Happy Birthday Soldier!!

A brand new day! another week for bento creations. Happy morning girls.. ^^

Today is a special day for us. It's hubby's birthday! Yee-aay :D
Actually, I really wanted to make a special bento for him today. But then after it finished, it looks the same as before. -______-' nothing special at all :D

I put a cap and a gray shawl as the background on his bento picture. Those are--two items of five--my birthday present for him. He has 'going to Japan' schedule, at the end of the year, to attend international architecture seminar. And since he has nothing to ask as his birthday present, so i thought it would be more useful, if i buy him things that he'll may need on his trip to Japan (which according to the weather reports, it'll be winter). I know, there are still several months to go, but lets say these stuffs as the beginning :) 


Hubby said, that he missed his old bento (means, my earlier bento, the first one). And he asked for that today. I just make him plain onigiris with chicken teriyaki. But instead sausage/bratwurst, i grilled him a Puket mackerel with teriyaki marinade and dabu-dabu condiment.

I also make him goulash fern--with traditional recipe. Try this :

 English Recipe

you'll need to cut off the fern-leaves from it's hard tough stem
then wash and rinse cleanly  

for the spice you'll need to mash these: 

Red-Onions

Garlics

hazelnuts

coriander

turmeric

And you'll need these too :
meat

bayleaves

galangals

lemongrass leaves

red-chili (sliced thinly)

scallions

water to boil

salt, sugar to taste

  

how to :

1. cut meat into small pieces, then boiled until cooked. 
2. Saute the mashed spices along with bay leaves, lemongrass leaves and galangal. Add the sliced chili. saute until cooked.
3. pour the sauteed spices into the stew water. Boil it with medium heat.
4. Add the fern and the scallions, the sugar and salt to taste, stir well and boil with low heat until cooked and the spices seep. 

Indonesian Recipe

pisahkan daun pakis dari batangnya yang keras
cuci bersih

bumbu halus :

bawang merah
bawang putih
kemiri
ketumbar
kunyit

bumbu lainnya:

daging

daun salam
lengkuas
sereh

cabai merah, iris tipis

daun bawang, iris kasar

air untuk merebus

garam dan gula

cara memasak :

1. Didihkan air, rebus daging (bisa juga tetelan) yang sudah dipotong-potong hingga matang dan cukup lunak. sisihkan.
2. tumis bumbu halus bersama daun salam, daun sereh, dan lengkuas hingga harum. Tambahkan cabai iris dan tumis hingga matang.
3. masukkan bumbu tumisan ke dalam air rebusan daging, aduk rata. didihkan dengan api sedang.
4. masukkan daun pakis dan daun bawang, garam dan gula, dan masak dengan api kecil. 

I give up with baking cakes -______-'

Although, i'm still trying to make the right ones. Last night, i baked this brownies. But it's texture was too hard, because i baked it in the oven for more than the exact time. Hubby said : "there's always be the first for everything" and my first brownies is good enough (he likes the taste, he said). 

the brownies with heart shape

but I assure you, that i'm a delicious fruit-salad maker. Especially if i make it at my parents' house, cause there, my mother always buys me a good quality of mayo. Hubby's fruit salad only contains of papaya, melon and bali black grapes.

My new customer asked me for a bento today. So i make another portion for him :

And the mini bentos for today are the same menus with hubby's, but smaller portion.

 

there you go. Happy birthday hubby..I know I often equate you with the bollywood superstar Sharukh Khan--

guess which one is my husband is ? LOLs

but you always know that you are more good looking than Sharukh Khan itself. And i'm so glad to have you. You are a good husband, and gonna be a good father indeed. I love you. --

I'm bento-ing agaaaaain . yeee-aaay! :D

Almost a week with no bento at all. Here i am, with today's newest posting.

--

I've been selling the homemade-food for these 5 months, and receive orders for bento too. Hubby said, i should make small packages of bento to sell, not only by orders. But i've been too busy with baking and making snacks, so that i have no time left to do that thing. Until yesterday, one of BentosiAyah's friend, tagging me to her picture. That picture showed how she makes bento as her newly-business, inspire by BentosiAyah at first. What a great creativity! Here's the picture :

Windi's bento caterings. She makes this only by order. Same like BentosiAyah at her first catering step, but using the permanent tiers, instead.

Those are awesome, aren't they? So, after seeing that picture, Hubby's idea for making bento packages are sparking again. Thanks to Windi.  I've found out, that making snacks more tired than cooking. So i think, why not, let's try to make a simpler bento and the cheaper ones off course. Usually, i made regular bentos. With regular size too. A portion that enough for lunch. But now, i also make the mini size of bento. Like snacks, but healthier and more filling. A portion is enough for a simple breakfast. These are the mini bentos :

A portion of mini bento contains of 1/3 part of grains (onigiri), 1/3 part of vegetables (today, i made chayote curry. With kyuri and rainbow salad), 1/3 part of protein (grilled fish, and egg stew) with candied papaya as the dessert. So, i assure you, this bento is 100% healthy. :D
I make carrot as the beaks and the topknots  of the onigiri-chicks, while nori as the eyes. Hubby said, these were hot-sale this morning. What a happy me :D LOLs. 


These are the reviews of hubby's bento for today.

See the color? Yes, i love it too ^____^. I know, i've ruined the arrangement. Since i make the mini bentos, hubby' bento exists in distended position--for me to arrange. And i didn't have any time left for that. As usual, i just put those there, and let the camera plays the part :D. Hubby said, orange-yellow-green and red are the colors that evoke appetite. And it's happening  to me now.. i'm in terribly starving :D LOLs. 

in his main tier, there are same menus with mini bentos. But in bigger portion--offcourse. Let me share you how to make the egg-stew of BentosiAyah :

 English Recipe

you'll need to boil some eggs first, then peeled 

for the spice you'll need to mash these: 

Onions

Garlics

hazelnuts

pepper

caraway

nutmeg

ginger

tomatoes

salt to taste

And you'll need these too :

bayleaves

galangals

sweet-soy sauce

sugar to taste

chicken broth-powder

  

how to :

1. Saute the mashed spices along with bay leaves and galangal. 
2. Pour some water, add the sweet-soy sauce, sugar to taste, and the the chicken broth-powder. 
3. Put the eggs in, cook until the gravy thickens and marinade seep.

Indonesian Recipe

telur rebus, kupas kulitnya.

bumbu halus :

bawang merah
bawang putih
kemiri
merica
jintan
biji pala
jahe
tomat
garam

bumbu lainnya:

daun salam
lengkuas
kecap manis
gula pasir
kaldu bubuk

Cara memasak :

1. Tumis hingga harum bumbu halus bersama dengan daun salam dan lengkuas. Tuang air, beri kecap manis, gula pasir, dan kaldu bubuk. Aduk rata.
2. Masukkan telur, masak hingga kuah mengental, dan bumbu meresap. 

  

This is hubby's salad tier.  I put rainbow salad (or ribbon salad, or let's say : rainbow ribbon salad) and home made-candied papaya. As usual, on Wednesday, I also made another tiers for hubby's coworkers with same menu. That's all :) Hopefully he'll enjoy today's bento :D Happy Wednesday girls!!

--ps:

Please welcome new logos of BentosiAyah :

Hubby made these. And he used BentosiAyah's original bento as the letter of 'O'. 

It's bibimbap edition :). 



As seen on What's for lunch , Wednesday

Hurry up, He'll be late ! :((

Actually, i woke up earlier this morning. But most of my time runs out in making the snacks for sale. Thank god, hubby is a helping and understanding husband. While i'm with his bento, he's willing to wrap all the snacks and count them (even though he knew, that he's late for work T____T). 

Thank you sweet heart :*

Today, i made tuna steak and chicken-fillet with sweet and sour sauce. For the chicken's sauce, it should be added with pineapple to strengthen the taste--but since we both not too keen to have that, so i didn't add it. 

I have twice disassemble this tier -____-' it's because i have no idea at all how to arrange today's menu (plus--i ran out the time). So, i just put those in--with the best possible order. I put tomato-rose and kyuri as the garnish (just to make it looks better :[ ).

I have also included shoots pumpkin soup--and sweet corns as the compliment.

Then, in the other container, I put today's snacks of macaroni-fretti and vermicelli spring rolls. By lettuce, i separated them from bananas and strawberries. Oh for your tips, how to keep your bananas fresh longer at home : Cut the banana tip, and DO NOT STORE BANANAS HANGED. The skin may will be brown forward, but inside, it still fresh indeed.

These are my homemade-snacks for sale today. One of my customer messaged me, he said, "overall the taste is good enough, but less seasoning for the spring roll." 
:,(( ooww....

I didn't taste the vermicelli before i wrapped them, so that's my mistake. I'll do better next :D 

And this is how all the tiers packed. I also put mango-milky juice (actually i want to make him the real mango juice, with blender, but since he's already late, so i didn't), fresh mineral water, Fish-crackers,  and vitamin-c. 

Happy working day, hubby ! ^^v 

-------
added on what's for lunch wednesday  on bentolunch.net blog 

Bento si Ayah and its marathon posting :)

He-he...

Another marathon posting, but this time--not my friends' but mine :D

Yes, i didn't post yesterday's bento since of my laziness -_______-' Gomenasai!

For today, i'll post you the yesterday's bento and the bento that i made this morning.

----

Yesterday is the last Monday (and day) in February. The cold weather kept me at home--it was raining all day. I was gardening that time, when hubby had left for work. It took my concentration, cause i have to finish the work before the rain gets heavier. So, I've lost my 'blogging spark' after that :D LOLs

I made gindara-grilled with shoot pumpkin leaf-sauteed, yesterday. I know, the fish skin looks awful -____-..that's because i add sweet-soy sauce too earlier at the beginning of grilling-time.  Hubby said, my gindara was awesome and delicious--beyond compare..so joyful, but i guess he was trying to up-lifting my spirit :) though, he asked me again to grilled it for the dinner. But since gindara is an expensive fish here, i didn't make him any (ran out!) for his dinner :)
I also put some macaroni-sushi there. Actually this was my menu for sale, but since i've failed in wrapping the egg sheet, i wrapped the macaroni with onigiri instead. :)

For his fruits basket, i put starfruits, mangoes, and strawberries there. Well, those were hubby's bento for yesterday.

---------->8----cut here------>8-----------

Last night, since we don't have any gindara left, i grilled another fish. It called 'Yellow tail' here (I think it's the same with mackerel, but smaller). Hubby liked it. So he asked me again, to bring this menu as his bento today.

First, season the fresh-fish that had been cleaned, with salt and lemon juice, stay stand for 15 minutes. Then coat the fish with vegetable-oil and grill it with low heat until the flesh cooked well. Some time before you lift the fish, coat it with honey. The honey will caramelized, and give a nice brown-gold fish skin. The put the fish in a platter. Meanwhile, start to make the condiment. In my country, the condiment called 'dabu-dabu'. I don't know exactly why, but this condiment comes from eastern part of Indonesia. You'll need to sliced the red onion-thinly, add some salt and sugar, chopped some tomatoes (better if you have the green ones), chopped some cayenne pepper, add some lemon juice--and pour little hot vegetable oil on it, mix well. There you go, the condiment is compliment to the fish.
I also sauteed him some watercress and cooked him 'belancang shrimp' (i don't know how to translate this to English, so i prefer to keep using the word 'belancang'--it's a local recipe). For this you'll need :

Medium-size shrimps 

Clean them. coat them with salt and lemon juice, stay stand for 10minutes, then fry.

As the spicy, you'll need to grind these: 

red onion

garlic

red chilli

shrimp paste

You'll also need these:

Chopped tomatoes

Sweet-soy sauce

scallions

brown-sugar

and water

Saute all the spices, put the shrimp, tomatoes, add the sweet-soy sauce, scallions, brown-sugar, salt and sugar. mix them for while, then ready to serve. :)
For bento, put some rice as the base, then arrange the side dishes on the top.

oh, i also made him snacks for today. It called 'Macaroni fretti'. Actually it has the same ingredients with baked-macaroni, but in different measure. If baked-macaroni..was offcourse..baked :) fretti was fried :). Oh i made many of them for sale too :))

Here, these are for you :))

 For the fruits, i brought him Cavendish-bananas, sunkist, apple, strawberries and black grapes.

Love the color soooo much!

O, few days ago, friend of my face-book asked me, "i'm curious, how did these tiers stacked together to bring? They even have no same size".
So, i took this picture this morning :

You see, i bought a bento-bag, the small one. Made from plastic, and coated by aluminum sheet, inside. The size is compact-able, it's only 30cm wide. So, you just put the tiers and the compliments here. For today, i brought him apple-drink, mineral water, fish-crackers and vitamin c. Oh, to extra-keep the bento's warmth, you can cover the tier with aluminum-foil before you close it--and plastic wrap for the fruit's tier.

That's all, i've done my 'marathon posting' :)) hope you'll enjoy it.