Pancakes

Pancakes are great for any type of meal. I can eat them for breakfast, savoury ones at lunch and dinner or even dessert pancakes for tea and supper. If you make mini sizes, you can serve them for your parties too.

1 cup milk
2 tbsp butter melted
2 eggs beat well
1 cup flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

In a saucepan, heat milk and butter. Let it cool. (Some uses buttermilk bought from dairy section)
Beat the eggs, flours, baking powder and salt. Beat until smooth with a whisk.
Pour some batter (about a ladle) into the lightly greased pan. Cook till it is golden brown and turn the other side to cook) Do not turn it when the sides are still raw as it may stick to your pan.

Serve this with your favourite maple syrup, jam or even butter.

Plain Bento Box

I collect many many types of bento box but first, I will show you the plain ones that I have, which I use for many occasions. These are 3 tier ones and very handy to put your rice on one deck, veg on another and meat in another. Using this means you do not need to use those bento dish as this one already has an individual container and stacks up in a neat stack and secured with a nice bento belt.

As I bought this years ago for myself and my hubby, I still keep them and use it for snacks.

Tamagoyaki Pan

Well, in case you have no idea what Tamagoyaki pan looks like, I shall post it here. The Tamagoyaki pan is rectangular shaped. Of course you can use your normal round teflon pans too. I use the rectangular ones because I don't have to worry about the uneven shapes at the end part of the egg when rolled. Also I did a version of these egg roll using spinach and seaweed late last week for my daughters' bento.

Tamagoyaki is Sweet Egg Roll Omelette

I was bloghopping yesterday when I found a recipe for making the sweet egg omelette that are prominent in Japanese breakfast, bentos and meals. The Japanese calls it Tamagoyaki. It is basically a simple recipe very much like a sweet omelette although there are savoury versions too. When cooking this egg roll, you have to watch your heat as the sugar contents in the egg may tend to give you an easily burnt omelette.



Here is an easy recipe to get you started.
4 eggs
3 tbsps dashi soup stock
2 tbsps sugar

Some recipes do add a little touch of mirin and soya.


The method for cooking:
Beat eggs in a bowl. Add dashi soup and sugar in the egg and mix well. Heat a frying pan on medium heat. The Japanese use a rectangular pan call the Tamagoyaki Pan, but a round frying pan will do if you can't find one.

Oil the pan. With a small ladle, scoop egg mixture in the pan and spread over the surface. Cook it until half done and roll the egg toward the bottom side. Move the rolled egg to the top side.

Oil the empty part of the pan and pour another scoop of egg mixture in the space and under the rolled egg. Cook it until half done and roll the egg again so that the omelet becomes thicker. Cook the omelet until done. If you are using a regular frying pan, shape tamagoyaki on bamboo mat. Leave it there for 5-10 minutes for it to take shape of a roll.

Cut tamagoyaki into 1-inch thick pieces.

I found a bento accessory blog

Well, if I never got to start my bento due to lazyness, at least I got to do some shopping online. I went to this blog that has every kind of accessory of bento and those that are japanese inspired. If you need to get some ideas what are being used for bento-ing, this site certainly helps.

This place that I go to is called All About Kawaii. Although they do not post bento pictures but the items more than makes up for ideas. You have to check it out!

Perhaps after my weeks of browzing there, I can then get my bento started!

Pesto

Pesto is a wonderful sauce that I use on many Italian pasta. This quantity that I have is enough for serving 5 people. Preparation takes only 10 minutes. I always stir my pasta in a little bit of Pesto before I add my bolognese or pasta sauce because they do make the pasta tastier.

a large bunch of fresh basil leaves
5 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons pine nuts
70g freshly grated parmesan cheese
250ml extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Combine basil garlic, pine nuts in a processor and chop it till fine.

Transfer into a small bowl, add in the parmesan cheese. Gradually stir in the olive oil and season to taste with salt.


To use this pesto, once you have cooked your pasta al-dente, scoop a tablespoon of this pesto and toss. It is wonderful with all kinds of pasta or on your pizza or garlic toast. If you intend to season it before a pasta with other sauce, use sparingly, since your regular pasta sauce may be already flavoured.

Share My Recipe Book

Since I started this blog, I've been wanting to share some recipes that I have copied down in my little handwritten book. These are the recipes that have been collected over the many years too. If I had been blogging since, I'd have started taking down these recipes on my blog but it is never too late to start.

This is going to be my very own online recipe book and these recipes do not come with pictures as back then I do not own a digital camera. But as I go along, and cook them again, I will remind myself to take the pictures and put them into the existing recipe.

Some of these recipes have been tweaked while some are exactly as those I have taken off the recipe books that I have borrowed over my many trips to the library. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.