Tuesday, March 17, 2009

My First Carrot Kinpira


I love carrots in any form so I've been wanting to try carrot kinpira, a traditional bento 'filler', for several weeks now. The obstacle was "matchstick-size carrot pieces". Well finally this morning at 5 a.m. I decided to face the matchsticking. It is indeed time-consuming. I wonder if there's a 'matchstick-carrot' setting on any food processor I could afford?!

But from there, it was so easy: tiny amount of sesame oil, stir fry about 4 minutes, tiny splash of soy sauce, sprinkle of sugar if you like (I left that out), fry a little more and done. I think these are going to be really good.

Jan also has: Savoy cabbage stir fried with a splash of mirin and red pepper flakes, skewers of bratwurst leftover from barbecue Sunday evening and cherry tomatoes; crispy corn cakes, cheese, apple slices with fairy sprinkles, and a brownie bite.

I have:

Egg salad with jalapeno, sesame sushi rolls, sweet pepper slices with a bottle of ume plum vinegar; kinpira, apple slices with fairy sprinkles, and a brownie bite.

I got the apple-sprinkles idea from Maisie's Bento, a blog by a mom who makes the cutest little lunches for her daughter Maisie.

I had briefly contemplated a St. Patrick's Day bento but...imagination failed me. I bet there are some amazing ones out there though; I'm going to search for them later today.

2 comments:

  1. I have thought about trying carrot kinpira too but I think I will buy the bag of already shredded carrots... uhhh, Im just too lazy!

    Please let me know how your kinpira tastes! :)

    Happy St Patty's Day! :)

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  2. Kinpira = amazingly wonderful!!! I could have eaten a grain bucket full...there was something about the sweetness of the carrots, the touch of soy and the slight crunch. I also threw in a few drops of hot chili oil. Definitely something I will do again soon and - you can also do kinpira with broccoli stems...but again the matchstick thing is a bore.

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