Ratatouille re-visited

When I wrote about bento 193, I also mentioned about cooking Ratatouille. I had used the recipe from the "Cooks Bible" which I bought for #2. Some people asked for the recipe but I couldn't publicly provide the recipe because of copyright issues.

I felt bad because I didn't want my readers to think that I was 'selfish' and didn't want to share the recipe. It wasn't 'my' recipe in the first place. Anyway to cut the long story short, I chanced on "Tartelette's Blog". She had just posted about her mum's Ratatouille recipe.

I just had to try it because it looked even better because of the Provencel herbs. If you don't already know, I love, love herbs! It's almost the same in terms of the ingredients except that I added some celery.

The herbs in her mum's recipe engulfed the whole kitchen and for a moment I thought I was in culinary nirvana. Honestly, the first time I cooked Ratatouille here, it was very good but when I tried Tartllette's recipe, it was more than AWESOME!

Below: My pot of fresh Ratatouille simmering to reduce the liquids.


Delicious! Delicious! Delicious!

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Bento 197

Last night I made Japchae. I've been wanting to experiment with this Korean dish for the longest time! I discovered Maangchi's Korean cooking blog late last year and have often visited and drooled over her cooking methods in YouTube.

I've watched Maangchi's Japchae's YouTube video so many times that I don't even need the recipe, it's all in my head and so is the way it's done!

The only reason why it took me so long to experiment was because I didn't have time to go search for Korean ingredients.

Last weekend when #2 and I were at 1U shopping for our ravioli ingredients at Cold Storage, we chanced upon the newly opened Lotte Malaysia. I read in the papers about it opening in 1U but didn't expect to see the Lotte shop itself already open for business.

In our excitement, we rushed in and picked up a couple of ingredients which I could remember from all the YouTube videos from Maangchi's Korean cooking blog. #2 picked up some biscuits, flavored seaweed and some deliciously sweet Fuji apples.

Today, I used the 700ml metal box to pack bento. There is a piece of sardine in tomato sauce (from the can) in a humongous silicon cup. In the other silicon cup is some Japchae which I put aside last night for today's bento.

I finally found a use for the 'insert'. I packed it with chocolate chip cookies (extra to share) and as a filler, I sliced some kyuri.

I had to use the humongous silicon cups so that when I close the lid, there will be less chances of leakage from the sardine in tomato sauce. The food isn't packed to the brim so it's really not packed to it's full capacity of 700 ml.

I did however, pack an overdose of Japchae!


This is #2's comment about the Japchae last night. "I have eaten this before in Korea. Tastes the same!" Whoot! *scores*

Maangchi's recipe is so easy to replicate and absolutely delicious! I left out the green onions and pepper because #2 doesn't like to eat it (the beef too) but it still was very delicious! Try it out, you will not regret it!


Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliations with any of the names mentioned above. Opinions are solely mine.