[Recipes + Video] Hello Kitty & Winnie Pooh Nasi Lemak - 凯蒂猫和维尼熊饭团

It has being a long time since my last food art on cartoon characters because the boy has passed that "cute food" stages where I used to make his food look appealing (bento ideas). When flash back I do missed those fun days where we both work together to make bentos and he will help to prepare the ingredients as well as assembling the dish.

These two months with more Japanese cartoon character theme cafes (Hello Kitty, Pompompurin, Pokemon) opening in Singapore, I decided to skip the long queue (heard it takes at least 2 hours) and make our own Hello Kitty & Winnie Pooh Nasi Lemak together with fried chicken, luncheon meat and omelette. Although the plating might not be as good as those in the cafe but at least we are happy with the end result and we can to put up our favourite characters too.

HELLO KITTY & WINNIE POOH NASI LEMAK
(凯蒂猫和维尼熊饭团)

Exquisite Japanese cuisines and cute cartoon character bentos (charaben - キャラ弁) are very popular searched items over at internet. Recent years there are many mothers like me who are willing to spend extra time making cute food art for our kids with cartoon characters like Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, Snoopy, Rilakkuma and many other cute little animals. Below are the step-by-step recipes on how I transform our usual nasi lemak into character theme dish.

(Yield: 2 | Preparation: 15 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
4 chicken wings
2 eggs
50g anchovies (ikan bilis)
few slices of luncheon meat / spam ham
slices of cucumber & carrot, optional
sweetcorn and black bean for garnishing, optional

Coconut Rice:
1 cup uncooked rice (rice cooker cup)
40ml coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon chicken stock powder
1 stalk lemongrass, lightly pound
1 knot of pandan leaves

Method:
1. Transfer rinse rice, pandan leave and lemongrass into rice cooker.

2. Add in enough water (same water level as per normal cooking), coconut milk and chicken stock powder. Give it a quick stir and cook until rice is done.

3. Stand rice for 5 minutes before spooning it into the kitty and pooh shape mould (you can still shape the cooked rice using free hand with the help of clingwrap without the mould). Press down the cover to print out the outline of the character features.

4. Using the blanch carrot slices (noses and ribbon), sweetcorn and black beans (eyes); assemble the facial features of the characters.

Fried Chicken Wings:
4 chicken wings
1/2 tablespoon turmeric powder
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons cooking wine
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
1 teaspoon ginger juice
2 teaspoons coconut milk
1 tablespoon rice flour
1 tablespoon cornflour

Method:
1. Trim, rinse and pat dry chicken wings then marinate with the rest of ingredients for at least an hour or more.

2. Preheat oil in a wok or frying pan, deep-fried chicken wings until golden brown and meat is cooked (remove wings at least 10 minutes from fridge before cooking).

3. When done, remove and drain well on kitchen paper towel.

4. To serve you can prepare some luncheon meat (or spam ham), omelette (or hard-boiled egg) and fried anchovies (recipe) to go with the fried chicken and rice.


A demo clip on preparing Hello Kitty & Winnie Pooh Nasi Lemak.

精致的日本料理和可爱的卡通人物造型便当一直都很受大家的喜爱尤其是妈妈们更爱为家里的宝贝花时间做些可爱的料理。其中就有常见的凯蒂猫、维尼熊和其它造型可爱的小动物等。这里为了不必和别人一起排几个小时吃凯蒂猫主题餐厅的食物便自己动手做了以上的凯蒂猫和维尼熊椰浆饭团，配搭炸鸡和午餐肉。

(分量: 2人份    | 准备: 15 分钟    | 烹煮时间: 20 分钟)
材料：
4只鸡翅
2个个蛋
50克江鱼仔
几片午餐肉
少许黄瓜和胡萝卜片
少许玉米和黑豆做点缀

椰浆饭： (用电饭锅）
1杯香米（电饭煲杯）
40毫升椰奶
1/2茶匙鸡精粉
1根香茅，拍扁切段
少许香兰叶, 打结

做法：
1. 香米洗净沥干后和香兰叶，香茅一起放进电饭锅里。

2. 接着加入适量的水（用饭锅水份的衡量标准），鸡精粉和椰奶搅拌一下然后煮到电饭锅跳到保温后即可。

3. 饭煮好稍微冷却就可放进凯蒂猫和维尼熊的模具里然后用力轻微压定型并推出模具。

4. 用烫好的胡萝卜，玉米和黑豆做眼睛, 鼻子和蝴蝶结就可完成(可以参考以上的录像）。

炸鸡翅:
4只鸡翅
1/2汤匙黄姜粉 (turmeric powder)
1/2汤匙生抽
2汤匙料理酒
1茶匙鸡精粉
1茶匙姜末汁
2茶匙升椰奶
1汤匙米粉
1汤匙生粉

做法：
1. 鸡翅冲洗，擦干后和其余的材料一起混合腌至少一个小时以上。

2. 锅里的油烧热之后就慢慢把鸡翅 (记得要煮10分钟前先从冰箱取出） 放入，用中火炸到金黄色和肉熟透。

3. 捞出沥干油后即可和煎好的午餐肉，鸡蛋和江鱼仔 (做法可以参考这里, 食谱)一起摆盘。

For decoration purpose I also kitty and pooh cookie cutter to cutout some cute vegetables slices from blanched carrot and cucumber to serve with the dish. (作为点缀我也用了凯蒂猫和维尼熊的饼干模具做了些可爱的蔬菜片)

Lastly hope you have a great mid-week and do stay tune for another character theme food art on Angry Birds Rice Burgers which comes just in time for the Angry Birds Movie.