Little Miss Bento

I made cute Kiiroitori nerikiri. Nerikiri is traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi), it is made from shiro-an (sweetened white bean paste) and gyuhi (glutinous rice flour mochi). 

Nerikiri is also often eaten and enjoyed with a cup of tea. Great as a sweet snacks enjoyed during a lazy afternoon. Definitely for the sweet tooth! :P 

It was really fun making this as the process was almost like molding dough/clay. You can sculpt the nerikiri as you wish, color it as you like to create different characters. 

I packed them into my pancake breakfast bento today. Cute? heheh. I added some Rilakkuma sausages, cucumber, lettuce, strawberry, kiwi berry and edamame beans at the side. 

Actually, today’s creation was inspired by some super cute kitty cat nerikiri  made by a Japanese housewife name Caroline (a friend shared online). On more than one occasions, I also saw super cute animal wagashi sweets sold on Rakuten japan.  

So I thought to myself – I can make some too!

This is a good way to create cute characters for your bento or food art. 

While mashed potatoes is also great for molding, it will suit a more savory taste while nerikiri is more for those who want something sweet in your bento.

Have fun!

Recipe for Kiiroitori Nerikiri キイロイトリのねりきりレシピ

200g Shiro-an (white bean paste)
20g Shiratamako (Japanese glutinous rice flour)
approx 30-40g water (please adjust accordingly for step 1)

*For shiro-an, it is not available here in Singapore but an amazing blogger friend of mine, Evan from Evan’s Kitchen Ramblings have shared how you can make shiro-an from lima beans. Check out her recipe post here. Evan makes the most beautiful and amazing sweets and she is always so generous to share her tips!

1) In a small bowl, add in shiratamako. Slowly add water using a spoon and knead well. You want to achieve a soft dough texture. It will form a dumpling ball and the sides of the bowl will be clean. (the dough feels like your ear lobe – sorry for the vivid description)
2) Boil a small pot of water and cook the shiratama dumpling ball. You will know that it is cooked when it floats on the top of the boiling water. Remove.
3) In a microwavable bowl, add in the boiled dumpling from step 2 and 200g of shiro-an. Mix with spatula. 
4) Heat in microwave at 500W for 1 minute. 
5) Remove and mix with spatula again until the dumpling is evenly incorporated into the bean paste. 
6) Let it cool before adding colors and shaping it. 
Tip: To color, I used gel colors like those use for icing to prevent adding additional moisture to the dough
Tip: Wash your hands in between as you knead and roll the different parts. This will help reduce sticking to your hands. 

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