was about it. I was so disappointed when I saw that I had none of the usual ingredients like chocolate chips available, but at that point I was already past caring and the need for a cookie was starting take control of the logical part of my brain. So I went ahead and made some peanut butter cookies. When C. (my husband) tasted them he was like:

“… hmm … Interesting”. -_-

Uhm yeah, we all know what that means, but hey, at least I really didn’t feel like eating anything anymore after that cookie

What can we learn from this? Firstly never give in to midnight baking temptations unless your pantry is really well stocked. Secondly always keep some emergency cookies handy.

This morning I decided to cook one of my favorite dishes to make up for those atrocious cookies: Thai chicken curry with coconut milk. This was a great opportunity to use up some of those chili peppers we had bought last week, this time however in a MUCH lower quantity. The result was absolutely amazing and this is one of those fast dishes that completely blow people in your house away just by the way it smells. Anyway, hubby is always happy when he smells curry.

Thai Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 chili pepper (depending on how hot your peppers are, use a little more or less)
• 1 carrot, cut in bite-sized pieces
• 2 chicken breasts, cut in dices
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup green beans
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• oil for cooking (peanut oil for example)
• optional: lemon grass

In a large saucepan heat 2 tablespoons of oil. When the pan is really hot (and that means piping hot) add the meat and cook it from all sides until it starts to get brown. Add the onions and the other vegetables and cook everything over medium-high heat for about 4-5 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables as well (they should still be al dente though).

Add the spices as well as some pepper to taste and pour the coconut milk into the pan. Sir well and reduce the heat to a very low simmer. You must be careful with coconut milk and heat as it can somewhat disintegrate if cooked too long. Add the sugar and salt the curry to taste.  Remove from heat after about two minutes.

Serve with hot rice. Serves 3-4. Enjoy

Spring is approaching and normally markets should start to feature all sorts of asparagus. Since I absolutely love this vegetable I was looking for it a few days ago when I went to the supermarket, with a specific recipe in mind that I’ve always wanted to try. So while perusing the selection, I stumbled upon the most amazing jalapeños I had ever seen - a full basket of shiny chili peppers that simply begged to be taken home and cooked. But no, I told myself, I was there for the stunning, fresh asparagus they were supposed to have!

After searching for it for what must have been five minutes, I finally found five lots of it, tucked away behind all the potato-baskets where no one could possibly find them. Actually that was quite fortunate for the asparagus as it was so dried out and shabby that it looked like little bundles of straw. Quite amazing actually when you think about it. You set out to cook seasonal/local vegetables that should be available in abundance right now but instead, in this little supermarket in one of the most remote places of Provence, we had the choice between jalapenos, shiitake mushrooms and flown-in papayas :p

Anyway Mexican food is great and we weren’t going to complain. When we came home from University today we started cooking right away and whilst my husband loves to taste everything I’m chopping on the cutting board, he glanced at me rather dubiously when I asked him to taste how hot the jalapenos were. But you see, the great thing about men is that they’d never openly admit that something is too hot for them (lucky for me :p). So when he finally took a bite he told me it was quite hot but said that I should go ahead and put in two of them! And that’s what I did.

Suffice to say that the chili completely owned us. But still, with our eyes and noses running and our mouths literally burning we still chomped our way through the bowl because it was simply too good.

This is a quick recipe for a low-fat chili - something you can make for your whole family when you come home from work as it really only requires a little chopping in the beginning. The short cooking time is also one of the reasons why we chose ground beef, which doesn’t need to stew as long as chunks to be tender.

30-Minute Chili Con Carne (low-fat)

• 350g low-fat ground beef
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 pepper of each color (red, yellow, green)
• 2 tomatoes
• 1-2 green chili peppers
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 200 ml tomato purée
• 250 ml quality stock, either beef or chicken
• a pinch of sugar
• 1 can red beans
• pepper, salt, thyme, sweet paprika
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

————-

Finely chop the onion and the garlic and heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and the garlic and cook them for several minutes until they become transparent.

In the meantime dice the peppers and the tomatoes and finely chop the chili peppers.

Once the onions have cooked long enough, add the ground beef and use a wooden spatula to break it up while cooking it. After about 3 minutes add all the vegetables you’ve chopped before as well as the spices (minus the salt).

Add the chicken stock, the tomato purée and the tomato paste and let everything simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and add the sugar to cut the acidity of the tomato. Also fold in the red beans, then take off the heat.

Serves 4. Serve with grated cheese, onions, tortilla chips, corn bread etc.

Oh, what a horrible picture… better ones to come soon - promise!

Contents:

• Japanese rice with chicken, carrots and aburaage
• Steamed brussel sprouts
• Finely shredded thin omelette
• Polenta crusted chicken

Today is a sinister day indeed as I decided to let go of the dear camera that has so far accompanied me on my culinary adventures. Unfortunately it’s been a while since I noticed that the camera was ailing. The pictures, as you probably have noticed, are completely blurred and I simply don’t manage to arrange enough lighting in the room for the camera to stop taking my movements into account. Even pictures that I take outside are not as sharp as I’d like them to be but I have to say that I’m not the least bit surprised. After all, I had bought the thing for 99 Euros at a department store and at the time I didn’t even think about using it for food photography. So yes, I decided that it was high time to stop disappointing myself and my readers with blurred pictures and as far as my investigations go, I found out that my dear husband is maybe going to offer me a new camera for my birthday on March 14 but pssst, it’s all top secret still!

The bento that you see above was assembled rather quickly as I’m still struggling to get enough time to even cook properly. What’s great about it is that you can prepare it with a minimum of dishes. I used the rice cooker to make the chicken/aburaage rice and I added the steaming container on top to cook the brussel sprouts at the same time. Apart from that I only used a frying pan for the polenta crusted chicken which I managed to coat and fry while the rice was cooking. You might wonder what aburaage is and sadly it’s one of those things you can only find in bigger Asian supermarkets. Basically it’s deep fried tofu slices which are often canned and preserved in a sweet-savory sauce (it’s those brown little bags that are used for Inari sushi). You can sometimes find them in shops that are specialized in Japanese ingredients but don’t be surprised if they ask 4-5 euros for a little can, but hey, once in a while…

I won’t add a recipe for the polenta crusted chicken because it’s really just chicken coated first in flour, then egg, then polenta (then fried). But when you choose the corn flour (or polenta) for this, be sure to choose the one with the smallest grains and be sure to cook it in enough oil, else the grains will be too crunchy.

Japanese Rice with Chicken, Carrot, Aburaage (Inspired by Bento Boxes, Japanese meals on the go)

• 2 cups uncooked Japanese rice, washed
• 1 small carrot, julienned
• 100g of aburaage, julienned
• 100g chicken, diced
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• 1/2 Tbsp sake

Put the rice into your rice cooker and add the soy sauce, mirin and sake. Add enough water so it reaches the usual 2-cup mark. Place the other ingredients on top of the rice and turn on your rice cooker. Once the rice is cooked stir in the ingredients from the top and add seasoning to taste. Serves 4, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds for example.

Contents:

• Gnocchi
• Tomato relish
• Snow-pea stir-fry with soy sauce and chili flakes
• Mini sandwich with salad and lettuce

Ah yes, sweet student life, whenever you think you have a little time to yourself something comes up and you end up spending your holidays busy with random stuff. Like we have this fabulous internship coming up for April. Normally universities, especially here in France, try to incorporate as many internships as possible in the study program for both bachelor and master degrees. Personally I don’t question the necessity of internships and they are absolutely crucial after several semesters of acquiring theoretical knowledge, which, in all honesty, is mostly useless for your future professional career. Yes, the intentions of universities are indeed honorable, but when reality strikes in you often find yourself stuck in a small company that tries to replace full-time workers by chain hiring interns, making you work 9-10 hours a day with close to no payment and if you don’t agree to work your whole summer holidays there as well, they simply don’t hire you. Lucky them, they’ve got plenty of eager students to choose from who are all so grateful to give away months of quality work for free just to be able to validate a semester - or not. Many companies would now say: “But interns cost more money than they generate, especially at the start”. Yeah right. We can all stop kidding ourselves. In certain professions this might be true but for sure not in all of them. In fact, I’m almost certain that after 3 days I can be of as much value to the company as a normal worker (especially in the industry I applied in). Anyway companies nowadays make sure that the interns they hire are top notch in all aspects: Quality University? Check. Specialized in our domain? Check. Has additional knowledge that is required to do the job? Check. Has a lot of experience in this industry? BEEEP. Yeah, it’s true, if you want an internship as a college student you have to bring tons of working experience already. Where does that even make sense? Sigh.

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Today I tried a recipe from Naomi Kijima’s bento cookbook “Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go“. This is about the only bento cookbook from Japan that has been translated into English. The problem actually lies there, the book might be a big success in Japan but I imagine that people in western countries won’t find much use for it. The main issue being that many recipes simply use ingredients that you can’t get around here, even with the best Asian supermarket close-by: Fish cake, taro root, atsuage, nagenegi, konnyaku noodles, burdock root… I mean let’s be honest, I wouldn’t even recognize those ingredients if they’d bite me in the foot.

Still I don’t think that the book is useless at all. Actually you can use many recipes and simply make your own variations. For instance if I would substitute burdock root with celery (I’m sure celery doesn’t even come close to the taste but hey), my husband wouldn’t notice. And if he does reclaim burdock root he can try to search for it himself next time we go to our local Asian supermarket. (Good luck with that)

The book can be a great inspiration, especially if you’d like examples for bento that can be brought to a rather serious working environment. Miss Kitty boxes and pirate ship scenes with rice ball monsters and octopus wieners certainly have a kawaii effect, but if bento are really your every day meal at work you might have to resort to something more sober and the recipes in ‘Bento Boxes’ are a great example for that (minus burdock roots and the likes!).

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I finally managed to move the old site (http://petitebiscotte.blogspot.com) to this wordpress powered site. The basic transfer is done, now a lot of adjustments especially in terms of presentation and design have to be made. That means a lot of changes are incoming over the next week, so stay tuned!