Tag Archives: pork

Kindergarten bento – Tonkatsu (Friday 7/Sep/18)

07/09/2018

Our daughter doesn’t like a chunk of meat in general. She says it’s too chewy and dry, and prefers soft minced meat such as hamburger steak. It had always been like that since she was a toddler, until one day, she ate Tonkatsu (Ton (Pork) + Katsu (Cutlet) = Deep-fried Japanese pork cutlet). About a year ago I took her to one of the most popular Tonkatsu restaurants in Japan (the famous Maisen) where she ate a slice of this freshly fried, juicy, tender, tasty pork Tonkatsu with their rich, sweet & savory shiny brown sauce. It must have been an eye opener for her, because ever since then she became a big Tonkatsu fan.

Last night I made it for dinner, and she kept taking a slice after another, to the point where I had to tell her to stop eating any more. She indulgently poured the Tonkatsu sauce (store bought – they have a good selection in the supermarket) over the Tonkatsu slices and ate it with great pleasure.

I don’t know if she knows it yet; I certainly won’t encourage her to make a connection that the pork is pig, who she adores through her favorite Olivia and Peppa Pig.

Tonkatsu Recipe

Ingredients

– Pork filet (preferably with a bit of fat)

– Flour

– Egg (beaten)

– Bread crumbs (in Japan we use what is called “Pan-Ko (パン粉)“, which is rough bread crumbs rather than the fine powdery ones you see in the western countries)

– Oil (I mixed salad oil and olive oil yesterday – I do NOT recommend sesame oil for Tonkatsu. It’d be too heavy)

 

Direction

  1. Make some incisions between fat & flesh – this way it prevents the filet to warp once being placed in hot oil
  2. Sift a large spoonful of flour over the pork filet and cover it entirely
  3. Dip the floured pork filet into the beaten egg
  4. In a tray, pour a cup of bread crumbs, place the egged pork fillet on top and cover the crumbs over the fillet
  5. Pour the oil in a small frying pan, heat up the oil (drop a small bread crumb in it for testing – it’s ready when it immediately comes back up on the surface)
  6. Deep-fry it in medium heat until the flesh becomes harder (kind of like someone’s bicep muscles, rather than my soft tricep)
  7. Once ready, take it out of the pan and place it on top of a sheet of kitchen paper placed on a metal net (so that it wouldn’t get soggy from the heat)
  8. Eat with the delicious Tonkatsu sauce

Kindergarten bento – How many ingredients comparison (29/May, 30/May, 31/May, 1/Jun,4/Jun, 5/Jun)

20/06/2018

29/May – 11 ingredients

Simmered cod, rice, edamame, egg with corns, spinach in sesame sauce, cucumber, carrot, apple, banana

30/May – 11 ingredients

Fried chicken (with corn flower), green beans, broccoli, cherry tomato, goma konbu (sesame & kelp), rice, furikake sprinkle (counted as one), apple, strawberry

31/May – 12 ingredients

Bread (count as one), ham, cucumber, scrambled egg, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, peanut butter, blueberry jam, green beans, apple mousse, mashed potato, cinnamon

1/Jun – 10 ingredients

Chicken soboro, chopped komstsuna, rice, sesame, tomato omelet, broccoli, cucumber with bonito flakes, watermelon

4/Jun – 11 ingredients

Nikudon (pork slices, sliced cabbage, rice), broccoli, cherry tomato, tofu omelet (tofu, egg, ao-nori (seaweed) powder), cherry tomato, apple, banana

5/Jun – 11 ingredients

Tortillas (counted as one), ham, cucumber, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, strawberry jam, banana with Nutella (secret, as it’s not allowed at her school), boiled egg, broccoli, watermelon

Wow, I am quite consistent, with mostly 11 ingredients used every day.

Kindergarten bento – Corn rice (1/May/18)

09/05/2018

We had a couple of guests over for dinner at the end of April. They were visiting Tokyo from the Netherlands, and I wanted to offer them a true Japanese experience. I cooked homely meal, with marinated pork, tofu salad, light-fried aubergine, and corn rice.

The dinner was lovely, with home cooked food, champagne, great company and interesting, grown-up conversation.

Our daughter sneaked out of her bedroom a few times, trying to be a part of it. She asked for corn rice in her pajamas, but I declined her request and told her I’d pack it for her bento the next day. She seemed to be convinced and went to bed finally.

Here is the bento with the leftovers for our cheeky girl.

Kindergarten bento – Sukiyaki-esque Gyudon beef donburi (29/Sep/17)

01/10/2017

Occasionally, there are days I cannot pick up my daughter from the kindergarten at 2:00PM due to my work or other engagements. When that happens, my kind parents who live an hour away in Saitama, a prefecture north of Tokyo, come for the rescue. Of course they happily come all the way to Tokyo to spend time with their dearest granddaughter, but it’s still a huge favour they do for me. As a sign of gratitude, I cooked Sukiyaki-esque lunch for them in the morning, along with my daughter’s bento.

It’s a quick & easy one-pan dish, but  is tasty and fulfilling thanks to thin slices of Japanese beef that’s a little fattier than lean beef that is common elsewhere.

This is how I make it:

1) In a medium frying pan on a medium heat, stir-fry a half onion, thinly sliced, with a table spoon of cooking oil, until translucent

2) Add 200g of thinly sliced beef and stir fry a bit more

3) When the beef starts to brown, still reddish on the edges, add the Sukiyaki sauce mixture (1 table spoon each of sake & soy sauce, 3+ table spoons of mirin) and bring it to boil

4) Once it starts to boil, pour a beaten egg evenly on the beef
5) Put the lid on, lower the heat, and cook until the egg is cooked (for bento, heat the egg completely, but if you eat right after, a half cooked egg is also quite tasty)
6) Turn off the heat, and sprinkle chopped spring onion on the beef
Place it on top of freshly cooked rice – it makes a nice Sukiyaki-esque Gyudon (beef donburi) dish.
Menu for bento:

Sukiyaki-esque Gyudon (with steamed carrot slices), Spinach goma-ae, Boiled green beans, Cherry tomatoes

Kaki persimmon & Kyoho grapes for dessert

 

For other donburi recipes, here are the popular ones:

Mum’s nikudon

Tori don

Oyakodon 

Mum’s nikudon 肉丼 (pork on rice)

14/02/2012

every now and then, i get a craving for this dish called “nikudon,” which is pan fried marinated pork slices on top of a bowl of white rice. to be precise, it should be called “buta (pork) don” instead of “niku (meat) don,” but it is just the way my mom always calls it for whatever reason.

i am not a big fan of meat dishes to be honest, but i do love this donburi dish. it has many elements of what i like in food. it provides you this tasty juice of the pork, mixed with the saltiness of soy sauce and a little sweetness from the mirin sauce and sugar, and then this meaty texture gets blended into the purity of freshly cooked rice and the crunchy, cold texture of the cabbage slices… oh heavenly.

the recipe below is how my mom prepares it. make sure to get the correct ratio in the marinade mixture!

mom’s nikudon (pork on rice)

ingredients (for 2 people):

200 – 250g pork slices (sliced just like bacon. better with some fatty part too)
2 tbsp of salad oil
1 tbsp of sugar

marinade:
1 tbsp of japanese sake (if you don’t have it, use white wine)
2 tbsp of soy sauce
3+ tbsp of mirin (if you don’t have it, use honey, but 2 tbsp only)

2 bowls of freshly cooked rice
2 – 3 leaves of fresh cabbage, thinly sliced and washed in cold water (drain the water thoroughly)

directions:

1) pour in the marinade mix into a medium sized bowl
2) place the pork slices into the marinade. leave them aside for 30 minutes or so
3) heat a medium to large sized frying pan in medium heat, pour in the oil, and place the pork slices into the pan (be careful not to put the heat too high, otherwise the oil gets splashed due to the marinade). you can put all the marinade in as well
4) cook the pork slices until the colour gets golden brown and the marinade juice thickens
5) sprinkle the sugar over the pork slices and mix one last time
6) put the rice in a bowl each
7) place the sliced cabbage on top
8) on top of 7), nicely place the pork slices

it satisfies your taste buds as well as your appetite! great food for kids too, as it’s very yummy and nutritious.

hope you’ll like it!

—————–

– if you like donburi dishes, here is a recipe for “tori-don” chicken donburi

and “oyakodon” chicken & egg donburi

– have a look at my dauaghter’s kindergarten nikudon bento

– here is another popular recipe, oshiruko (sweet red bean soup), from Small Tokyo Kitchen

 

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