Scrambled Eggs with Meat

This dish is easy to make, and great as a bento filler. It's basically minced meat (beef or pork) scrambled together with eggs. My mum used to make this when I was young, and she would serve it with plain rice or rice porridge.

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Scrambled Eggs with Minced Meat

3 eggs
100 - 150g minced beef or pork
half an onion, finely chopped (optional)
1 Tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper

1. Beat the eggs together with the soya sauce, a little salt and pepper.

2. Heat up a frying pan, and add the sesame oil. Add the onion if you are using it (fry until soft), then the minced meat, stirring so the meat does not clump together. 

3. When the meat is cooked, add the eggs and fry. Stir continuously as if you were scrambling eggs, until the eggs are cooked.

4. Taste, and season with more salt and pepper, if necessary.

Tip: If you plan on packing this into your bento lunch and eating it with plain rice at room temperature, make this dish a little more salty.

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Swedish Meatballs

These gloppy-looking round things are supposed to be Swedish meatballs. They taste a whole lot better than they look in the photo, though! I've been wanting to eat Swedish meatballs for some time - I first ate them at Ikea (of all places) - and finally decided to make my own. The great thing about this recipe is that the meatballs are baked, not fried (that sounds like an ad), which means less oil and fat! It also means less time standing at the stove, frying batches of meatballs, which can be time consuming. The meatballs can also be frozen - I made 40 in one batch, so there was enough for dinner, lunch the next day, plus two more batches in the freezer for another day...

Continue reading for the recipe...

Swedish Meatballs
(makes around 40 meatballs)

600g minced beef (as lean as possible)
400g minced pork

You can use half minced beef and pork if you prefer - I just find minced pork (in my area) quite fatty, so I use more beef)

2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 cups breadcrumbs (preferably panko - Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

For the sauce:

3 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup plain flour
1 cup milk
500ml beef stock (once I substituted this for lamb stock, as I could only find lamb stock cubes. I added two stock cubes into 500ml water)

1. Preheat your oven to 225 degrees C.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the minced beef and pork, eggs, milk, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper or foil. If you are using foil, lightly grease the foil so the meatballs don't stick.

4. Using a tablespoon or small ice-cream scoop, form the meat mixture into round balls and place them onto the lined baking tray.

5. Bake for 12 minutes, or until browned and cooked through.

To make the sauce:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then slowly add the flour and stir rapidly. Cook, stirring constantly for about a minute. Slowly add the milk, and then the beef stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened a little.

To serve, dunk the meatballs into the sauce, coat them, and place them onto a plate. Serve with boiled potatoes and steamed vegetables, as well as with a scoop of berry jam. The Swedish traditionally eat this with lingonberry jam, but you could also use grape, red-currant or some other tart berry jam. Cranberry sauce would work, too...

Freeze any extra meatballs together with the sauce in freezable airtight containers or bags.

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Back to Bento

After a (long) break, I'm trying to get back to making bento - just a simple one, made with one of my favourite bento staples - Beef and Tofu meatballs (you can't taste the tofu at all, but adding tofu makes the meatballs juicy, even after it has been frozen and re-fried). Here, they have been glazed with homemade teriyaki sauce. The rest of the bento is just some edamame, a happy hard boiiled egg, and rice. Simple, but filling and tasty.

Teriyaki sauce
4 Tbsp soya sauce
3 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp mirin
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix all the ingredients together in a small frying pan, and heat over medium heat until bubbling. Keep the sauce bubbling (adjusting the heat lower if necessary) until the liquid reduces and thickens. Add the meatballs and coat with the sauce. (If you are defrosting the meatballs, make sure you fry them until the meatballs are fully heated through.)




Beef & Potato Curry Puffs

Curry puffs are easily available in Malaysia and Singapore, but not so common in Australia when I was growing up, so we always looked forward to my mum's homemade version, which she would make using puff pastry (rather than the traditional flour pastry which is deep fried). My sister and I would help her measure and cut out the pieces of puff pastry, then fill it with a spicy mince beef and potato filling. Although I do like the more traditional curry puff pastry, if I make it myself, I will use ready-rolled puff pastry like my mother did - it's easier to make as it is is baked rather than deep fried.

If you don't want your curry puffs so spicy, just reduce the amount of chilli and curry powder, or you can omit it altogether and just make a non-spicy beef and potato puff, if you like. For a vegetarian version, omit the beef.

Continue reading for the recipe...

Beef & Potato Curry Puffs
(makes around 72 small triangular curry puffs)

1 medium onion, finely chopped
olive oil (or other cooking oil)
600g lean mince beef
3 large potatoes (or 4-5 medium potatoes)
curry powder
chilli powder (or cayenne powder)
salt and pepper
9 sheets frozen ready rolled puff pastry (1.5kg puff pastry)
1 egg, beaten
(chilli oil and chilli flakes - optional)

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes. Cook the potatoes until soft, either in boiling water, or in the microwave.

2. In a medium sized saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp oil and lightly fry the onions until soft. Add the mince beef and stir well until cooked. Begin to season the meat by adding 1-2 Tbsp of curry powder and a good shake of chilli powder (or cayenne powder). Stir well.

3. Over low heat, add the cooked potatoes to the meat, and mix well. It is fine if the potato cubes get a little mashed. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Taste the beef and potato filling, then add more curry powder and chilli powder if you wish. I like my curry puffs very spicy, so I go a bit wild with the curry and chilli here. I also add some chilli oil and chilli flakes at this stage for added spice. The filling should be a little on the salty side, as the flavour will dissipate once it's wrapped in the pastry. Set the filling aside to cool.

5. If you are using frozen ready rolled puff pastry, separate and defrost the square sheets of pastry. Cut the pastry into small squares or triangles. You may use a knife to do this, but I find it is easier to cut the pastry using a clean pair of kitchen scissors. Cut the large square of pastry into half, then half again to form 4 squares. Then cut each square into half diagonally to form 2 triangles. You will then have 8 triangles of pastry. 

If you want to make larger puffs, or square puffs, just cut the pastry accordingly. (If you live in a hot environment, keep the remainder of the pastry in the fridge/freezer until you are ready to use it, or the pastry will soften and will be hard to handle)

6. Line a baking tray with some foil, and lightly grease the foil with some cooking oil. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. 

7. Take a piece of the cut pastry in one hand, and add a heaped teaspoon (or more) of cooled curry puff filling. Fold the pastry over in half and squeeze the edges together to seal the filling inside. I like to squeeze together one edge of the pastry first to form a little "cup", add the filling, then seal the remaining edge. Place the curry puff on the lined baking tray. 

(Making up the curry puffs whilst watching TV helps pass time more quickly.)

8. Crack an egg into a small bowl and beat it. Brush a little beaten egg on top of the curry puffs, then bake them in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove and place on a wire rack until cooled. Continue baking the rest of the curry puffs in batches.

Keep them covered in the fridge, or pack them into airtight freezer bags and freeze them. Reheat them in the oven before serving.

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Easy One-Sauce Lasagna

As the days go by, I've come to realise that Cloud9Food is all about comforting, home-style food that is not only tasty to eat, but is also heavenly for the chef ie. simple to prepare! Another favourite of mine which falls into this category is my One-Sauce Lasagna.

I love lasagna, but the thought of preparing the bolognese meat sauce, bechamel sauce, layering everything and then baking it sends me running to find something else that's faster to cook. Hence the One-Sauce version. 

Instead of making bechamel sauce from scratch (which I find terribly tedious), I make a large portion of "creamy" tomato meat sauce. The sauce is then layered with instant lasagna sheets and baked. It still takes some time, but is much faster than the original 2-sauce version, and I don't find I lose much taste-wise. This lasagna is still tomato-y, creamy and cheesy. The meat sauce can even be made in advance and frozen, which cuts down preparation time even more. And yes, I cheat and buy tomato soup (the no MSG, no preservative variety!) to add further flavour to the meat sauce. Who has time to boil and boil and boil the sauce?

For bento lunch makers, leftovers can be packed in microwaveable safe containers for lunch the next day.

Continue reading for the recipe...

Easy One-Sauce Lasagna
(makes one large lasagna in a 2.5 L capacity dish)

500g pack of instant lasagna sheets (which does not require pre-cooking)
6 -7 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp light olive oil (or other cooking oil)
400g minced beef or a mix of minced beef and pork (as lean as possible)
2 large carrots, chopped into small cubes
2 x 400g canned tomatoes
5 heaped Tbsp tomato paste
500 - 600g creamy tomato soup (look for the no MSG, no preservatives, organic soup variety if possible. For reference, I use Pacific Natural Foods Organic Creamy Tomato Soup)
black pepper
salt
1 -2 bay leaves (optional)
1 cup milk (low-fat, skim milk is also fine)
100g cheddar cheese
additional 200g - 250g cheddar and/or parmesan cheese (for layering and topping the lasagna)

1. In a large saucepan, add the olive oil and fry the garlic lightly until fragrant. Add the minced meat and stir to separate the mince until the meat is cooked. Add the chopped carrots. (If you are pressed for time, microwave the carrots to soften them first.)

2. Add the canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Season with some salt and pepper, and stir. Add 1 -2 bay leaves here for added flavour (optional). Bring to the boil, then simmer over medium heat for 20 - 30 minutes. 

3. Add 500g of the creamy tomato soup and simmer for another 5 - 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.

(When making the meat sauce in advance, allow to cool and transfer into a freezer-safe container for freezing at this point. To defrost, transfer the frozen sauce into a large saucepan and heat until defrosted.)

4. Add the milk and 100g cheddar cheese to the meat sauce and stir. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. You should have quite a lot of meat sauce at this stage as it replaces both bolognese and bechamel sauces.)

5. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly grease a 2.5L capacity ovenproof dish. Ladle some meat sauce into the dish to cover the bottom. Add a layer of instant lasagna sheets (you may need to break them to fit the size of your dish), then a sprinkle of cheddar or parmesan cheese, then some more meat sauce. Repeat until the meat sauce is used up. (There may be leftover lasagna sheets as well.) End with a layer of meat sauce, and sprinkle some cheddar/parmesan (or a mix) of cheeses on top.

Tip: Around 3/4 of the way through layering, if it looks like you don't have enough sauce, add another 100g or so of the creamy tomato soup to the sauce and mix. 

6. Bake the lasagna in the oven according to the time indicated on your packet of instant lasagna sheets (approx 30 -45 minutes). Serve with a side salad.

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Beef & Tofu Meatballs

Meatballs are a great bento staple. They freeze well, defrost quickly, can be combined with a variety of different sauces, and are tasty eaten at room temperature. I like combining tofu with beef, as it is slightly healthier and the tofu keeps the meatballs juicy, even after being defrosted and refried. And for those who don't quite like tofu, once it is mixed with the beef, you can't taste the tofu. 

Continue reading for the Beef & Tofu Meatball recipe...

Beef & Tofu Meatballs
(makes around 33 small meatballs)

380g silken tofu (or less if you don't wish to add so much tofu)
250g minced beef (as lean as possible)
8 Tbsp breadcrumbs
1 small onion
2 Tbsp soya sauce
oil for cooking (I use light olive oil)

1. Chop the onions finely, and fry them in a little oil until soft.
   
2. Drain the tofu and mash it in a bowl.
   
3. Add the minced beef, cooked onions, breadcrumbs and soya sauce and combine well. Add more breadcrumbs if necessary if the mixture is too soft.
   
4. Heat up a little oil in a frying pan or small saucepan on medium heat.
   
5. Drop little balls of meatball mixture into the oil and pan-fry on both sides until browned. Optional: If you are using the meatballs straight away, glaze them with some sauce (see below). 
   
6. Cool, pack into your bento, or freeze them (unglazed) in small portions in sealable, freezer-safe bags.
   

To defrost the meatballs, place the frozen meatballs in a small frying pan over low heat and cover with a lid. When the meatballs are soft, turn the heat up, and add some sauce to glaze the meatballs. Pan-fry until the sauce thickens and the meatballs are well coated. Cool, then pack into your bento. Suggested sauces are tomato sauce, tonkatsu sauce, or teriyaki sauce. I like to use a combination of tomato sauce and tonkatsu sauce (Bulldog brand) mixed together.

Tip: I use a small ice-cream scoop to form the meatballs, which I find is a quick and easy way to make the meatballs all a similar size.

Freeze the meatballs in small batches according to how many you would usually use.

Update:
Here's my homemade teriyaki sauce I use to glaze these meatballs. The quantity can glaze around 12 of my mini meatballs.

Teriyaki sauce
4 Tbsp soya sauce
3 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp mirin
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix all the ingredients together in a small frying pan, and heat over medium heat until bubbling. Keep the sauce bubbling (adjusting the heat lower if necessary) until the liquid reduces and thickens. Add the meatballs and coat with the sauce. (If you are defrosting the meatballs, make sure you fry them until the meatballs are fully heated through.)

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Lotus Flower Bento

This week's theme on Bento Challenge is "Flowers", so I decided to make a lotus flower (actually two) with Korean-style food. For me, design is one thing, but at the end of the day, how a bento tastes is most important. There's no point if the design is fantastic but you don't enjoy eating it...

The petals of the white lotus flower are made out of tofu, with an egg centre. Not pictured is a soy-sesame dressing to pour over the tofu. Underneath the flower are lettuce rolls containing Korean beef bulgogi and gochujang (red pepper paste). To fill up the background, there are boiled black beans with soy, sugar and black sesame seeds (kong jang) and some takana (mustard leaf) pickles.

The orange-red lotus (that is slightly closed) is made out of a nectarine. It is sitting on a background of blackberries and there are also some lotus leaves/pads made out of kiwi fruit.

Korean Beef Bulgogi Recipe...

Korean Beef Bulgogi
(double/triple proportions if you are making a larger amount)

190g boneless short rib beef (or rib eye), thinly sliced
1/2 kiwi fruit (see note at end)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp garlic (1 clove, finely chopped or mashed)
1/2 Tbsp sake
dash black pepper

1. Sprinkle 1/2 Tbsp of brown sugar over the beef and let it rest for a few minutes as you mix up the marinade.
   
2. Mix the other 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar with the soya sauce, sesame oil, garlic, sake and pepper.
   
3. Cut the kiwi in half, then squeeze it over the meat as if you were juicing an orange, except the whole kiwi is being squashed and mashed up. Discard the kiwi skin. Mix the kiwi into the beef (you can use your hands for this). The juice of the kiwi fruit tenderises the meat.
   
4. Add the marinade to the beef, mix well, and leave it for 10 minutes. As the beef is thinly sliced, you do not have to marinade it for long.
   
5. Grill (or pan fry) the beef for a minute or so each side until just cooked (the beef will cook very quickly).
   
6. Serve with lettuce leaves and gochujang (Korean red pepper paste). Wrap a slice of beef and some gochujang in the lettuce, and eat.
   

Tip: You can make your own Korean bbq at home by setting up a cast iron grill on an induction cooker on the dining table, and frying the beef bulgogi at the table. Serve with white rice, lettuce, gochujang, pickles and other meats to bbq.

Note: If your beef is very thinly sliced, omit the kiwi fruit juice, as the meat doesn't need to be tenderised. Otherwise, the juice will make the meat go mushy.

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Spaghetti Bolognaise Bento

Traditional Bolognese sauce originated from Bologna, Italy, and is a thick meat based sauce/ragu with very little tomato in it. However the version I make is the non-traditional form that has become very popular outside of Italy.

Spaghetti Bolognaise (or Spaghetti Bolognese) is one of my favourite comfort foods as it reminds me of my childhood. My mother used to make this dish with a lot of gravy and I'd always wished I had second helpings. (Now I can, but I usually regret it after!) When I have time, I will make the sauce from scratch (with carrots, celery, tomatoes, etc.) but I've become more lazy and am more into fast, easy cooking, so I now often buy a pre-made tomato pasta sauce. 

The spaghetti I used for today's bento is not only from purchased pasta sauce, it is also leftover from last night's dinner. A wonderful part of bento is the ability to use and dress up leftover food in an attractive way. However I refuse to eat this dish cold, so I packed it into a microwavable Lock n Lock container. The side dishes (peas, raspberries and smiley cheese cubes) and grass food separators were removed before microwaving the pasta.




Enoki Beef Roll Bento

Enoki, or golden needle mushrooms, wrapped up in thin slices of beef is one of my favourite dishes to order along with a bowl of mai sin (米线 rice noodles) in soup. The last time I tried to make the enoki beef rolls at home, I cooked the mushrooms and beef briefly before rolling them. Enoki mushrooms cook very quickly, so I ended up with limp mushrooms and hard to roll cooked beef. Needless to say, it was a failed attempt.

I decided to try it again - this time, I rolled marinated raw beef around uncooked mushrooms, then grilled it briefly. It worked much better this time!

Also in the bento: tamagoyaki triangles, haricot beans stir-fried in sambal belachan chilli, plain rice onigiri and frozen raspberries and blueberries. I made this up this morning and it took much longer than expected, so the frozen fruit tossed in was a great time-saver.

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Enoki Beef Rolls

Thinly sliced, long strips of beef (if your supermarket or butcher sells pre-sliced beef for shabu shabu (Japanese hot pot), this is perfect)

Enoki mushrooms, washed with the bottom roots cut off
sesame oil
soya sauce

1. Separate the beef strips onto a shallow plate (I used 180g of beef, cut into 7 thin strips). 
   
2. Coat the beef with a bit of sesame oil and soya sauce (For 180g beef, I added 1 tsp sesame oil and 2 tsp soya sauce). 
   
3. Cut the enoki mushrooms so the length matches the width of your beef strips (or a little longer).
   
4. Place a small amount of enoki mushroom at one end of each beef strip, and roll it up.
   
5. Heat up a grill, and grill the beef rolls for 1 minute, or until cooked. If your beef is thin, the rolls will cook very quickly. You could also panfry the rolls in a little oil.

Tip: You can also glaze the rolls with some teriyaki or soya sauce, but I found that the marinade was salty enough on its own. 

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Beef Soboro & Pesto Spaghetti

This Japanese-style fusion pasta was created out of the desire to use up leftovers in the fridge. I wanted to use up leftover pesto spaghetti from the previous night's dinner, so I combined it with some beef soboro that I prepared earlier that week (as part of my bento stash). A little to my surprise, the combination worked together really well. The slight bitterness of the basil pesto and the sweetness of the beef soboro provide an interesting and flavourful contrast. In fact, it was good enough that I have added it to the list of pastas I will repeat making.

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The pesto I use is the traditional pesto alla genovese, which is made from (Genovese) basil, salt, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts and a grated hard cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano. I've not actually tried to make pesto on my own, but I intend to get around to it someday. It's easier to buy bottled pesto these days - just look for a good quality product which actually contains all or a high percentage of extra virgin olive oil.

Soboro is a moist, crumbled and seasoned meat/egg in Japanese, and is often sprinkled over rice in bento lunches. It is similar to furikake, which is also sprinkled over rice, but furikake is dry, and soboro more moist.

Beef Soboro (adapted from Just Bento)

450g minced beef (as lean as possible)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp dark soya sauce
2 Tbsp oyster sauce

1. Heat the sesame oil in a pan and fry the garlic until fragrant. 
2. Add the beef and brown well, separating it as you cook so the mince does not clump together. 
3. Add the sugar and stir until it is a bit caramalised. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the liquid is almost gone, but the meat is still moist. 
4. Taste, and add more seasoning if required. The meat should be strongly flavoured, as it is meant to be eaten with plain rice.
   

Soboro is a popular rice topping for bentos, and it can also be used as an onigiri filling. It keeps for a week in the fridge and can also be frozen.

Beef Soboro & Pesto Spaghetti

1/2 - 3/4 cup beef soboro
250g spaghetti
approx 4 heaped tsp pesto alla genovese (basil pesto)

1. Cook spaghetti or other thin, long pasta (in salted water) according to the packet's instructions, less one minute. Drain, then pour back into a pot.
2. On low heat, add the pesto to the spaghetti and mix. (I use around 4 heaped tsp of pesto for 250g spaghetti.)
3. Add about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of beef soboro for 250g pasta. (If your soboro has been in the fridge, make sure it is heated through well. You can also microwave it before mixing it into the pasta).
4. Taste, and season with salt and pepper, and add more pesto or soboro if necessary. The soboro is quite salty, so you may not find it necessary to season the pasta with additional salt. 

Optional: Add some spinach leaves and mix with the heated pasta until the leaves wilt slightly.

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Homemade Burger

Another guilt-free fast food dish you can easily whip up at home is the burger. Making your own burger is definitely the healthier option, especially if you use the leanest minced meat you can find.

Beef Burgers

(makes around 4 large patties, 5 medium patties)

360g (0.8lb) lean mince beef
1 small onion
2 Tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 Tbsp soya sauce
1 egg
5 Tbsp breadcrumbs
dash dry basil leaves
dash salt and pepper

1. Chop the onion and pan fry it with a little oil until the onion is soft. Set aside to cool a little.
2. In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients together. Add the cooked onion. 
3. Mix well, form into patties.
4. Heat up a grill or non-stick frying pan. Add a small amount of oil. Grill/pan-fry the burger patties for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Sandwich the burger patty between a hamburger bun and add your desired toppings - eg. cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach leaves, bacon, mushrooms, jalapeno chillis etc.

In the picture above, I added low fat cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, butter lettuce, bacon and a grilled portobello mushroom. You can also add some mayonnaise or sauce, but I didn't, as I find this burger is tasty enough without the sauce (it's healthier this way, too!)