Non-bento #35: Totoro breakfast

I posted a sneak preview photo on my twitter and my facebook fan page so some of you might already know what I made with the Totoro metal cutter I made the other day, but I learned some stuff while I was using it, so I decided to write a post.

Non-bento #35: Totoro breakfast
Created and eaten on: 5/4/2011

My Totoro themed breakfast contains Totoro shaped pancakes, Totoro shaped sunny side up egg, and bacon. I cut a strip of bacon in three pieces, folded them and stuck them on a toothpick. I did it on a whim because I wanted to make bacon look different and cute to accompany the Totoros but Derek thought it was a great idea. The outside of the wave is crispy and the inside is softer, and it’s also very easy to eat.

Pancakes:
I tried using it like a regular pancake shaper, but I would not recommend it, especially for a Totoro shape. The ears are such a pain even after greasing the cutter up, and I didn’t think it was efficient because the area you can pour the batter in is very small. So instead, I used it to cut out the shape from a regular pancake, and it worked beautifully. We ate the outside the shape as is, but you can put cut fruit, or put other food inside to serve too!

I had some batter left, so of course…

EDIT: You asked for it! Here’s the recipe for fluffy pancakes!

Flour: 1 1/2  cup
Baking powder: 1 1/2 TS
Egg: 1
Sugar: 3 TBS
Vegetable oil: 1~2 TBS
Milk: 2/3 cup
Vanilla essence (optional)

1. Mix flour and baking powder and sift it well.

2. Put egg, sugar, vegetable oil into a bowl and mix.

3. Add milk and a dash of vanilla essence (if you have any) into #2.

4. Put #1 into #3 and mix it well and the batter is done!

The batter might look very lumpy at the beginning and the batter remains on the thick side, but that’s how it’s supposed to be, so don’t add anything!

Set your stove to medium heat. Heat the pan well, and pour the batter onto the pan. Wait until bubbles start to appear on the surface and flip!

The pan I have is very old and the surface isn’t even flat anymore. So I lightly oiled the pan for the first couple of pancakes, but later on I didn’t have to add oil at all and it came out perfect! Just make sure the surface of the pan is evenly heated.

Egg:
Cooking an egg with a cutter is a tricky one. It’s not a factory made egg mold, so the bottom isn’t perfectly even which means when you put an egg in, it can leak out from the bottom of the cutter. So I’ll show you how I did it. I’m sure there’s a better way, and I’ll post if I figure it out.

You’ll need a stick-like thing to put on over the cutter. I snapped a disposable chopstick in half and used that.

1. Crack an egg in a bowl, and rub oil on the cutter.

2. On a well heated frying pan, put the metal cutter, sharp-side up.

3. Put the chopsticks across the cutter. Do NOT touch the metal cutter! It can get very hot.

4. Push down the chopsticks with one hand and pour the egg with the other hand.

5. Hold the chopsticks down for a while. (Once the egg is hard enough you can let it go.)

6. When the egg is cooked, take it out of the pan. Gently push all around the edge of the egg with a spoon.

One way to make the bottom of the cutter even is to put the cutter on a flat surface, put a flat thing on top and put something heavy (but not too heavy) on the top and leave it for a while.

We enjoyed the delicious Totoro invasion a lot! For the batter I used a recipe I got from a Japanese recipe site, and I loved it. It’s super fluffy and sweet. I did a little how-to on the egg but I think it’s totally okay if some egg white gets out of the mold. It gives it character.

Let’s see what else I can make with the cutter…

For the Totoro shaped cutter, check out How to make a cookie cutter / food shaper!

All the photos for “How to use a Totoro metal cutter to make an egg” are on my flickr too!
How to use a Totoro metal cutter to make an egg

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento and non-bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page. (On the photos in the “Bent and non-bento!” set on my flickr, you can see the notes on the food explaining what they are.)

Tagged as: bacon, breakfast, eggs, pancakes, studio ghibli, totoro