Bentos (2003-2008)

[nakji]

Well, my first bento got out the door this week, despite almost having been forgotten by my husband. I'm off today, so I only had to prep one. I did all the veg cutting the night before, to speed things up. I did a "gyu-don" style one, made with pork and a 1:1:1 ratio of water, soy and mirin. I tried Hiroyuki's gyu-don recipe from recipegullet, but my husband pronounced the broth "fishy", so I kept it to the side for myself, and proceeded with the different sauce. On the side were steamed broccoli and carrot. I included a bottle of gochujang thinned with vinegar to spice things up. I put a pear in for dessert, and I hope everything gets to work and gets eaten. This is an 800 ml box, so it's pretty big!

I was able to put a little of the pork aside for my bento tomorrow, too, so I've got one item ready to go, as per Helenjp's advice. I'll be putting aside some things from tonight's dinner, which should form the rest of my bento tomorrow. H won't need one, as Tuesday is "Mosburger Day" at his work.

[Hiroyuki]

Well, my first bento got out the door this week, despite almost having been forgotten by my husband. I'm off today, so I only had to prep one. I did all the veg cutting the night before, to speed things up. I did a "gyu-don" style one, made with pork and a 1:1:1 ratio of water, soy and mirin. I tried Hiroyuki's gyu-don recipe from recipegullet, but my husband pronounced the broth "fishy", so I kept it to the side for myself, and proceeded with the different sauce. On the side were steamed broccoli and carrot. I included a bottle of gochujang thinned with vinegar to spice things up. I put a pear in for dessert, and I hope everything gets to work and gets eaten. This is an 800 ml box, so it's pretty big!

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As you may know, that ratio is for teriyaki. I would replace the water with sake or use no sake depending on the flavor I'm aiming for. Add some ginger juice, and you will get nice shoga yaki!

As for gyudon, you can also use dashi:mirin:soy sauce ratios of 7:5:3 and 3:1:1 as I mentioned elsewhere. I think I prefer 3:1:1.

[nakji]

Thanks for the input, Hiroyuki. I think I might try the 7:5:1 ratio next time, because I don't think my husband likes a really assertive dashi taste. What can I say? He likes sweet things!

How do you get ginger juice?

I missed your picture of your son's bento earlier - it's very nice. You can't imagine how relieved I am to see that it stretched over several containers. Every time I go into a bento section in a store I can't imagine how people get whole lunches into such tiny boxes! On a technical note - what ratio do you simmer your kabocha in? And do you think I could make onigiri the night before? I don't have hot rice in the morning.

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks for the input, Hiroyuki. I think I might try the 7:5:1 ratio next time, because I don't think my husband likes a really assertive dashi taste. What can I say? He likes sweet things!

How do you get ginger juice?

I missed your picture of your son's bento earlier - it's very nice. You can't imagine how relieved I am to see that it stretched over several containers. Every time I go into a bento section in a store I can't imagine how people get whole lunches into such tiny boxes! On a technical note - what ratio do you simmer your kabocha in? And do you think I could make onigiri the night before? I don't have hot rice in the morning.

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Just grate ginger and squeeze! As a lazy cook, I often simply add the grated ginger.

I don't use a ratio to simmer kabocha. For a 1/4 kabocha, I probably add:

2 tbsp sugar

2-4 tbsp soy sauce

(no dashi)

Sorry, I can't give you exact amounts because I don't measure them.

As you may know, the important thing to remember when simmering kabocha is to add water to the pot to barely cover the kabocha (hitahita in Japanese) and put a drop lid (otoshi buta) on the kabocha. Bring to a boil, add sugar first. (Do you remember sashisuseso?) In 3-5 min., add soy sauce. Keep simmering for another 2-3 min. Stab a bamboo skewer into a piece to test if it is done.

Probably you can, provided that you put the onigiri in the fridge. Alternatively, you can heat cold rice in the microwave in the morning, right?

[nakji]

As a lazy cook, I often simply add the grated ginger.

Hmm, this will probably be my solution as well!

I simmered my kabocha in the rejected gyu-don sauce from before (waste not; want not) and put it in the freezer as future bento stash. I tried a piece, and it was good, although a bit dry. I think it was because I didn't use a drop lid. I don't have one, but I'll try it with paper towel the next time.

I couldn't resist buying a new bento box for myself the other day at Loft - beware of time off from work! The shops of Tokyo are too tempting! But it was a pleasure to reach into my bag today and take out my lunch.

The squash pasta was leftover from the night before - I put aside a bit of plain pasta before tossing with the sauce, and kept some sauce reserved as well. Then this morning, I nuked the pasta in hot water briefly, then tossed with the leftover sauce. This meant the pasta wasn't dry and gloopy when I got to eat it at lunch. The pork in the top level was reserved from when I prepared the pork for my husband's lunch yesterday, and the tomatoes were marinated the night before, and kept in the fridge. The only work I had to do this morning was a quick microwave of the pasta and sauce, and I heated the pork in the same pan I was making my "toast" in. (No, I don't have a toaster. :sigh:) It cost me about 10 minutes of prep and two extra dirty dishes, so I think it was a good investment!

The great thing about this is that wanting to have leftovers for my bento keeps my dinnertime portions limited! It's win-win.

[Hiroyuki]

I forgot to mention that I also use a paper towel instead of a drop lid. I don't like a wooden drop lid because it can stink, and I don't want to buy a metallic one.

You don't have a toaster oven?? You should have one! I can't survive in busy mornings without my toaster oven! You can buy a decent one for less than 2,000 yen! Get one today!

[nakji]

Today's bento used leftover ddalk galbi from last night's dinner, along with the rest of the rice. I took the rest of the sweet potato that wasn't cut up for the ddalk galbi, nuked it and made it into sweet potato salad - a classic Korean panchan! It took about 10 minutes to prepare, (15 including potato cooling time) - I just reheated the food from the night before, and made the potato salad.

Tomorrow is the first day I'll have to prepare two bentos. Wish me luck.

[helenjp]

Good luck!

I'm just waiting for a hunk of pork to cook, then I'll mix it with a yuzu jam I made a while back, and leave it overnight.

I saved some boiled spinach from dinner - we had that with nori, while the bento portion might be dressed with sesame, or possibly mixed into an omelet (seasoning mix ready-prepared).

Also from dinner was some sweet potato simmered with kiri-konbu (finely shredded dried kelp), soy sauce, and mirin.

Rice is in the rice-cooker, with the timer set for the morning - and that's the bento done, unless I get enthusiastic and fry some eggplant in the morning.

Sweet Dashi Seasoning Mix for Eggs (also for Nimono that you don't want to be totally dominated by soy sauce, such as pumpkin, tofu)

1 US cup (1.25 J cups, roughly) very strong dashi (use about 30g katsuobushi, i.e. triple strength)

200g sugar

50 ml mirin

50 ml sake

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soy sauce

Simmer all together, allow to cool, squeeze katsuobushi dry. Keep liquid in fridge, and add 1 tsp to 1 tablespoon per egg for Japanese-style omelet dishes (less for usu-yaki soft omelet rolls, more for atsu-yaki firm omelet rolls).

Don't toss the katsuobushi, fry it in a little sesame oil, add more soy and mirin if it seems to need it, add sesame seeds, sprinkle over your bento rice.

[torakris]

Sweet Dashi Seasoning Mix for Eggs (also for Nimono that you don't want to be totally dominated by soy sauce, such as pumpkin, tofu)

1 US cup (1.25 J cups, roughly) very strong dashi (use about 30g katsuobushi, i.e. triple strength)

200g sugar

50 ml mirin

50 ml sake

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soy sauce

Simmer all together, allow to cool, squeeze katsuobushi dry. Keep liquid in fridge, and add 1 tsp to 1 tablespoon per egg for Japanese-style omelet dishes (less for usu-yaki soft omelet rolls, more for atsu-yaki firm omelet rolls).

Don't toss the katsuobushi, fry it in a little sesame oil, add more soy and mirin if it seems to need it, add sesame seeds, sprinkle  over your bento rice.

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Helen, this sounds great! just the kind of think I would like to have on hand when I start daily jr. high bentos in a couple months . How long does it usually last in the fridge?

[Hiroyuki]

Good luck!

I'm just waiting for a hunk of pork to cook, then I'll mix it with a yuzu jam I made a while back, and leave it overnight.

I saved some boiled spinach from dinner - we had that with nori, while the bento portion  might be dressed with sesame, or  possibly mixed into an omelet (seasoning mix ready-prepared).

Also from dinner was some sweet potato simmered with kiri-konbu (finely shredded dried kelp), soy sauce, and mirin.

Rice is in the rice-cooker, with the timer set for the morning - and that's the bento done, unless I get enthusiastic and fry some eggplant in the morning.

Sweet Dashi Seasoning Mix for Eggs (also for Nimono that you don't want to be totally dominated by soy sauce, such as pumpkin, tofu)

1 US cup (1.25 J cups, roughly) very strong dashi (use about 30g katsuobushi, i.e. triple strength)

200g sugar

50 ml mirin

50 ml sake

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soy sauce

Simmer all together, allow to cool, squeeze katsuobushi dry. Keep liquid in fridge, and add 1 tsp to 1 tablespoon per egg for Japanese-style omelet dishes (less for usu-yaki soft omelet rolls, more for atsu-yaki firm omelet rolls).

Don't toss the katsuobushi, fry it in a little sesame oil, add more soy and mirin if it seems to need it, add sesame seeds, sprinkle  over your bento rice.

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200 g sugar! Your "mix" must be very sweet! Do post a photo of your tamagoyaki or something!

Question: No kombu in your recipe? I know you were in Osaka before living in Kanto, and no kombu? I hear that kombu is huge in Kansai.

[milgwimper]

HelenJp,

Thanks for the recipe I have copied and pasted it, as it will come useful in time. DH has to pack lunch now, and I am excited and dreading making his lunch everyday. The time I lived in Japan I couldn't stand the tamogoyaki sweet, but I will maybe try it out on DH and see what his tastebuds tell him.

[helenjp]

Not really - because the dashi is super-concentrated, so I can add 1 tab water per egg if I want a softer omelet. Keeping the dashi very concentrated so that there is a high proportion of sugar in the seasoning mix means that it keeps better in the fridge.

1 tsp of mix means about (very, very roughly) 1 pinch of sugar per egg.

No konbu in the seasoning mix, because it doesn't keep well. I do use it to make dashi-maki from scratch, instead of using the mix.

And absolutely NO photos!! Bento-making happens before 6 am, don't forget!

If I want to make a dashi-maki and I know I'll be in a hurry, I mix everything, including eggs, the night before and keep it in the fridge all ready to cook the next morning, but obviously the raw eggs/dashi/seasoning mix won't keep more than overnight.

Tomorrow's bento...the rest of that hunk of pork, sliced up with cooked lima beans and greens and dressed with mustard vinaigrette (so un-Japanese), and probably a rolled omelet with torn nori rolled into it. Maybe some simmered maitake fungi with a little chopped scallion.

Using the bento boxes with insulated rice pots now, and as they are rather deep, I often put a little furikake halfway up, add the rest of the rice, and top with pickles.

One good thing about using the timer on the rice cooker is that the overnight soaking suits okowa (sticky rice/sweet rice) with beans or other tasty additions. It's not only tasty, it stays softer than regular rice when cold in the winter months. To be frugal, cut with 1/3 to 1/2 regular rice!

[nakji]

Using the bento boxes with insulated rice pots now, and as they are rather deep, I often put a little furikake halfway up, add the rest of the rice, and top with pickles

Mmmmmm...pickles. What are you pickling these days? I remember reading through your foodblog. I have a big tub of miso I need to use up, so I might start pushing some garlic cloves in.

Bentos were done in about 20 minutes this morning - it took a long time because I was preparing two separate boxes with different ingredients.

My husband's box had veg fried rice, using up the bits of vegetables lurking in my crisper. I fried up some gyoza, and included some gochujang thinned with vinegar to spice up the rice. It came back empty, so it must have been a hit.

My bento had the rest of my sweet potato salad, marinated tomatoes, sliced cucumber, and a leftover remake of last night's sundried tomato pasta made into an omelette. These two bento really used up random bits of leftover food, so I'm feeling quite frugal!

My bento making doesn't happen until 7:30 am, thank goodness!

[milgwimper]

Thanks Helen for letting me know the Dashi seasoning mix isn't too sweet. I wil ty making the tamagoyaki sometime this week and report back!

Nakji- The bento looks really good and delicious! Want to come to germany and make me some

[nakji]

Milgwimper - this one's for you. Kimchi fried rice, and mandu/gyoza. Normally, you'd want a fried egg with kimchi fried rice, but I was worried about food safety. All this box is missing is yellow pickled radish! This box wasn't exactly healthy, but it went down pretty quick at lunch.

Yesterday I had leftovers from Tuesday night's dinner - eggplant salad with miso dressing, and leftover mini nikomi hamburgers. I added some kabocha I had stashed in the freezer. This was definitely my favourite box this week.

[milgwimper]

Nakji,

WOW both the bento(es?) look really good and appetizing, and I would love to have any of them. I sent DH to work today with Japanese Spicy curry rice. No ginger pickles for him though, but he loved it, so all is well. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but I did take pictures of the snow falling today.

[torakris]

He was a good (and cheap bento) from a couple days ago. The was purchased of course. 398 yen (about $3.50)

[nakji]

That's really nice! What's the brown stuff in the lower left hand corner, next to the egg? Is it ground beef? I especially how they manage to get so many elements in. Day-today, I can't imagine having all those little pieces prepped - one tomato, one teaspoon of potato salad, one korrokke.....making only one bento is hard work and takes a lot of planning. I have a system where I make a list of each night's dinner, and then little diagrams of my bento containers for the next day. Then I look at dinner and decide what can be used again or reworked for lunch the next day. Then I fill it in with other bits like eggs or veggies.

Today, however, I was suffering from being away all weekend, and not having anything in my arsenal. I used frozen rice, reheated, and tamagoyaki. I also had some gyoza in the freezer that went in as well. To make up for the parlous lack of vegetables, I added the carrot veggie art.

[nakji]

Last week's best bento - bibimbap! Or as it's known here - bibinpa. Although the best bibimbap is served hot in a stone pot, this one was great anyway - I just made sure to drizzle the rice with a little sesame oil for easy mixing. I put in spinach, mushroom, bean sprouts, leftover beef, and a fried egg. The rice had crumbled nori, and a little kimchi on the side. The blue elephant container has the gochujang. I mixed everything in the bento cover - highly satisfactory! I punked out for two days this week, but I have to say that nothing available for sale on the campus tastes as good to me as my own packed lunch.

[nakji]

I want to make a kyara ben this weekend for my visit to the Ghibli museum in Mitaka, but I can't find many images in an English search on Google. I can't figure out how to type any of the kana on my computer, although I can read them all. I know there must be lots of results on Japanese sites. Can anyone out there help me? I'd like to do something with soot gremlins, and the cat bus, if possible.

This week's winners:

Chorizo sausage, mustard, olives, cheese, homemade flat bread, olives, and carrot. Not your traditional bento!

And in the greasy-but-good category, sesame noodles with vegetables, gyoza, bean sprout salad, and mashed sweet potato with miso.

[torakris]

That's really nice! What's the brown stuff in the lower left hand corner, next to the egg? Is it ground beef?

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Oops! I missed this question. In general this is called soboro, you will often see it made with chicken and pork (I think this one was chicken) as well as with fish.

Here is a recipe in English

It is a great food (keeps for a while) to have on hand for bentos, especially sanshoku (3 color) bentos.

This is one has sakura denbu for pink as a third color

I usually make mine with something green, like this

[nakji]

Ah! I've seen the sakura denbu in the store, and not known what it was. The colour is so unusual - I didn't think it was food! The chicken crumbles are great, and look like a great addition to my bentos, one my husband will definitely like. He's really enjoying getting a bento for lunch, and I'm having fun making them.

[Hiroyuki]

I want to make a kyara ben this weekend for my visit to the Ghibli museum in Mitaka, but I can't find many images in an English search on Google. I can't figure out how to type any of the kana on my computer, although I can read them all. I know there must be lots of results on Japanese sites. Can anyone out there help me? I'd like to do something with soot gremlins, and the cat bus, if possible.

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You mean susuwatari すすわたり and neko basu ネコバス?

[helenjp]

This version (scroll about 1/3 way down) is interesting for it's simplicity!

Even simpler. Love the way she's morphed the boiled egg into Totoro. The neko-basu is made from two types of slice cheese - she says she found a reddish "cheddar" sliced cheese to contrast with the regular pale yellow type. Actually my favorite on that page is the Baba-papa bento.

There are lots of versions on the internet using sliced cheese eyes stuck onto nori-covered round onigiri, but the version in the link, where the onigiri are rolled in cut nori, looks better to me!

You could also roll meat balls in cut nori or crumbled dry ready-cut wakame and deep fry them, then add eyes later - especially if you want to save the Neko-basu theme for the rice.

Simple neko-basu made with the katsuo flakes moistened with soy sauce and nori strips.

Don't know what those evil eyes are - maybe takuan - but they look great!

Grey Totoro made with black goma (ground) and salt looks effective too...though shirasu and katsuo could easily end up as a big mess on the lid of the bento instead of a pretty picture...

I've seen other totoros shaped from two onigiri molded together - with the top one made from rice mixed with a furikake such as ground black sesame and salt, or wakame, or "yukari" (dried salted red shiso). Or even those tinyish salted fish.

Have fun! Meanwhile, having made today's bento of fried chicken, quick-pickled turnip slices with lemon, broccoli rabe boiled with a little sesame oil in the water, and maitake/aburage takikomi-gohan, I'm GOING BACK TO BED!

[nakji]

I'm in awe! Thank-you, that's exactly the information I needed. I think soot gremlins will be fun to make, and I'll try to make the cat bus for my husband. It's his favourite!

I'll post some photos to show you what I end up with.

Have fun! Meanwhile, having made today's bento of fried chicken, quick-pickled turnip slices with lemon, broccoli rabe boiled with a little sesame oil in the water, and maitake/aburage takikomi-gohan, I'm GOING BACK TO BED!

Scrumptious! I'd eat that bento up quickly! Enjoy your well-deserved rest.

I'm going to watch Totoro again for inspiration.