Tag Archives: tori don

Kindergarten bento – Yakitori-don guilt (2/May18)

09/05/2018

Is it only me, or maybe anyone who grew up in the same/similar culture as mine, who feel a slight sense of guilt for cooking something too quick and easy? As a good cook in the Japanese society, you are supposed to (or trained to) devote a great deal of time in the kitchen, to make elaborate dishes. In fact, when we visit my parents’ place, my mum hardly ever sits down with us. She spends most of her time cooking in her kitchen, focusing on serving freshly made dishes one after the other, right from the stove. And she does it with great pleasure. She is very proud of it.

I know this is quite the reverse of the modern thinking, and I’m not saying at all that this is how things should be. I hate it, to be forced into the framework of becoming a stereotypical ideal woman, and try hard to push the pressure away always. But on the other hand, this sense of guilt always comes with it. No matter how much I am exposed to the feminism movement, I just cannot change the way I instinctively feel. It is ingrained in my bones, having grown up in the society with high expectations for girls to become a good mum/wife/woman. The society expects it, and your fellow female peers expect it to a certain extent, still in the 21st century.

Well, it takes about three minutes to make this yakitori-don if you already have your rice ready. I bought pre-cut chicken thigh (guilt), don’t even have to marinate it (another guilt), stir-fry it and quickly season at the end. Voila, it’s done (within three minutes). I just boiled egg rather than make omelet (guilt), packed it with unseasoned vegetables (guilt). On top of this, I packed frozen apple mousse and mashed sweet potato from the freezer for dessert (see, I am now officially guilty).

Recipe for the three minute Yakitori donburi:

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

  • Diced chicken thigh (100g)
  • 1 table spoon of Japanese sake (or white wine)
  • 3/4 table spoon of soy sauce
  • 1 table spoon of mirin (if you don’t have mirin, just a sprinkle of sugar instead, with a bit more sake)

Directions:

  1. In a medium sized frying pan on medium heat, quickly stir-fry the chicken thigh. No oil needed
  2. Once the chicken becomes golden, add the sake until it starts evaporating
  3. Add the soy sauce & mirin and cook it until the sauce thickens – this takes about a minute or so, depending on the heat
  4. Serve it on top of freshly cooked rice with sliced nori seaweed

 

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Kindergarten bento – Variety (23-26/Oct/17)

26/10/2017

Since the start of this week, I’ve been working on my translation assignments and didn’t have a chance to post my daughter’s bento. No matter how tied up I can be, the bento making happens everyday. When you are busy, time passes in an incredible speed. I can’t believe it’s already Thursday, and I hadn’t posted any of these bento pictures. 

23/Oct/17 – Tori-don


24/Oct/17 – Chinese stir-fried beef & green pepper 


25/Oct/17 – Sandwiches


26/Oct/17 – Onigiri


Looking back, I’m pleasantly surprised how versatile my daughter’s bento’s are from one day to the other. I wonder if this makes any difference in my daughter’s perception to food. I hope this means something to her, and that she’ll one day realise how much variety of food she is exposed to on a daily basis.

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 

Kindergarten bento – Bento for 2 (18/May/17)

18/05/2017

Today our daughter’s school holds an “Open Day” where parents are invited to the classroom to observe how their children spend their time. It’s only for an hour, but this is followed by an unavoidable PTA meeting over lunch. It is a public school, so no fancy restaurant nor catering for this type of event (with occasional exception), and we are asked to bring our own lunch and eat it along with other parents on tiny kids’ tables and chairs in a meeting room.

So this morning, I packed bento for 2. 

Menu: Tori-don (stir-fried chicken on rice), Coleslaw salad, Spinach & tofu omelet, Steamed broad beans, Cherry tomato

Orange & banana for dessert

For our little munchkin 
Mine

Kindergarten bento – “tori-don” chicken donburi (18/May/16)

19/05/2016

Menu: “tori-don” chicken donburi, steamed pumpkin & broccoli, cherry tomato, cucumber & boiled egg salad

Jelly for dessert  

A popular “niku don” variation 

“tori-don” chicken donburi recipe (the chicken part)

Ingredients:

– 150g chicken thigh (or breast or fillet), cut into bite size pieces

– 1 tea spoon of vegetable oil

– 1tbsp of sake (or white wine)

– 1 tbsp of soy sauce

– 1 1/2 tbsp of mirin (or 1 tbsp of honey)

– if you like to make it sweeter, add a sprinkle of sugar

Directions:

1. In a frying pan, pour in oil and stir fry the chicken until golden in medium heat 

2. Add sake, stir fry a bit until sake evaporates 

3. Add soysauce and mirin, stir fry further until the sauce thickens (2 min or so). in medium-low heat so that the sauce won’t get burnt

4. If desired, add sugar and mix well

That’s it! Super easy, and no need for marinating the meat in advance. Just place the chicken on top of freshly cooked rice and sprinkle some nori seaweed before serving. 

bento for the little one (“tori-don” chicken donburi 4/mar/16)

15/03/2016

menu: “tori-don” chicken donburi, pumpkin & egg salad, tomato, cucumber, green bean salad

  
tori-don is one of the variations for donburi recipes. basically donburi is “okazu”, main (or side) dish, on top of rice. the most popular recipe here is my mum’s niku-don, which comes with stir-fried pork.

it’s easy to prepare – marinade diced chicken (thigh or breast) with sake (1) : soy sauce (1) : and mirin (3) for 5-10 min, stir-fry the marinated chicken in medium heat. place the cooked chicken on top of rice. sprinkle nori seaweed and/or thinly sliced spring onion as your own liking.

today there was no dessert in the bento, as my friend and i took the little one to our lunch after she had her lunch at daycare. we gave her a cup of icecream which she ate dearly until she splashed it onto the floor to our embarrassment. meanwhile she grabbed 2 slices of bread from our bread basket and ate them all, which made me wonder if the amount of bento i prepare for her may not be sufficient… time to increase the portion of her bento box perhaps 🙂