Pita Melt Bento (399)

Pita melt and fish balls

Strawberry pudding and orange wedges

Chestnuts

(Tip: if the seller allows you to choose the chestnuts, try to choose those with the semi-circle shape, as they are much easier to de-skin)

Autumn, the season of chestnuts, there will be lot of stalls selling raw chestnuts in the market.  I love chestnuts but have never experience cooking them myself.  As since young, mum would have the raw chestnuts cooked ready as our snacks after school or work.

At the beginning, mum would just boil them for sometimes to cook them, then we complained that it was so difficult and painful to de-skin the shell.  I remember once that mum baked a batch of chestnuts in the oven and you know what, the chestnuts burst and popped in the oven which created a havoc and mess.  Then, mum learned that by cutting or splitting the chestnut would released the pressure while baking but the chestnut turned dry after baking, so it was another failure.  After all the complaints & failure, mum decided to boil the chestnut, drained them, and dried cooking the chestnut in the pot, this way, the chestnuts would be moist and slightly easier to de-skinned but the pot would be blacken and extremely difficult to clean.  However, mum had given up experimenting again and stick to this method since.

When I saw the 1st seller selling the raw chestnuts these season, I picked about 600gm and out of a sudden, I decided to try cooking them myself.  After gathering mum's failure and as I am one who are 'kiasi' (afraid of losing), I experimented with half from the batch.

1. Give the chestnuts a thorough wash

2. Cover chestnuts with water, add in 1 tsp salt, boil for 15 min

3. Drain chestnuts after cooking, cut the chestnut at the end but do not split it totally.

Meantime, preheat oven at 180C

4. The chestnuts would look like this after baking in the oven for 15 min

5. Peeling off the skin is not difficult or painful anymore, most importantly you are able to get a whole chestnut!

I was so happy when I able to peel off the skin at ease and without breaking them apart.  I had tried this method for several times and it has never fail me :)

Boo Sandwich Bento (398)

Pork floss and mayo sandwich

Boo

Lychee pudding and grapes

Braised Minced Pork with Pasta Benta (397)

Braised minced Pork on a bed of pasta

Fried luncheon meat, fish ball and candy

Passion fruit pudding

Braised Potatoes with Minced Pork Bento (396)

Ingredients
2 medium potatoes, cubed
100g minced pork
2 cloves garlic, diced
handful of baby peas
1 glass water
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
pinch of salt and pepper

1. With little oil in a hot pan, stir fry minced pork til color turn pale
2. Add in garlic, stir fry for 1 min, mix in potatoes, cook for another 3 min, pour in water til just covering the potatoes, cover and continue cooking under medium heat
3. When potatoes turn soft, add in baby peas, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper, cook for another 5 min

Braised potatoes with minced pork

Eye ball chocolates and grapes

2 Milky Ways

Stuffed Squid Bento (395)

Little girl requested stuffed squid for bento again.

Ingredients
1 medium size squid
1 small bowl rice
5 cherry tomato, diced
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
pinch of pepper to taste
handful of shredded cheese

1. Other than squid and cheese, stir fry all ingredients in a pan, cool
2. Mix shredded cheese into cool fried rice, stuff fried rice mixture into squid
3. Wrap stuffed squid in aluminum foil, bake in toaster oven for 15 min 

Stuffed squid

Hami melon balls and grapes

Wanton Noodle, Fried Calamari & Fish Balls Bento (394)

I like the color combination of this bento

Wantan noodle

Fish balls

Fried calamari / squid

Ingredients

2 big squids

1 tbsp parmesan cheese

2 tbsp sweet potato starch

1 tsp sesame

1 tsp black sesame

Pinch of pepper

1. Likely season squid rings with pepper
2. Mix sesame & black sesame into sweet potato starch
3. Press squid rings on parmesan cheese, follow with sweet potato mixture
4. Heat oil in a small pot, fry squid rings til light golden brown, drain oil
5. Reheat oil after frying entire batch of squid rings, re-fry squid rings til skin turn crisp & golden brown

Cherry tomatoes & grapes

Home Made Pearls for Pearl Milk Tea

Have wanted to try out DIY the pearl myself after reading the recipe from 周老师的美食课室.  Little girl loves pearl milk tea very much, she has been requesting it ever since she was a toddler and now crazy with Chatime.  I halved the ingredients from the original recipe.

Ingredients
35g black sugar
65ml water
100g tapioca / potato / sweet potato starch
Extra potato starch

1. Stir black sugar into water, boil
2. Pour hot mixture into tapioca starch, fold til forming a dough, cool
3. Dust with some extra potato starch, roll and cut dough into thin strips, then into tiny cubes
4. Dust hand with potato starch, roll cubes into tiny pearl balls
5. Boil a pot of hot water, drop pearl balls into hot water, stir, cook for 5 min, off heat, cover lid, let pearl continue cooking in hot water

Stir in more sugar to make-do as a dessert

Or turn them into icy cold pearl milk tea

Wanna share with little penguin?

Chicken Mushrooms 鸡肉菇

Have you ever seen this kind of mushroom?  It was the 1st time in my life seeing and even tasting it.  I found this wild mushrooms at one of the stall in SS3 night market, the mushrooms were very dirty, full of mud, RM5 for this bunch here.

Photo taken after they had a good cleanup, white & fair

The seller told me to cook it with ginger, if the ginger turn black, that mean it is poisonous, have to throw everything away.

Stir-fry chicken mushrooms with ginger & spring onion 姜葱鸡肉菇

As you can see, the ginger didn't turn black and we were not poison.  These mushroom tasted so good, little girl and me almost finished the whole plate :p

Cabbage, Prawns & Spaghetti Pancake Bento (393)

Ingredients
3 leafs cabbage, shredded
5 prawns, halved
some spaghetti, cooked
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp all purpose flour
salt & pepper to taste

1. Except prawns, mix all ingredients in a bowl
2. Heat pan with a tbsp of corn oil, saute prawn til just cook, pour in cabbage mixture, cover lid, cook at medium heat til both side turn golden brown

Cabbage, prawns & spaghetti pancake

Heart grapes & tomatoes

Container of yellow mustard, ketchup and mayo

Eye balls chocolate I bought from Spore

Halloween Bento (392)

1st Halloween bento for this year

Eye balls

(Rice onigiri stuffed with squid)

Top left and right: turtle eggs (fish balls)

Center: poison flowers (squid tentacles or arms)

Bottom: fingers (cheese frankfurter & cucumber)

Assorted lizard eggs (cherry tomatoes and hami melon balls)

Ham Rosti Bento (391)

Ingredients
2 potatoes, grated
1 ham, shredded
1 tbsp parmesan cheese
Pinch of pepper to taste

1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Shallow fry with oil til both side turn golden brown

Ham rosti and ketchup

Hami melon cubes and candies

Ham & Cheese French Toast (390)

 

Used the very last 2 pieces of bread for this bento.

Ingredients
2 breads
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
2 pieces ham
1 slice cheese
1 tbsp butter

1. Fill ham and cheese in between 2 breads, seal all the edges
2. In a bowl, beat egg and milk
3. Soak filled bread into egg mixture for about 2 minutes each side
4. Meantime, heat butter in non-stick pan, shallow fry bread til both side turn golden brown

Ham and cheese french toast

Hami melon, ham and cherry tomato kebabs

After school,

Me:  Did u finish your bento today?

LG:  Yes

Me:  Did u share the bread with your friends?

LG:  I shared with ... (some friends name that I no able to recall)

Me:  What about the ham?

LG:  No, I had it all by myself!

Me:  How come your friends didn't ask for it?

LG:  They didn't know!

Me:  Huh, why?

LG:  Bcos I am on duty today, I was allowed to go out earlier, I quickly finished all the melon & ham before they came to me

Me:  Hahaha...