We received a call from my cousin last Saturday, inviting us to a potluck surprise party for his mom. While my mom was partial to buying something ready-made, I suggesting cooking a large amount of my Korean Beef Stew instead. Because she’s a fan of this particular Beef Stew as well, she quickly said yes.

Actually, I had an ulterior motive for making the suggestion. It was all fueled by a craving for said dish the past few weeks. So, yay, finally. I made a point to save at least one serving for bento use before we took the pot to the party, where it turned out to be a big hit. Can you say, uber-flattered? ^_^;;

Contents:
• Korean Beef Stew on top of rice. Added more sesame seeds and chopped spring onions on the stew. This was supposed to be the ultimate test for my Thermos thermal bento. Sadly, it didn’t keep the food as warm as I wanted, even though I made sure to pre-heat the container the same way you do vacuum coffee flasks. Still, the food stayed warm enough so that the fat didn’t congeal. That would’ve totally turned me off eating.

Overall, enjoyable meal, especially with the bean sprout side dish but being because I was able to microwave my previous Korean Beef Stew bentos, I had a high standard that this one didn’t quite reach. Because really, nothing beats steaming hot Korean Beef Stew with fresh chopped spring onions. (Recipe here.)

• Sauteed bean sprouts. I love serving these with Korean Beef Stew because it makes such a lovely, complementary match. This time, I used a cookie cutter to shape the green and red peppers into little flowers, just for the cute.

Sauteed Bean Sprouts v. 19 June 2007
Serves one.

1 cup bean sprouts, washed and drained
1/4 cup diced red and green bell peppers
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce

Sauté red and green bell peppers in oil. When lightly cooked, throw in bean sprouts and cook until slightly wilted. Add oyster sauce and sauté a bit more, until just done.

• Canned mandarin segments with a little Hello Kitty sauce cup of more chopped spring onions. Yes, for fresh spring onion flavor on my “donburi.” You can see how much I love the combination, don’t you?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 6:02 pm and is filed under bento, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.