[Anime Culture Monday] Anime Recipes! Octopus Wieners from Sailor Moon & Sesame Sweetened Spinach (Spinach Goma-ae) from Ben-to

7:00 PM January 3, 2016

Hey everyone! Welcome back to “eat like your anime faves,” a series where I teach you just how to eat like characters do in anime. That’s right; you learn how to cook real Japanese food from anime. I’m back again to give you more of what you love!

This week we have two more essential bento fillers for you all out there. One is a classic and the other is for those who have a trained eye and can point it out. Octopus wieners are not what you think they are. They are not sausages or wieners made out of octopus meat. They are just sausages cooked in small pieces and cut specially to make it look like they are octopi. Goma-ae on the other hand, is a very healthy dish that has shown up multiple times in bento, but because it’s not a major component but a side dish, it doesn’t get as much fame as it should. Both dishes are super easy to make and you’ll love them! Without further ado, let’s get started!

1. Octopus Wieners from Sailor Moon

I know you are questioning yourself and saying, “I don’t remember ever seeing those!” Well actually you have. They exist in about every anime bento ever made in the history of bento. Mako made her own bento all the time and due to this, she was praised for her cooking skills. She offers this to Usagi/Sarina right after they first start hanging out as friends. Octopus Wieners are super easy to make, hence their inclusion. Bento are supposed to be filled with relatively non-time consuming dishes to accompany one or two major ones that take a bit of time. So this is one, if you’re brave enough to be making your own bento, is something to make on the side while your, say, ebi fry or curry is cooking!

Doesn’t that look delicious?

What you will need:(Serves four people.)

pre-cooked wieners/hot dogs

A pack

Cooking oil

Optional Ingredients:

Sesame seeds

ELYF-Sailor-moon-octopus-wieners-3-510x500 [Anime Culture Monday] Anime Recipes! Octopus Wieners from Sailor Moon & Sesame Sweetened Spinach (Spinach Goma-ae) from Ben-to

How to Cook It:

1
Begin to heat a fry pan to medium heat. Pour in a bit of cooking oil to coat the bottom.
2
If you are using longer hot dogs or wieners, cut them in half. They need to be about 8-10 cm (3-4 in) long.
3
On the side now of your half wieners where you cut them in half, cut either a plus sign (four legs) or an asterisk (six legs) into the bottom of the wiener. Make sure that you do not slice more than half of the length of it or it can fall apart in cooking.
4
Being to load them into the frying pan slowly. Use tongs or cooking chopsticks to move them around.
5
Cook them for shorter times if you don’t want to cook them for long, or cook them till the ends, the legs, begin to curl upwards. Once they have done that, you’re done!
6
Chill them and decorate by making eyes with sesame seeds.
7
Dig in while they are still hot or eat them once they have cooled a bit.

(Note: If you are underage, or new to cooking, be sure to let your parent/guardian know what you are doing. You will be using a knife! We don’t want you to get hurt!)

Yum!

2. Sesame Sweetened Spinach (Goma-ae) from Ben-to

The action packed fighting anime about bento and eating, (No joke. That is how the show goes) is hilarious and showcases many different Bento and how to acquire said bento. Spinach Goma-ae is a very common side dish that exists in many bento. It’s hard to see as it’s usually shown as a brownish green box in the bento, but it is surprisingly delicious!
The technical term for what goma-ae is called is Osozai. This means “side dish.” Usually, as stated above, bento are a variety of small things put together around 1-2 major items like onigiri, ebi fry, etc. Goma-ae is delicious and actually is very healthy for you to eat! You can see it in the middle of the bento in the picture!

What you will need: (Serves three people.)

spinach.

220g or ½ lb

roasted sesame seeds

3 tbsp

soy sauce

1 ½ tbsp.

sugar

1 tbsp

sake

½ tsp

sweet rice wine

½ mirin

salt.

A dash

How to Cook It:

1
Grind the seeds in a mortar and pestle. Grind them just enough to make them break.
2
Next, combine all of your liquid ingredients along with the sugar into a bowl with a sesame seeds.
3
Wash/Rinse your spinach.
4
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the salt in.
5
Place the spinach leaves or stems, stem first into the water and cook for only 1-2 minutes. You don’t want it to wilt all the way!
6
Drain the Spanish now and place the spinach into a bowl of cold water till it is cool.
7
If you are using just spinach leaves, you can skip the next step unless they are big.
8
Line up the spinach on a cutting board and cut them into 5cm (2in) long chunks.
8
Put the spinach into the bowl with the other seasonings and mix it.
8
Dig in!

(Note: You are dealing with both raw seafood and raw meat. Be sure to wash your hands constantly as well as thoroughly cook the pancake through!)

If you did everything right, it should come out like this!

Yum!

Here we are again at the end of this week’s “eat like your faves” article! I really hope you are enjoying this series. I also want to know if you are trying to cook any of these! Please tell me and give me feedback! Till next time,

Editor/Translator

Author: Nagareboshi

American by birth; international by choice. I am trying to bring attention to one of my favorite causes; me. I translate by day and write by night. Aspiring polyglot. My dream would be to be the personal translator for Amuro Namie. Other than that, my hobbies include languages, weightlifting, sleeping, karaoke, GOOD coffee and music. When I’m not doing any of the above, I am most likely laughing hysterically at Willam Belli videos or EV farming. I ain’t gunna Rupologize for it neither. Waifu are Shirai Kuroko & Euaerin.

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