Chocolate Cupcake w/ Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

I used the cake recipe and baked them into cupcake. My first time using pastry bag and tips to decorate cupcakes. Looks like more practice is needed.

6/1/2012

In the bento: balsamic glazed beet, bacon sauteed with carrot, broccoli, stirfried cabbage with eggplant, rice.

5/30/2012

In the bento: egg stirfried with tomato, wine marinaded pork belly, brine pork liver, mushroom sauteed with carrots, rice.  

5/23/2012

In the bento: scrambled egg with ginger and vinegar, sauteed carrots, steamed palmburo fish, eggplant, broccoli, brine pork liver, rice.

5/22/2012

In the bento: braised pig tail, shiitake mushroom, wine marinaded pork belly, cabbage with mushroom, ginger vingar egg, pork liver with hoisin sauce, rice.

5/17/2012

In the bento: pea with rice, red yeast pork belly, bacon with zucchini, bacon with bitter melon.

5/15/2012

In the bento: bitter melon with bacon, red yeast pork belly, sauteed green beans, crab cake.

5/14/2012

In the bento: rice, red yeast braised pork belly, roast asparagus, brine egg, shrimp, miso salmon, brine kelp, sauteed zucchini with red pepper.

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is good. I like carrot even only 4 years ago I just learned the concept that carrot can be added into cake. Now I make my carrot cake pretty often. And they are as good as I expected. However, not all carrot cakes I like, only those with pineapple, raisin and coconut. Cream cheese frosting is a must, although at the first beginning of learning I always skipped it. The recipe I used is from Ina, and it has been proved countless time to be a good one.

5/11/2012

In the bento: miso radiatori with zucchini, caramelized onion with egg, sauteed green bean, shrimp balls, sauteed dried tofu.

Radiatori with Miso Sauce

Using Japanese ingredients into pasta is a good infusion of east and west. I have some miso maple sauce left from other cooking, which I was tired of seeing sitting in the fridge. The idea suddenly came up today to use as a pasta sauce. I mixed the pasta with some boiling liquid and the sauce. And sprinkle some pecorino while serving. It's a very tasty dish.

5/10/2012

In the bento: radiatori with Thai curry sauce, nori tamogoyaki, sauteed snow pea, shirmp ball, eggplant with ShaCha sauce, sautted green beans.

5/9/2012

In the bento: tomato stirfried with egg, soy sauce eggplant, snow peas, sauteed salmon, rice+oatmeal.

Thai Green Curry

It's eggplant season now. I saw bunch of exotic eggplants this weekend at the grocery store. The Thai eggplant was especially cute that I can't help getting some. The only way I know to use of Thai eggplant is in the curry. I made the curry also with carrot, peas, corn kernel, green bean, zucchini and shrimp balls. The coconut milk gave the curry a creamy texture along with a bit sweetness. This is a good dish with a bowl of rice!

5/8/2012

In the bento: thai green curry, rice with oatmeal, miso egg.

5/7/2012

In the bento: black sticky rice + regular rice, eggplant, sauteed zucchini, shiitake mushroom, shrimp balls, miso egg, sauteed green beans, brined pig feet.   

Blueberry Bagel w/ Egg White and Smoke Salmon

Blueberry bagel from Wegman's is one of my favorite bagels (the other is bagels from Tim Horton's). Even freeze them and toast later, they still taste as fresh as made right from the oven. I sandwiched them with smoke salmon and the leftover egg white from baking.

Shrimp Balls

Usually when I buy shrimps without heads, I will minced them to make shrimp balls. It way can maximize the flavor the shimp itself. I usually make a large batch and save them in freeze for later use.

Fresh Chick Pea Hummus

Half bag of fresh chick pea has been staying in the fridge for a while. I am tired of eating it with rice too. Since hummus uses canned chick pea, fresh one should be better on the taste. I boiled the peas after getting them off the pea pods, then with some liquid, I added tahini, cumin, salt, oil, roast garlic and some lemon juice to blend them together. Very good.

5//3/2012

In the bento: black sticky rice+regular rice, pan-fried miso salmon, shrimp, asparagus, stirfried cabbage with carrot.

5/2/2012

In the bento: fresh chick pea with rice, cabbage stirfried with carrot, sauteed asparagus, broccoli, shrimps, chicken tight, egg.