Unlike Chinese double-boiled soup which takes a long time to simmer, miso soup can be prepared in just 10-15 minutes and it’s so light that you can drink it anytime of the day.

Ingredients (Serves 3-4  adults):

• 3 tablespoons miso paste
• 3 cups water
• 150 g  soft tofu
• 100 g fresh enoki mushrooms
• Handful of dried kelp/ konbu (optional)

Instructions:

Step 1:  Fill stockpot with water.  Soak dried kelp in water for at least 1-2 hours to soften it.

Step 2:  Cut tofu into cubes.  Wash enoki mushrooms, remove the portion at the roots (about one inch) and separate them.  Cut enoki mushrooms into half length-wise.

Step 3:  Boil stockpot of water and kelp.  When the stock is boiling, transfer the tofu cubes and enoki mushrooms into the pot.

Step 4:  Cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add in miso paste.  Stir to dissolve it well.

Step 5:  Cook for another 2-3 minutes at lower heat.

There are different types of miso paste available in the market.  If you are vegetarian, just make sure you get one which is purely miso without any extra seafood flavouring.

Remember to transfer the soup while it is hot into a thermos food jar if you are bringing it for your lunch box.

Enjoy!

Well, for these bread rolls, you probably have to make them the day before as it will take a few hours to complete.  But it is a very fun activity that you can involve your kids as well.  Allow them to design the bread rolls the way they like them to be and I sure they will look forward having their own masterpiece in their lunch box the next day!

Even me, the “old” kid, had so much fun.  My mum and I moulded the dough into different shapes just to see how it would turn out after baking.  I even created one “uniquely shaped” bread roll (see it below) specially for Hubby.

Ingredients (for sweet bread dough):

Part A

• 480 g bread flour
• 120 g plain flour
• 110 g sugar
• 10 g fine salt
• 20 g milk powder (can be substituted with bread flour)
• 4 teaspoons instant yeast

Part B

• 1 egg
• 300 ml cold water

Part C

• 60 g butter

Ingredients (filling for sweet bread roll)

• About 400 g of luncheon meat, cut into smaller pieces

Instructions:

Step 1:  Mix Part A ingredients in a mixing bowl till they are well blended.

Step 2:  Add Part B ingredients and knead to form a dough.

Step 3:  Add Part C butter and continue to knead until the dough looks smooth and elastic.  Cover dough with a clear film.  Let it prove for 50-60 minutes or until it doubles its size.

To check if the dough is ready, test by pressing a finger on it lightly.  If the dough does not sink but shows a clear finger print mark, you can proceed to the next stage of separating them into individual portions.

Step 4:  Divide the dough into 60 g portions.  Shape them into balls and leave them to rest for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, you can prepare the luncheon meat filling.

Step 5:  Now the fun begins!  You can make the bread roll according to your liking.  The easiest way is to wrap the luncheon meat in the dough completely, or you can elongate the dough and coil them around the luncheon meat.

See what I did for the first tray?  I made a round one, an oval one, a “pillow” shaped one, and one that resembled a croissant.

Step 6:  Brush the surface of each bread roll with a little egg wash (egg yolk+water) and bake at 190 deg Celcius for 12 minutes.

Does my first tray of sweet bread rolls with luncheon meat look good?

I can’t describe to you in the picture, but the smell of freshly baked bread is just heavenly!

Besides luncheon meat, you can also vary the fillings for the bread roll.  Think of tuna?  Ham?  Raisins?  It’s up to your family’s preference!

For lunch box meals, just pack these sweet bread rolls in a normal bento box with a salad or some fruits at the side.  It’s a lighter meal, and an interesting alternative to noodles or rice.

Well, we made about 17 sweet bread rolls in total for this batch.  And this is the “masterpiece” I mentioned above that I gave to Hubby.  Can you make out what it resembles?  (Clue:  We usually call it a pile of …)

We both had a good laugh and he really ate it for breakfast next morning.  LOL.

Hope you like this recipe and have fun making your own home-made bread roll!

But always going to the restaurants to get my fix is not going to be good for our pockets in the long run, so I am learning how to prepare them from my home.

For example, this meal below which serves four would cost us about US$40 – US$50 at a mid-range restaurant, but when we cook it ourselves, we can probably save two-thirds of what we would have spent.

For convenience, I have used pre-mix tempura flour that you can also get easily at supermarkets.  Other ingredients like furukake (Japanese rice seasoning) and bottled tempura sauce can also be bought readily.

Ingredients (Serves 4 adults):

• Cooking oil (for deep-frying of tempura)
• 4 cups of cooked Japanese short-grained rice
• 4 large shitake mushrooms, trimmed of caps and cut into halves
• 2-3 ladies’ fingers (okra), tail trimmed and cut slanted
• 1 small carrot, peeled and sliced
• 15-20 tiger prawns, de-shelled and de-veined
• 100 g tempura flour pre-mix
• Cold water (1 cup should be more than enough)
• 8 tablespoons tempura sauce
• 4 tablespoons furukake seasoning

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Place the tempura flour pre-mix in a mixing bowl.  Add cold water (it must be cold!) a little at a time, and mix batter lightly till a moderately thin consistency is achieved.

Step 2:  Heat up enough cooking oil for deep-frying in a saucepan or wok.

Step 3:  Pat dry the prawns and vegetables with a kitchen paper towel before frying.

Step 4:  Test whether the oil is hot enough by dripping a drop of tempura batter.  If the batter comes up to the surface immediately, the oil is ready for frying.

Step 5:  Dip the vegetables, one by one in the batter and put them gently in the hot oil.  It is best to use a pair of long chopsticks or tongs to flip them to protect yourself from oil splatters.  The tempura should float on the surface when frying, coated with a layer of batter.  If the batter does not stick well, add a bit more tempura flour to make the batter thicker.  After the vegetables are done, continue with the prawns.

Step 6:  When the coated layer turns golden brown, remove the tempura and place them on a kitchen paper towel or rack to absorb excess oil.  This picture below shows part of what I have made.  How does it look?

Step 7:  To make tempura don, scoop a cup of pre-cooked Japanese steamed rice into a bowl.  Drizzle two tablespoons of tempura sauce on the rice.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of furukake seasoning in the centre.  Place the tempura on the bowl and serve while the tempura is hot and crispy.  Repeat for another bowl.

I kept a lunch box portion for Hubby, where I separated the rice and the tempura into two boxes. I also added a coleslaw side created from the left-over wasabi mayonnaise I made the day before.  Wasabi flavoured coleslaw taste awesome by the way!

The challenge about this lunch box is the tempura will go soft if it is not eaten hot.  But as long as you or the person you make the lunchbox for don’t mind, making this tempura rice lunchbox is a nice change to the menu.  And it is not too difficult at all.

I am glad I tried it!  How about you?

It is one of my favourite comfort foods.  What is yours?

Well, the ingredients for this recipe should be quite easy to find.  You can get wonton skin wrappers at most Asian supermarkets.  I usually get the square ones.  Buy freshly made ones if possible.  If you can only find frozen types, remember to thaw the number that you need, to room temperature before making the wontons.

When thawing, it’s best to place them on a bowl or plate and cover them with a damp towel.  This prevents the wonton skin wrappers from drying up when exposed to air.  You will then find it very difficult to wrap the wontons as the wrappers crack easily.

Ingredients (Serves 4 to 5 adults):

• 200 g minced pork
• 1 tablespoon carrot, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons scallion (spring onion), finely chopped
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornflour + 4 tablespoons water to make the cornflour sealant
• 200 g wonton skin wrappers (this varies with the amount of meat you put in your wonton)
• 10 g chicken stock cube
• 4 cups of water (for chicken broth)
• Water for cooking wontons

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  To make the wonton filling, combine the minced pork with salt, sugar, light soy sauce, ground pepper and sesame oil in a mixing bowl.  Add in 1 tablespoon chopped scallions and carrots and mix well.  Allow half an hour to marinate.

Step 2:  Put a small amount of this minced pork filling in the middle of a wonton skin wrapper.  With your fingertips, dab a bit of the cornflour sealant along the edges and bring all the edges together upwards.  It should stick and end up looking like a little draw-string pouch.

If you are lazy, you can just fold the opposite ends into a triangle, as long as the filling is wrapped inside.

Step 3:  Repeat Step 2 until all the minced pork filling is used up.  Remember to place the wontons in a single layer on a plate covered in plastic wrap  (to avoid drying).  If you think you cannot finish all the wontons for this meal, store the remaining in a container and put them in the fridge for another day.

Step 4:  Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Put the wontons individually into the water.  When the wontons float to the surface of the water, they are cooked.  Take the wontons out and set them aside.  The reason why we don’t cook the wontons in the chicken broth is because wonton wrappers are covered with flour and if they are cooked directly in the broth, it will affect the flavour of the soup.

Step 5:  To cook the broth, add the cups of water to another pot and bring the water to a boil.  Put in the chicken stock cube and make sure it dissolves well after some stirring.  Add in the remaining scallions.

Step 6: Return the cooked wontons gently into the boiling broth, but don’t cook them too long.  Add a dash of pepper before serving.

Isn’t it lovely?

You can also add in some bok choy while cooking the broth.  I didn’t add them in this batch of wonton soup as we had the vegetables separately with oyster sauce.

This wonton soup is best stored in a thermos food jar where the soup can be kept warm till your lunch time.

For a twist, you can do away with the soup and deep-fry the wontons after Step 3.  It’s a tasty snack for your kid’s lunch box as well!

This baked fish fillet recipe is suitable for any type of white fish, although I would prefer boneless ones like these sutchi fillet that I have used.  Dory fish fillet is a great choice as well.

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Marinate fish fillet with salt and ground white pepper.  Set it aside for half an hour before cooking.

Step 2:  Place fish fillet in an oven-proof dish lined with aluminium foil.

Step 3:  Drizzle lemon juice and olive oil over fish fillet.

Step 4:  Spread minced garlic on the surface.  Sprinkle mixed herbs and black pepper evenly over fish fillet.

Step 5:  Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius or 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 6:  Bake the fish for about 15 minutes or until the minced garlic turns brown.  Check if the fish is cooked with a fork.  If it flakes easily, it is ready.

Note:  Do pay attention while the fish is being baked as the baking time may differ slightly for your oven.  The thickness of the fish will also determine how long it takes to be cooked.

This recipe is simple, healthy, tasty and easy to make.  Boneless fish fillets are a good choice if you are preparing for your kid’s lunch box too.

I love it so much still that every time we cook this, I can finish two portions.  LOL.

I also found out that almost every kid who tried this dish liked it very much as well.  It is not only colorful, but it’s healthy, tasty and filling.  If you have kids who are fussy eaters, try cooking this once and see if they like it.  Perhaps, they will ask you to cook it again the next day!

Ingredients (Serves 4 to 5 adults):

• 1 medium carrot, diced into 1 cm cubes
• 2 regular sized potatoes, diced into 1 cm cubes
• About 170 g luncheon meat, diced into 1 cm cubes
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
• Ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Heat up 4 tablespoons cooking oil in a fry pan.  Deep fry the potato cubes, carrot cubes and luncheon meat cubes respectively.  Remove and set aside after they are cooked.

Step 2:  Heat up 1 tablespoon cooking oil.  Add the minced garlic.  When it is turning golden brown, add in the red onion slices.  Stir-fry for 1 minute till onion slices are soft and starting to brown too.

Step 3:  Put in the deep fried potato, carrot and luncheon meat cubes prepared earlier.  Add 3 tablespoons water.

Step 4:  Add the sugar, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce (optional).  Stir-fry for another minute, ensuring the ingredients are blended nicely.

Step 5:  Add a dash of ground pepper.  Stir-fry a few more times to mix well.

This is how it looks after it is completed.

It’s a well-balanced lunchbox dish as it is made up of a meat, vegetable and potato combo.  I recommend you to eat it with plain white rice.  Yummy.

It is good enough for me as a one-dish meal, but with another vegetable dish, my lunch box will be perfect.

Sometimes, home-cooked comfort food taste best, don’t you agree?

PS:  I am infatuated with luncheon meat, so there will be more luncheon meat recipes to come.  Hehe.

Ingredients (Serves 4 adults):

• One medium sized broccoli (about 300 g), cut into smaller pieces
• One small carrot, sliced
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce (or similar)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• Water for blanching

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Heat up some water in the saucepan.

Step 2:  When it is boiling, add the olive oil and salt.  Thereafter, put in the sliced carrots and broccoli.

Step 3:  When both vegetables are cooked, take them out with a strainer to drain away any excess water.  Set aside in a salad bowl.

Step 4:  Add the oyster sauce and toss the vegetables till it is well mixed.

Step 5:  If you are preparing it for your lunch box, place the broccoli immediately in your thermos food jar to keep it warm.  You can also choose to store them in a microwave-safe container and reheat them at your workplace.

This method of cooking does without the need for stir-frying with a wok, so cleaning up is also a breeze, especially if you are rushing to work.

There are other vegetables that can be cooked this way too, like brussel sprouts, kailan, xiao bai chye, etc.

Remember to include more vegetables in your diet always!