Pikachu Steamed Bun

Pokemon Go has finally found their way here and we have been busy catching 'em all. It has been a long time since I last played games on my handphone, I much rather spend my free time reading up stuff or watching shows, but this game is surprising rather addictive, lol. And thanks to my Pokemon Go addiction, I've been making lots of Pikachu food art lately, he's the only character I used to know from Pokemon. Now thanks to the game, I'm slowly learning more characters, but I think he still remains my favourite out of the lot.


Here are the Pikachu steamed buns, which I filled with ham, cheese and scrambled eggs. It's not the usual bun fillings, but this combi goes well with the steamed buns. It perfect for breakfast, though it can be eaten any time of the day. I'll be sharing the basic recipe for this at the end of this post.


The cheese I'm using is The Laughing Cow Toast,  as the name implies, this cheese is extra melting and is great for using in toast. It tastes really nice, and goes very well with the eggs and ham in the steamed buns.

The Laughing Cow is celebrating its 95^th birthday this year, and the prizes are really good! It is holding a draw with the top prize being a trip to France for four! 

Here are the details: 

Full list of prizes:

a.       1 x trip to France for 4 

b.       10 x pairs of tickets to Hong Kong

c.       20 x IPAD 64GB

d.       64 x shopping vouchers worth $500

From 1 August to 31 October 2016, simply purchase any of The Laughing Cow product and stand a chance to win. Entry forms available at customer service counter in supermarkets or on website. 

3 ways to submit:

1. Mail entry form and original receipt to Natrad Food Pte Ltd, 149 Ubi Avenue 4, Singapore 408778.
2. ONLINE via www.natradfood.com/tlc. Please retain original receipt to claim prizes. 
3. SMS “TLC<space>full name<space>NRIC<space>receipt no.” to 73333. Please retain original receipt to claim prizes.    

The Laughing Cow products and the promotion are available at all major supermarkets. Check in-stores for more details.

I'm sharing the recipe for the basic ham, cheese and scrambled egg buns, you can shape them into any characters you fancy. I've coloured mine yellow and shaped them into Pikachu. If you do not want to use food colouring, you can replace with this pumpkin steamed buns recipe over here instead.

STEAMED HAM, CHEESE & EGG BUNS 

Ingredients:
300g Morinaga pancake mix
1 1/2 tbsp salad oil
90 to 100ml water
1 tsp cocoa powder
yellow food gel colouring(optional)

Fillings:
The Laughing Cow toast cheese slices
Scrambled eggs
Shave ham

Method:

1. Prepare fillings and set aside.

2. To make the dough, sieve pancake mix.

3. Add in salad oil.

4. Add in water gradually, use your hands to keep mixing till the dough comes together. Dust work surface with some flour, use your hands to knead for around 5 minutes, till the dough becomes soft and smooth. If you are colouring the dough, you can do so at this point, add in food colouring and knead till the colours are even.

5. Divide dough into 6 parts and roll each into a ball. Use a rolling pin to flatten each ball. 

6. Place scrambled eggs, shaved ham and cheese in the middle of the dough, wrap it up and pleat the edges to seal. 

7. Place the buns on wax paper and steam them on low heat for around 15 minutes.

Note: If you can’t get hold of Morinage pancake mix. You can also use 270g plain flour and 1.5tsp baking powder to 140ml water. You need to add in 3 tbsp of sugar and a pinch of salt as well. Cover the dough after step 7 and leave it for half an hour before you start rolling out.

Pikachu Pasta & Omurice

School started again yesterday. IT came back today and told me he will be going to watch the National Day rehearsal next week. So excited for him, it's going to be so fun. I've been balloting for tickets for the past few years but no luck so far. :( This year's parade is going to be awesome since it's our Golden Jubilee, and I'm sure the goodie bag will extra special too. Argh, I want to go too. -_-


It's been a long time since I last made Pikachu. You can click here to see my previous Pikachu bentos.


This time, I made Pikachu out of a meat patty, covered with cheese. I used yellow bell pepper for the ears and arms. The other details were done using nori, ham and mayonnaise.


I arranged the pasta sauce on top and the pasta on the bottom to make it look like a Pokeball.


And here's another Pikachu food art. I've not been making charabens lately, as it's much faster to just display the food on plates instead.


This is Omurice, omelette wrapped around chicken ketchup fried rice, an easy one dish meal for lunch.


I've not made any other Pokemon characters because Pikachu is actually the only Pokemon character I know. I've seen photos of a few others but I've no idea of what they are called, lol. -_-

Pikachu Bento

I did not post yesterday not because I did not make a bento. In fact, I think some of you know I still have a backlog of bentos to be posted. I was very busy yesterday. When I could finally take a breather at night, all I wanted to do was to relax and catch up on my Kimchi dramas, was not in the mood to draft up a blog post. -_-


I made this Pikachu bento last week. It's been quite a long time since I last made Pikachu. Pikachu is rice coloured with egg yolk and some deco furi. Details were done using nori, ham and tomatoes. The side dishes I packed were grilled wings, golden kiwis and strawberries. :)


Pokemon ball was made using tomato and quail egg.


I also made an easy winking Pikachu sandwich for their snacks. I'm using corn bread for this, which you can easily substitute with cheese or egg sheet.


I used nori, ham and strawberries for the details.

Where to get same or similar items as used in today's post:

Pikachu Soboro Bento

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I hardly ever cook on weekends. Lol, so it's rare to see me posting on weekends. It was a last minute decision to make the boys a bento today. Daddy and IT are sick and we are stuck at home. I decided to ransack the fridge to see what ingredients I can find. I found a pack of minced meat in the freezer and decided to make soboro. I'm sharing the soboro recipe at the end of the post, it's easy to cook and there are endless characters you can assemble using it.


I assembled Pikachu in their bentos. :) Nori, ham and tomato are used for the details.


For lunch, the boys had rice, soboro, eggs, fries, grapes and strawberries.

SOBORO RECIPE

Ingredients:
200g minced pork
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together, except garlic. Leave aside for 15 minutes. Add some water to loosen up the minced pork.
2. Heat up pan with some sesame oil and stir fry garlic.
3. Add in meat mixture, keep stirring with chopstick, till the liquid is almost dried up.

Notes:

• Pork can be replaced with beef or chicken.
• Dark soya sauce is optional, leave it out if you prefer a lighter coloured soboro. Or add more if you want it to be darker.

Where to get same or similar stuff seen in today's post:

Pikachu Bento

I did a simple decor today, need a break after 2 days of packing 4 bentos. 3 bentos is still a more comfy number for me. I just decorated the hard boiled eggs as Pikachu, a very speedy decor. :) I made cheaters mentaiko pasta for the boys' bentos. I was lazy to walk over to the mall to get mentaiko under the scorching hot sun, so I just bought ebikko instead. This is one of our favourite Japanese fusion pasta, it's quite easy to make, will share the recipe at the end of this post. :)


IT's bento, in the box are ebikko pasta, eggs, Taco, beancurd chicken, strawberries and blueberries.


LT's bento, same food as above, except there's no Tako in his bento, he does not likes it. :P


IT's bento for recess, in the box are mentaiko pasta, Tako and grapes.


Pikachu eggs. :P


Beancurd chicken, scallops/asparagus and otah for my lunch.


I could not resist making a serving of ebikko pasta for myself too. Argh, ate too much today. :P


Mentaiko Pasta Recipe

Ingredients

- 2 mentaiko sacs or more
- 30g butter, softened
- 2 tsp sake
- 1/2 tsp Japanese shoyu or light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
- 1 serving of angel hair pasta
- sea salt

1. Make a slit on each mentaiko sac and scrap out the roe with a spoon. Discard the membrane.
2. Mix the roe along with mayonnaise, sake, shoyu and softened butter in a bowl.
3. Cook pasta in salted water according to the timing indicated on the package instructions. Drain pasta and reserve some of the pasta water.
4. Add the mentaiko mixture to the cooked pasta while it is still hot. Toss until well-mixed. If the pasta is too dry, add a few tablespoons of reserved pasta water. Season to taste with salt if neccessary.
5. You can top with shredded nori and tako slices.