Bento No. 10 - Cold Soba Noodles with Herbed Tuna and Tamago-Nori-Yaki

As I make more bentos, I guess, I become more creative in pairing my food. I also want to experiment more and try making Japanese food that I haven't tasted yet. I also tend to experiment on different container size and shapes to make my bentos more appealing. Today's Bento Menu:

1. Cold Soba Noodles
2. Herbed Tuna
3. Tamagoyaki with Nori

Cold Soba Noodles Recipe

For this recipe, you can check out this post where I have the procedure for making Cold Soba, and listed all the ingredients and where to buy them.

Herbed Tuna

This herbed tuna recipe can be done in under 5 minutes!

1 Can Tuna Chunks

Your choice of herbs. Mine was Thyme

1. Open the can of tuna and drain
2. Combine your herbs and rub gently on the tuna
3. To thoroughly infuse the flavor, microwave on low for 1 minute

Tamagoyaki with Nori

This is actually the most challenging to prepare. If it's the first time you're making this, it will take some patience. Actually, I don't have patience for this, that's why I asked my Kitty to do it for me! He's so great with it! For this, you'll need the following:

2 Eggs	1 Tbsp Sweet Soy Sauce
1 tsp Shallot Sauce (optional)	2 Nori strips

1. In a bowl, beat together eggs, sweet soy sauce and shallot sauce. If you want striations or streaks on your tamagoyaki, just beat it enough to break the yolks
2. Heat your tamagoyaki pan in low heat. Make sure to grease the pan
3. Pour a bit of the mixture, just enough to cover the pan and form a thin layer of egg. Let the egg cook for a bit, and while the top is still a bit wet (but cooked),gently roll the egg layer
4. Grease the part of the pan without the egg roll and then pour another layer of egg mixture. While it is cooking, place the nori strips on top of egg layer
5. Gently roll the eggs again. You can add another layer of egg or leave it at that
6. let the tamagoyaki oool and then slice

Bento No. 7 - Cold Soba Noodles with Hardboiled Egg

As I make more bentos, it seems that I want to try and make more Japanese themed ones. I wanted to experiment more on flavor and I dared to go where I wouldn't have gone if I were just the eat-loving person that I was a year ago.

This bento is an experiment bento that I whipped up in under 20 minutes. Not really bad for a first time recipe!

Today's Bento Menu

• Cold Soba Noodles
• Hardboiled Egg

Cold Soba Noodles Recipe

The Cold Soba Noodles were easy enough. It just needed a few ingredients and it's good to go.

4 Tbsp Rice/White Wine	1 Tsp Flavoring or 2 Tbsp dashi stock
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce	2 Tbsp Sugar
2 Bundles Soba Noodles

1. Cook the Soba according to package instructions
2. While you're boiling the noodles, make the sauce by combining the rice/white wine, white sugar, flavor enhancer (could be dashi stock but I don't have any), and soy sauce. Mix them together until all the sugar is dissolved. It may help to heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds just help in dissolving the sugar. Don't heat it up too long or the alcohol will dissipate completely. Place it in a non-spill container that will fit in your lunch box. Remember to cool the sauce completely before packing
3. When your Soba Noodles have finished cooking, drain the water and rinse it with cold running water (I used tap, since tap water is relatively cold compared to the boiling water). This is to remove any starch. Cold Soba Noodles, as I have read, should not have the starchiness that noodles have. Be careful though, these noodles are slippery!
4. Arrange your Soba Noodles neatly in your lunch box. Garnish as desired. I used Nori Strips

Hardboiled Eggs Recipe

Do I even have to expound on how this is done? Haha.

1. Put your eggs in a pot with enough water to submerge the eggs
2. bring the water to a boil
3. once water is boiling, let the egg boil for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how hard you want your eggs
4. drain the water and submerge the eggs in cool water
5. carefully peal the shell, and cut in half, or cut in half and then peal the shell carefully

Where to Buy the Ingredients

Here's a list of where you can buy the ingredients I used in this recipe.

	Shallot Sauce Where it was bought: Carvajal, St. Binondo Alternative stores: None that I know of
	Lee Kum Kee Soy Sauce Where it was bought: South Super Market, Ligaya Alternative stores: Major Supermarkets
	Wang Soba Noodles Where it was bought: Robinsons Metro East Supermarket Alternative stores: Major Supermarkets with Asian section
	Sugar Can be bought anywhere
	Egg Can be bought anywhere
	Korean Vodka(?) I don't know. This was given to us. Probably in Korean stores

Bento No. 6 Yakisoba with Sho-yu Tamago and Vegan creamcheese Bell Pepper

This bento is just a repeat of a previous bento, with just the addition of the Sho-Yu Tamago. This is actually the last bento I made for lunch as a technical consultant for my 2nd job. I didn't want to burn myself out on my last day of work so I made an easy bento. Plus, I really wanted to try that vegan cream cheese recipe that I've been reading about.

Bento Menu:

1. Nissin Instant Yakisoba
2. Sho-Yu Tamago
3. Vegetarian Creamcheese filled Bell Pepper (failed).
4. Cut pieces of Nori

The Yakisoba is easy enough, my recipe to kick the flavor up a notch can be found here.

Sho-Yu Tamago or Soy Sauce is really easy to make. Took me about 3 minutes to give the egg that brown color. More or less 10 if you include boiling the egg and shelling it. It's best done the night before.

I got the Sho-Yu Tamago idea from Just Bento, so head on over there to check out how it's made

My Bento Story I wanted to make an easy bento with enough oomph to brighten up my last day. Though I quit the job and it was my choice to leave, saying goodbye is really tough. I'm not only saying goodbye to my friends, I was also saying goodbye to the happy and fun lunch breaks I get to spend with Kitty. I actually loved to color, and since it's a remake, I assumed everything would go without a hitch, not until I tried out my vegan cream cheese! It tasted weird! I guess I have to find a neat-o recipe for vegan cream cheese. Some of the veggies I used weren't really that fresh. Some even tasted funky.. eew! So overall, this bento didn't really do well for me, but not because it wasn't good. It's just that I made the wrong choice of ingredients.

Bento Day 2 - Pork Meatballs and Luncheon Meat on Spicy Chicken Yakisoba with Cheese-stuffed Green Bell Pepper

This post is originally from my personal-anything-goes-blog, dated May 9, 2012
 
Okay. So I had a hard time in planning out this bento, mainly because of budget constraints, and also because I had a different bento in mind yesterday afternoon, and I found out later that I lack most of the ingredients needed for the bento I wanted to make for today. I guess that bento'll be for another day.

Anyway, my bento today took me, more or less, 45 minutes to make. It's a really long time to make a bento this simple, but hey, I'm new to cooking and I'm new to bento-making. I spent roughly about 25 pesos for this bento. The total cost of this bento (if all ingredients were taken account for) would be 35-40 pesos. Depending on the quality of products that you would use. Take note that this cost is for 2 bentos already.



Today's Bento Menu:

• Pork Meatballs
• Luncheon Meat
• Cheese-stuffed Bell Pepper
• Spicy Chicken Yakisoba

I got the pork meatballs already flavored in SM Supermarket at 5 pesos per ball.  I placed 2 balls per bento.

The luncheon meat is free, since it's today's breakfast. I used up 2 slices of Purefoods Luncheon Meat. 1 for each bento.

I forgot where I got the idea of stuffing a bell-pepper with cheese, but that's what I did.
Here's my recipe for it:

• 1 medium sized bell pepper
• 2 triangles Laughing Cow spreadable cheese
• 1 pinch onion powder
• 1 Tbsp grated cheddar cheese

1. Core the bell pepper (it would be great if the bell pepper were small, so you could have 2 of this babies). Wash the insides of the bell pepper. Make sure there are no seeds left
2. On a small bowl, mix together the cheese, onion powder and cheddar cheese
3. Stuff the cheese mix inside the bell pepper using a spoon and a butter knife. Make sure that the whole pepper is stuffed
4. Optional: Grill or sear the bell pepper.

My Spicy Chicken Yakisoba is big downplay of any authentic yakisoba. I actually cheated a bit on this one. Since I don't know how to cook yakisoba, and I'm on a tight budget, I bought 2 packs of Nissin Spicy Chicken Instant Yakisoba. CHEATER! I know! I did however upped the game a bit by putting various vegetables in the yakisoba, and tried to make a sauce to flavor the veggies.
Here's what I did:

• 2 packs Nissin Spicy Chicken Yakisoba
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 4 pieces sweet peas
• 3 pieces baby corn, chopped
• 1/2 medium bell pepper, cubed
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1/8 cup Lee Kum Kee Premium Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/8 cup water, room temp. or warm.

1. Cook the yakisoba noodles according to the instructions indicated in the pack
2. Heat oil in a pan on low. Put in the carrots and the baby corn. Saute until you see a minimal change in color. Add in the onions and the sweet peas. Saute until onion is becomes a little transparent
3. Add the soy sauce and sugar into the pan. Simmer for a few seconds, add in the water. Saute the vegetables until everything is well coated. Simmer for a few minutes or until the sauce is reduced.
4. Turn off the burner/remove pan from heat. Cut out the remaining sauce in the pan, leaving at least 1 tsp of sauce. Vegetables shouldn't be saucy since the yakisoba pack already has a sauce pouch with it it.
5.  Mix the yakisoba sauce and podwer in the veggie-sauce you made. Do not use the dried up vegetables that came with the pack.
6. Add the sauce to the noodles and mix to evenly distribute the sauce.

My Bento Story:
Since this bento wasn't what I wanted to make, I made the combinations haphazardly. I really have no idea how to put this together with the lack of ingredients. I wanted to add a few tamagoyaki but or even just a plain boiled egg, but I couldn't find an egg last night and this morning to save my life. I couldn't afford to buy by the carton, so I had to omit the egg. Also, you may have noticed that one bento doesn't have a stuffed bell pepper. That's due again to my budget constraints, I ran out of cheese.
The taste of this bento was surprisingly good! For something that I thought out of whim (well, considering how much time I thought out the other bento menus). The veggie sauce I made complemented the yakisoba sauce well. The meat balls also blended well. Actually, if you eat the noodles where the meatballs sat, it tastes really good! Next time I'll dice the meatballs and include it with the veggie-yakisoba sauce. The Luncheon meat added a great salty taste to the sweet yakisoba flavor. All the meat used in this bento worked well with the sweet-spicy-salty taste of the yakisoba. I was surprised with how good the cheese-stuffed bell pepper tasted. It-was-freakin'-awesome!!! SDEHBF ate his bento with me, so I got to taste the cheese-stuffed bell pepper! The sweetness of the bell pepper worked well with the sour-salty taste of cheese stuffing! It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth! I think it will be doubly awesome if the cheese-stuffed bell pepper was grilled or seared for a few seconds. YUM!