Avocado Appetiser

This "dish" is so simple that I wasn't going to post about it, but after a really lovely comment I received from someone who complimented me on my simple recipes, I have decided to! 

This is how I first started eating avocados when young...all you have to do is slice a ripe avocado in half, remove the seed, and squeeze some thousand island dressing in the centre (or on the side of your plate). Simple, yet really tasty and satisfying! It works well as an appetiiser, too. For a more elaborate and equally tasty alternative, top the avocado with some boiled prawns and voila - you have a prawn cocktail.

The hardest part about this recipe for me is getting a ripe avocado. The ones at the store are usually very hard, so I have to patiently wait for them to ripen in the kitchen before making this.

Tip: This tastes better when the avocado is chilled in the fridge. Once the avocado is ripe, stick it in the fridge for an hour or two before cutting it.




Chicken Salad

Ever been asked in a survey what dish you would pick if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life? Well, if I had to choose, it would be chicken salad. There's something about cold chicken and raw vegetables that just work so well together. 

With the summer heat truly upon us in Hong Kong right now, many a night I feel like something cool and refreshing. It may seem too light a meal, eating salad for dinner, but if you add enough goodies inside it, it makes for quite a filling dish.

There are endless variations to the chicken salad, but my favourite is a mixture of vegetables, potato and chicken without (egads!) any dressing. Firstly, I'm not too fond of mayonnaise or any other dressing overpowering the salad, and secondly, I'm always trying to cut down on the calorie intake. Plus, if your veggies and chicken are fresh, the natural taste of the dish is really all you need. And if you must, put some dressing on a side dish and mix a little as you go along, rather than pouring it all in at the start...

My favourite chicken salad combo right now is:

Shreddded chicken (roast chicken gives the salad more flavour, but you can also poach or panfry some chicken), lettuce, baby spinach leaves, roma tomatoes, baby potatoes (microwaved or boiled until soft and melting), sliced green peppers (capsicums), mixed together with a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper. Yum!

To make the salad more filling, you could also add some spiral/shell pasta, or some corn...




Bacon & Asparagus Rolls

In addition to Ham n Egg Rolls, another roll that's easy to make and great as a bento filler is a Bacon & Asparagus Roll. You can adapt this dish and use the bacon to wrap many other things like vegetables, sausages, etc, but my favourite is asparagus. 

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Bacon & Asparagus Rolls

• Asparagus (you really need fresh asparagus here, not the canned variety)
  
• Streaky Bacon Rashers (streaky bacon works best as it is more malleable than back bacon, although the fat in the bacon means this isn't the healthiest of recipes)
  

(With 4 thick stalks of asparagus and 4 long rashers of streaky bacon, I could make 16 mini rolls, but this will depend on your asparagus, width and length of bacon rashers)

Teriyaki Glaze
equal parts of:

• Soya Sauce
  
• Sake
  
• Mirin
  
• Sugar
  

1. Wash and trim around 1cm (1/2 inch) off the base of the asparagus stalks.

2. Boil some water in a saucepan and when the water is boiling, add the asparagus. Turn down the heat and simmer for around 4 minutes, or until just cooked through. Drain and set aside.

3. Cut the asparagus into shorter lengths. I cut mine to around 5cm (2 inches) long, but go along with the original length of your asparagus as well (eg. cut it into thirds or quarters if more convenient).

4. Cut the bacon into shorter lengths. A good gauge is to make the lengths of bacon around twice the length of your asparagus stalks. Slice the bacon to adjust the width if necessary as well. (You may want to cut one slice first to test if the width and length are correct.)

5. Roll a strip of bacon around the asparagus. If you are using thick stalks, you can wrap the bacon around each stalk. If your asparagus stalks are thinner, wrap the bacon around 3 - 4 stalks. Put the rolls tightly next to each other in a small bowl (to help prevent them from unrolling). If the bacon unrolls too easily, the lengths of bacon are too short.

6. Make the teriyaki glaze by mixing equal amounts of soya sauce, sugar, sake and mirin. For a small batch of bacon & asparagus rolls, 1 Tbsp of each seasoning is sufficient. Pour the glaze over the rolls.

7. Heat up a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the bacon and asparagus rolls on both sides until the bacon is cooked and lightly browned. Baste the rolls with the extra glaze in the bowl as you are frying them. You can also cook the rolls on a bbq/cast iron grill/George Foreman grill.

 
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Spicy Chicken & Cabbage Salad Bento

I had leftover roast chicken and cabbage sitting in the fridge, so I decided to make a Vietnamese/Thai-style chicken and cabbage salad for today's bento. A good thing about salads like this is that it is relatively healthy, as it doesn't include fattening/creamy salad dressing. Yet another good point about this bento is that it can all be prepared the night before.

Accompanying the bento are two little apples from Japan that I found in the local supermarket. The packet of apples were labelled, "Hime Ringo" (Princess Apple) which I thought was quite sweet. They were literally sweet as well, although a little mushy. There's also a little container of crushed peanuts to pour over the salad just before eating.

Continue reading for the Spicy Chicken & Cabbage Salad...

Spicy Chicken & Cabbage Salad
(serves 2)

1/4 roast chicken, teased into strips (or any leftover grilled chicken/boiled chicken you have on hand)
2 cups cabbage, finely shredded
1 medium carrot, shredded
1 small bundle glass noodles (optional - I added this to make the salad a little more filling)
few drops sesame oil (optional)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1 red chilli, finely chopped (or few drops chilli oil, if you don't have fresh chilli on hand)
red pepper flakes & sliced green chilli (optional, for garnish)

1. If you are using glass noodles, add the noodles into boiled water. Stir and leave to soak until the noodles are soft. Drain, then mix a few drops of sesame oil into the noodles. With a pair of scissors, cut the noodles roughly into smaller pieces.
   
2. Add the chicken, shredded cabbage and carrot with the noodles and combine well.
   
3. Mix the fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar and chilli together, then pour into the salad and toss.
   
4. Taste, and add more seasoning if necessary.
   
5. Garnish with some red pepper flakes or thinly sliced green chilli.
   

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Zucchini Fritters

This is a great recipe for a bento filler or even a light brunch. If you are using it in a bento, accompany it with more salty foods such as teriyaki chicken or other meats, as it has quite a delicate taste.

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Zucchini fritters
(makes around 12 small fritters)

1 large green zucchini, shredded (fills around 2 cups when shredded, before being squeezed)
1 large egg
1/2 - 2/3 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
light olive oil/other cooking oil

1. Shred the zucchini and squeeze it to remove excess moisture.
   
2. Add the egg and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper and mix well to combine.
   
3. Lightly coat a small frying pan with oil. On medium heat, drop tablesppons of zucchini mixture into the pan. 
   
4. Cook for about a minute, then flip over and cook the other side until lightly browned on both sides.
   

Tips:
For added flavour, add some shredded cheese to the mixture before frying the fritters.

If you plan on eating the fritters on their own, or without a more salty side dish, season with a little more salt.

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Teriyaki Cod Bento

I love grilled teriyaki cod (gindara) and will often order it in Japanese restaurants. So it was only a matter of time before it found its way into a bento...

Bento contents: rice with furikake, tamagoyaki, rainbow sweet n spicy peppers, grilled teriyaki cod, and a kiwi fruit.

After using my black bento box quite often, I found myself thinking this blue box (my old favourite) is now looking a bit too garish. Maybe it is because the food in this bento is already quite colourful...hmm... and I realised that the little fish food pick looks like the ghost of the cod fish shouting "Don't eat me!". It was not intentional, really...

Continue reading...

Rainbow Sweet n Spicy Peppers

Despite the name, this dish is not spicy. I used green Japanese shishito peppers, which are 3 inch long, sweet-hot peppers. They are only slightly hotter than sweet peppers (capsicum), and not as spicy as chilli peppers. 

1 small red onion
1 clove garlic
1 yellow sweet pepper (capsicum)
1 red sweet pepper (capsicum)
8 - 10 shishito peppers, deseeded
1 tsp light olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
sea salt

1. Slice up the onion, sweet peppers (capsicum) and shishito peppers.
   
2. Finely chop the garlic.
   
3. Add the oils in a pot, and fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes.
   
4. Add the rest of the peppers and fry until soft.
   
5. Sprinkle a little sea salt over the peppers for added flavour.
   

Tip: The colours in this dish look amazing right after they are just fried. However, after a day in the fridge, the colours fade (especially the green of the shishito peppers). For best colour effect, fry and pack directly in your bento.

Teriyaki Cod
Grilling or pan-frying fish is really very easy. The most important part is not to overcook the fish.

2 small cod fillets
teriyaki sauce (pre-bought, or make your own by mixing 2 Tbsp soya sauce, 1.5 Tbsp mirin, 1.5 Tbsp sake and 1 Tbsp sugar together)

1. Marinade the cod fillets in teriyaki sauce for 10 - 15 minutes.
   
2. Grill the cod for 1 - 2 minutes, or pan-fry the cod until just cooked. (The fish will continue to cook a little) 

Tips: Some ways to check if fish is cooked - press the fish down lightly (the flesh should feel firmer when cooked); insert a fork into the fish to see if the fish meat "flakes"; note the change of colour in the cross-section of the fish as you cook it. The colour of the fish will change from a translucent jelly colour to a matte colour (this method works well with salmon fillets). 

It is fine (and more tasty) to leave salmon fillets slightly raw in the middle, but please ensure your salmon is from a good quality source if you plan on doing this.

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