If your kids love Miffy, they’ll adore these fun recipes inspired by the iconic bunny and her friends.
Miffy and friends onigiri
Makes 2 to 3 servings
Ingredients
For salmon furikake
Salt, as needed
150g salmon
fillet with skin on
125ml + 1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
2 tsp light soya sauce
For rice and hanpen flower
340g cooked Japanese short-grain rice
15g hard-boiled egg yolk (about 1 egg yolk)
10g ground sesame
5g mashed carrot
1 tsp aosa seaweed
1 tsp finely diced broccoli florets
1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
3 carrot slices 1 hanpen fishcake
1 egg sheet
1 sugar snap pea, sliced
Green capsicum
Sushi seaweed
1 Prepare salmon furikake. Salt salmon well and marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.
2 Wipe excess moisture from fish and place skin-side down in a dry non-stick frying pan. Add 125ml sake and cover pan with a lid. Cook over medium heat until fish is done and sake has evaporated. Set aside to cool.
3 Peel and discard fish skin. Flake flesh finely, and remove any fine bones.
4 Wipe pan with a paper towel, then add fish flakes to pan. Add 1 tbsp sake, mirin and soya sauce, and mix. You can leave the flakes fairly moist or stir until quite dry and finely flaked. Just be careful not to let it burn or colour too much. Let flakes cool completely before storing in fridge. Moist flakes will keep for up to 1 week and dry flakes up to 2 weeks.
5 Divide and colour rice: Leave 40g plain, colour 55g yellow using egg yolk, colour 90g brown using ground sesame, colour 40g orange using mashed carrot, and colour 70g green using aosa seaweed and broccoli florets.
6 Do this for each coloured rice: Spread rice on a sheet of cling wrap into a disc shape. Top with a spoonful of salmon furikake, then gather edges of cling wrap and shape rice into a ball.
• 40g orange rice for Poppy, and 40g green rice for the flower january 2018 / 84 / young parents
• 34g plain rice for Miffy, and 34g brown rice for Melanie
• 30g green rice for the turtle
• 30g yellow rice for the duck, then shape accordingly
• 2 portions of 15g brown rice for Snuffy the dog, and 2 portions of 15g yellow rice for Boris Bear, then add toasted sesame seeds to each portion and mix well.
7 Shape the ears, hands and feet for the various characters using the remaining rice.
8 Cut and trim carrot slices for ears of Poppy and her small niece Grunty, and the beak and feet of the duck.
9 Prepare hanpen flower. Using a flower cutter, cut 1 flower from hanpen fishcake. Use a straw to punch out the centre. Using the same straw, punch out a small piece of egg sheet and place it in the centre of the hanpen flower.
10 Complete flower using snap peas. Assemble on green rice ball.
11 Trim and cut capsicum for the turtle’s shell.
12 Cut features using seaweed and place on rice balls using tweezers. Assemble in a bento box.
Sleppy miffy toast
Makes 2 slices
Ingredients
4 round hanpen fishcakes
Teriyaki sauce, as needed
3 slices thick sandwich bread Butter, as needed
2 eggs
½ tsp cornstarch
Water
Vegetable oil, as needed
Tuna mayonnaise
Baked pasta sticks
Sushi seaweed
Lettuce
1 Blanch or steam hanpen fishcakes, then soak 2 in teriyaki sauce for a few minutes to colour them brown. Pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
2 Butter 2 slices of bread and toast well on both sides. Trim third slice into small rectangles for pillows. Set aside.
3 Separate egg yolks and whites. Lightly beat egg yolks and set aside. Mix cornstarch with a little water and add to egg whites. Mix well and strain mixture through a sieve.
4 Heat a little oil in a rectangular frying pan over medium heat. Lower heat and add beaten egg yolks. Swirl pan so eggs coat the base of pan. Cook until edges of egg start leaving the sides of pan. Cover pan with a lid and leave egg sheet to cook in the residual heat for about 30 seconds.
5 Place egg sheet on a cutting mat and use a small round cutter to cut rounds from egg sheet.
6 Return egg sheet to pan and pour egg white mixture into the holes. Cook over low heat until egg whites are done.
7 Place egg sheet on a cutting mat and cut into 2 sheets. Trim so each sheet covers two-thirds of toast.
8 Spread tuna mayonnaise over toast, then cover with egg sheets.
9 Arrange hanpen fishcakes on toast — white for Miffy and brown for Melanie.
10 Cut remaining hanpen fishcakes for the ears. Attach using baked pasta sticks.
11 Using a seaweed punch, cut 4 circles of seaweed for the eyes. Using scissors, cut 4 short strips to form a cross for the mouths. Assemble on faces using tweezers. Decorate with lettuce if desired.
