Guratan / Gratin

Japanese Guratan originated from a french dish "Guratin" its a pasta dish with creamy sauce, cheese and bread crumb cooked in a oven.
It's creamy and soft inside, crunchy on the surface, great for dinner and perfect for Obento lunch too. You can cook this for dinner and freeze leftover for Obento.
Good thing of this dish is it doesn't need any Japanese ingredients that a lot of people might not have.

Guratan / Gratin

Serves: 6 people
Cook Time  Prep: 40 min  Cook: 10 min

Ingredients

Two chicken thigh (bone less) 
Two slice of bacon 
8 medium fresh mush room or 8 ounce mush room can
1 Onion
2 Cups of sliced spinach
2 Cups of small size pasta ( Any kind of small size pasta is fine)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cube Chicken flavor Bouillon

Sauce
700 ml Milk
4 Table spoon Butter (45g) 
2/3 cup All purpose flower

Toping 
1 and 1/2 cup Shredded cheese (Mozzarella, Parmesan, Swiss or any kind you like) 
1/2 cup Bread crumb 

1. Mince onion, cut chicken and bacon in half inch size, heat a large pan over medium heat and add onion, chicken and bacon till it's cooked.
   
2. Boil water in a medium pot for the pasta, add salt.
3. Slice mushroom and add it to the large pan cook it over medium heat.  
4. Put milk and butter in a container and microwave it for 5 min. (You can use a medium pot and cook over medium heat till it's hot, before boiling point)  
   
5. Preheat the oven to broiler low, around 400.
6. Cook the pasta to slightly undercook. -2 min of the recommended time of cooking. Drain water.  
7. Add flower to the milk and mix well. 
8. Before adding the white sauce, drain the liquid in the large pan in order to have a thick sauce. It shouldn't have any liquid.  It's easy to use paper towel to drain the liquid. 
9. Add white sauce and Bouillon to the pan, and check the taste, season with salt and pepper. 
   
10. Add spinach and pasta to the pan. 
    
11. When the pasta is cooked, grill it in the oven for about 10 min till the surface is golden brown. 

Make sure its golden brown, the crunchiness makes the taste!

For Obento: When its cool enough freeze it in a small portion.  Microwave it to pack for lunch!!

Obento with Guratan / Gratin.

Kabocha Korokke (Squash Korokke)

KABOCHA KORROKKE is mashed Kabocha fried with bread crumbs.

It has a rich taste of Kabocha and it is very healthy. 

If you like strong taste this might be a little unsatisfying at first but I'm sure you will like it when you get used to the taste!

If you want the original Kabocha taste you can make the filling just with Kabocha. 

If you want some more taste, you can add Miso, Onion and Cheese.

Kabocha Korokke

Cook time: 1hour
Serves 8 people

Ingredients

4 lb Kabocha Squash( You can substitute with Buttercup Squash)

2 cup bread crumbs 

2 egg, beaten

1/2 all purpose flower

Optional

7 table spoon Miso

1 onion

1/2 cup cheese

1. Take out the seeds and cut them in to 1 inch square. 

   

   The size of Kabocha used in this recipe 

   
   
   
2. Steam Kabocha for 15 Min or till it gets soft enough to mash it. ( You might need to use two batches or steam twice due to the amount)
3. Mince onion.
   
4. Heat pan over high with a little bit of oil and add minced onion and Miso, mix it well and cook till onion is cooked.
5. In a bowl mash the Kabocha and mix in onion.
6. Once its cool enough, make a oval shape or any shape you want.  Cheese If you want cheese in it, make sure you put it in the middle and rap it with Kabocha, if cheese is not in the middle it might create a hole while frying. Size You can make it bigger but if you want to freeze it it will be better to stick with the size in the picture. Smaller size is easier to toast and easier to pack for lunch.

   

   Korokke with cheese. Make sure you put the cheese in the middle and rap it with Kabocha.

   

   Kabocha Korokke before frying

   

   The size of Korokke

7. Put oil in a pan, oil only needs to cover half of the Korokke. Heat the pan over medium heat. 
8. Cover the Korokke surface with the flower, beaten egg, bread crumb. Make sure you do this in the order of flower, egg, bread crumb and make sure you cover the surface with bread crumb really well. 
9. Fry it in medium heat oil, flip it when the color turns golden brown. About 2 min for each side.

   

   About 2 min each side, till it turns golden brown

   
   
   

   

   Obento with Kabocha Korokke
   
   
   
   
   

Serve: You can serve with Ketchup, any kind of sauce you like!

Freezing: Make sure you drain the oil much as you can. When its room temperature put it in a container and freeze it. To keep the bread crumb crunchy, use a toaster oven when packing for lunch!  

Japanese Fried Chicken ( KARAAGE )

One of the favorite meal for a kid must be fried chicken.
This recipe is Japanese fried chicken "KARAAGE" which is marinated and fried.
You can taste the soy sauce, garlic and it is crunchy very very  addicted!!
Cook a big portion and freeze leftover for lunch!
You can toast it in the toaster oven before packing it and it will only take a few min.

Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 20 Min
Marination: 3-6 Hour

This recipe portion is for 8 people


Ingredients,

Marination 
6 Chicken thighs (about 1.5 lb) I recommend Skin less Bone less Chicken thighs
2 Garlic clove
1 table spoon of grinned Ginger
2 table spoon Sake
2 table spoon Soy sauce
2 tea spoon Chicken Bouillon
2 tea spoon Sesame oil
Optional :White pepper and Salt to taste

Frying 
1/2 cup Katakuriko (Potato Starch)
Oil

From the left, Sake, Soy sauce, Chicken bouillon, Sesame oil, White pepper, Salt, Potato starch( Katakuriko)

1. Grind garlic and ginger and mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Wash chicken and cut it in to 2 inch peaces.   

   

   Chicken size compared to table spoon

3. Mix the chicken in the ingredient bowl.
4. Marinate it for 3-6 hours in the refrigerator.  
5. After its marinated, put oil in a large pan or a deep fryer (enough oil to keep chicken under the surface) heat it medium low. 
6. Drain the liquid and put Katakuriko ( potato starch) on the surface. This will make the chicken crunchy, make sure you cover the surface but don't put too much on. 
   
7. Fry it for 7-10 min on medium low. When color changes to brown it is done!
8. To keep it crunchy make sure you get as much oil out from the fried chicken. 
   
    

 Serve for Dinner: You can serve it with lemon on the side. 

 Pack it for lunch: After its cooled down put it in the freezer.  In the morning, toast it in the toaster oven for few min and it will be crunchy! Do not microwave it, it will make it greasy and less crunchy.   

Teriyaki Chicken Hamburger

This recipe is pretty easy to make and it taste amazing with Teriyaki sauce.
Its a good dinner meal and perfect for Obento, you can freeze the leftover and microwave it in the morning. It is delicious as fresh even after freezing it.

Teriyaki Chicken Hamburger

Time: 30-40 min
Portion 8

Ingredients

Patties
2lb Ground Chicken or Ground Turkey
2 Egg
1 onion
2 table spoon soy sauce
2 table spoon sugar
6 table spoon potato starch (Katakuriko) or All purpose flower


Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 Sake
1/2 Mirin
(Sake, Mirin, Soy sauce are the most common ingredients when cooking Japanese food)

From the left, Sake, Mirin, Soy Sauce, Katakuriko and Sugar

1. Grind or mince the onion.(If you have a food processor that will make it super easy) 
2. Mix all the ingredients for patties.
   
3. Heat  a pan to medium high. (Non stick pan, do not use stainless steel it will stick)
4. Use two spoons to make a small round patties on the pan, about 1 inch. (When you make it too big it will be difficult to flip it)
5. Grill it about 2-3 min and flip it. It does not need to be fully cooked just grill until the surface gets burned on both side. 
   
6. When both sides are burned, place them in a plate. Repeat No. 5 and No.6 till you finish grilling all the patties. It will be faster to use two large pan. 
7. Mix the sauce ingredients  
8. Heat the pan to high put the patties and sauce in the pan, when the sauce starts boiling put it on medium low.  Mix it every 3-5 min so the sauce gets evenly absorbed. When the sauce is absorbed its done!!

When its cool enough, put it in the freezer in small portion. 

When packing for lunch, just microwave it and it will be ready to eat!! 

Obento with Teriyaki Chicken Hamburger

How To Cook Rice & Make Rice Balls (ONIGIRI)

The most common thing you will see in a Obento is Rice ball(Onigiri).

I can't have enough of Onigiri, everyone who's Japanese loves Onigiri.

If you're having hard time making sure your kids are eating enough , this might be the trick. Its super easy and delicious.

Cooking rice can take a while but you can make a lot of rice and freeze it in a serving portion.

This way, it will only take 5 min in the morning.

_________________________________________

Time: 40-100 min to cook rice / 5 min to make rice balls

Portion: 8 servings

_________________________________________

Ingredients

• Japanese Rice :3 cups   (Any kind of Japanese rice is fine but I personally love "Tamaki Gold")
• Water : 3 and 1/3 cups
• Salt to taste
• Optional ( Seaweed, Plum, tuna with mayo, Furikake)

How to cook rice

1. Wash rice for 2 to 3 times till the water is clear.
2. Put 3 and 1/3 cups of water in the rice and let it sit for 30 min. ( You can skip this if you don't have time. This will make rice taste slightly better.)
3. I. Rice cooker user :Cook the rice in rice cooker.  When its done, let it sit in the cooker with the lid on for 10 min.

             II. a. Pot user:  Put the heat on high and let it boil without the lid on.

                  b. When it stars to boil put the lid on change the heat to low let it cook for 15 min.

                  c. Check if the rice is fully cooked, if there is water on the surface let it cook for few more min till the water is absorbed.

                  d. When the water is fully absorbed turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 min with the lid on.

        4. After you let the rice sit for 10-15min, mix the rice and put it in the container while its still hot. To keep the moisture of  the rice don't let it sit for too long and after putting the rice in a container put the cover on right away.

       5.  Let it cool down for few hours and put it in the freezer.

Rice should look like this when its done. No water on surface. 

Let the rice sit for 10 min with the cover on and mix it. 

This shine means you made it really well. 

How to make rice balls

1. Microwave freezed rice for 1-2min. When you microwave the rice open the cover and put it on the rice to keep the moisture and avoid explosion.
2. Put the rice on a large plate to cool it down for 1min so you can make a rice ball with you hands.
3. After its cooled enough, put water on your hands and salt rub your hands together and make a rice ball.
4. Optional. If the ONIGIRI taste too plain or you want something different, you can use Seaweed, tuna, plum or  furikake.

• Seaweed: After you make a rice ball cut the seaweed to the size that you want and put it on the rice ball.
• Tuna can: Drain the oil in the can as much as you can. Mix with mayonnaise and salt to taste. When you make a rice ball put the tuna in the middle.
• Plum(UMEBOSHI): This is a pickled plum, very sour and salty. Take out the seed from the plum and put the plum in the middle of the rice ball when you make it.
• Furikake: After you microwave the rice put Furikake on the rice and mix it. Let it cool down and make rice           ball.

Where you can get the ingredients: You can get seaweed at most groceries but you might not be able to find Plum and Furikake at a regular grocery store.  You can get it at a Japanese grocery store or online.

Spread rice on your hand and put the tuna in the middle. 

Plum (UMEBOSHI) without the seed

Plum/UMEBOSHI  ($5)

My favorite Furikake ($3 each)