La petite biscotte

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.