Halloween Themed Lunch With Onigiri & Chicken Stew

Hi everyone! Any Halloween Trick-or-Treat Party for you tonight? Although we have never being to any of these spooky parties but I still love to prepare some Halloween related food or bakes for the kid as a treat. Sad to say, this year I only managed to prepare a simple lunch menu due to school exam falls on the same week.

HALLOWEEN THEMED LUNCH

[Halloween Themed Food] Halloween Character Onigiri

I love Autumn especially in the month of October where pumpkin is in peak season which you can easily get cheap and good ones for making delicious bakes like pumpkin pie (recipe). This year instead of bakes I prepared some Halloween Themed Onigiri (rice ball make into shapes) that  made with steamed pumpkin (mashed) to serve with chicken stew.

[Halloween Themed Food] Ingredients & tools for making the onigiri.

Basically there are two ways which you can make your onigiri by using hand (use hand to shape the characters) or cookie cutter like what I did in this post. And in order to get the orange colour for pumpkin shaped onigiri, you can add a tablespoon or two of steamed pumpkin (mashed) to 1 cup of cooked rice then mix till well combined to get your desire colour.

[Halloween Themed Food] Pumpkin shape onigiri.

Using a pumpkin shape cookie cutter and cling-wrap, stuff pumpkin rice to fix the shape before decorating the facial expression with seaweed sheet and craft puncher.

[Halloween Themed Food] Making the ghostly like onigiri.

Craft Puncher

Above are some sample facial craft punchers which you can use to punch the seaweed (nori sheet) to get the eyes, nose & mouth for decorating the onigiri. These puncher can be get from stationery stores or online.


A short clip on how to make the Halloween characters onigiri.

CHICKEN STEW

A pot of chicken stew

To go with the onigiri I prepared a pot of chicken stew which my boy love with ingredients like potato, carrot & hard-boiled eggs. Besides that I also blanched some edamame pods to serve as side dish too.

(Yield: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/2 portion of chicken, cut into bite size
3 medium size potato, peeled and cut into 0.5" cubes
1 small carrot, peeled and cut into 0.5" cubes
1 medium red onion, cut into wedges
5 slices ginger, shredded
2 stalks spring onion, cut into sections
4 hard-boiled eggs, optional

Seasonings:
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon cooking wine
150ml hot water

Method:-
1. Marinate chicken with 1 teaspoon each of grated ginger juice & cornflour; 1/2 teaspoon each of dark soy sauce, sesame oil & cooking wine for at least 15 minutes or overnight in the fridge.

2. Heat up a saucepan or claypot with 1 teaspoon oil and saute onion until fragrant. Toss in carrot and potato cubes and continue to cook for another minutes. Remove and set aside.

3. Using the same pot add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and saute ginger till fragrant before adding marinated chicken and cook 2 minutes until lightly browned in colour.

4. Stir in seasonings (except water) and potato mixture then give it a quick toss for a minute before pouring in the hot water. Add eggs if using.

5. Bring mixture to boil then lower the heat to simmer for about 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through; potato and carrot are soften.

6. Lastly toss in spring onion or coriander and serve with hot steamed rice.

Trick-or-Treating! We prefer TREATS!

Lastly wishing you a fun and spooky Halloween night loaded with tons of yummy treats and exciting tricks. For some last minute quick Halloween recipes, you can refer to our link here for reference too