Archive for February, 2007

Frozen sandwich lunch for toddler

Packed in my son’s 270ml Thomas the Tank Engine box, using previously frozen sandwich strips with Nutella, leftover purple potato salad with mojito, blueberries, cheese cubes, and a blood orange (mostly cut off the peel for easier toddler eating). This took about 3 minutes to throw together this morning, and my son devoured it all. Success!

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Published by Biggie on February 28th, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, potatoes, sandwich or wrap, vegetarian | 5 Comments »

Speed Bento: stovetop mini frittata & multi-frying

Today I played around with the speed bento technique of cooking different dishes in a mini frying pan at the same time, and actually cooking in those little foil bento food cups. My son’s bento today had ketchup yaki onigiri and a quick mini frittata with leftover ham and frozen vegetables (all packed in a 350ml Lock & Lock box from my lunch set).

Here’s everything cooking together in the frying pan. I’ve seen this technique in different Japanese bento cookbooks; the trick is to make sure you’re cooking items that require the same level heat (and to test the different items for doneness throughout — don’t assume they’ll all be ready at the same time).

I got this particular combination of dishes from Enji no Obento (åœ’å…ã®ãŠã¹ã‚“ã¨ã†) by Kodansha. To prepare the ketchup yaki onigiri, I stirred together 3/4 cup fresh warm rice, 1 tsp butter, and just under 1 Tb ketchup and formed them into tiny, palm-sized round onigiri in my hands (make sure they’re firmly shaped, not loose — otherwise they’ll fall apart when cooking).

To make the mini frittata, I beat one egg and added a little chopped ham, a couple tablespoons of frozen vegetables (green peas and corn, in this case), 1 Tb Parmesan cheese, 1 Tb of milk or cream, and salt/pepper to taste. I then took two foil baking/cooking cups, put one inside the other for better support when cooking, and placed the empty cups in the nonstick mini frying pan (sprayed with vegetable oil) on medium-low heat. I spooned the egg mixture into the foil cups (making two little “frittatas”), added the ketchup onigiris, and covered the frying pan. The egg needs to cook for 4-5 minutes, and I flipped the ketchup onigiris once. (EDIT: You may want to run the frittatas in the frying pan under the broiler at the very end so that the top cooks but the bottom is not over-cooked.)

The ketchup onigiris were a little delicate, so I tried to avoid moving them around much (but they were a big hit with my son, who devoured them). He also liked the little frittata, although I wanted a little extra flavor with them, so I packed along a little Lizano sauce for mine. There’s no reason you need to stick with these particular ingredients, though — next time I may substitute chicken for the ham, add some chopped herbs, and use whatever veggies (including cooked leftovers) I have on hand. This dish was interesting to me because it used refrigerator and freezer staples (frozen peas & corn), so even if I didn’t have fresh veggies on hand I could throw together something nutritious and homemade in a hurry.

My husband often nukes himself a mixed egg in a greased ramekin for a quickie breakfast, so I was curious to see if I could make a version of the quick frittata in the microwave as well. The verdict is yes, but I think the stovetop version has a nicer texture and rise. I ladled the egg mixture into cupcake liners set inside ramekins (I greased one set of liners with vegetable oil spray, and didn’t grease another). Then I heated the two ramekins (uncovered) in our 1100W microwave on 80% power for 1.5 minutes (your time will vary depending upon the power of your microwave and how many ramekins you’re nuking). I think I prefer not greasing the cupcake liner as the frittata then sticks to the liner for easy packing, but if you don’t want to include the liner in your bento you could cook it in the greased liner.

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Published by Biggie on February 27th, 2007 tagged bento, eggs, for kids, glutenfree, onigiri or sushi, parenthacks, recipe, rice, tips, tutorial or how to | 47 Comments »

Speed Bento Technique: Freezing Rice to Fit Your Container

In a previous post I described freezing onigiri to make a bento stash for busy mornings. In a twist on that, you can freeze fresh rice in the shape of your bento box to speed up the making of a normal lunch when you don’t have fresh rice made.

Lay some plastic wrap in your bento box (or in a smaller container that fits into your box or Laptop Lunchbox), pack in the warm, fresh rice, and wrap up the rice. Freeze the wrapped rice right in the smaller container to help it maintains its shape while freezing — then you can remove your bento container once it’s frozen (leaving the rice in the freezer). You can still freeze rice shaped to fit your bento box even if it doesn’t have smaller containers — just mold the plastic-wrapped rice with your hands up against the side of the box, and pop the whole box in the freezer. For long-term storage, put the frozen wrapped rice in a freezer bag and suck the excess air out with a straw before sealing (think do-it-yourself Food Saver vacuum packing).

When you’re packing your bento in the morning, just put the wrapped rice in your microwave and nuke it until it’s soft and warm again, unwrap and pack it in the box. This works with a variety of rice: plain, fried, mixed with furikake or other flavorings, etc. — whatever you like. (EDIT: If you’re concerned about microwaving food wrapped with plastic wrap, unwrap the frozen rice, place it in a bowl, then cover the bowl with a lid, microwave-safe cover or plastic wrap that doesn’t touch the surface of the food. Then microwave until warm.)

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Published by Biggie on February 26th, 2007 tagged freezing, parenthacks, rice, tips | 24 Comments »

Bourek lunch for toddler

No speed bento tips today, just a regular bento for my son. Packed in a 300ml box, we’ve got leftover homemade bourek (savory Turkish phyllo pie) with two layers: one is cheese, the other is Swiss chard with pine nuts and currants. The right divider holds garlic Greek yogurt, watermelon and blueberries. My son has a bottomless pit for bourek — he ate all of this and asked for more (big hit!).

Last night when we were cleaning up after dinner I sped up bento prep by cutting a piece of bourek (easier for my son to eat), packing it up directly in the bento box, and filling up the little sauce container with garlic yogurt. So I had an almost-made bento waiting in the fridge (almost makes up for all the time I spent making the bourek in the first place!).

EDIT: For the folks at the bentolunch community who asked for the recipe, here it is. It’s really the opposite of speed food, though — I like making two different kinds of filling, so you could double either filling to reduce your prep time (to make an all-cheese or an all-chard bourek). This changes every time I make it — usually in the makeup and seasoning of the chard layer.

Two-layer Cheese and Swiss Chard Bourek
(based on recipes in The Art of Turkish Cooking by Neset Eren, and The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert)

Filling A
leaves from 3 large bunches Swiss chard (about 1 pound) (or spinach, or mixed chard/dandelion leaves)
1 small onion, grated (on the large holes of a box grater or Microplane grater)
1.5 Tb vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts (toasted or plain)
2 Tb currants
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tb crumbled feta cheese
1 tsp sugar
2 Tb milk or cream
1.5 tsp cumin
salt & pepper to taste
2 eggs

Filling B
1/4 pound feta cheese
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/8 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
2 eggs
1 Tb butter
1 Tb milk or cream
3 Tb chopped parsley

1 pound bourek sheets or phyllo sheets (preferably the extra-thick phyllo if available)
12 Tb butter (mixed with olive oil, if desired) to brush on phyllo sheets
1/4 cup milk

1. Make the chard filling A: Heat a large skillet, and add the whole chard leaves still slightly wet from washing. Cover the pan and cook until wilted — a few minutes. Drain the leaves, squeeze dry, and chop coarsely. In the same skillet, heat half the vegetable oil and add the grated onion. Cook over medium heat for 5-6 minutes, then add the remaining vegetable oil, and wilted/chopped chard leaves. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl to cool.
While the chard cools, prepare the cheese filling.

2. Make the cheese filling B: In a medium bowl, mash the feta cheese and cream cheese together with a fork. Add Cheddar, eggs, butter, milk and parsley and mix well.

3. Finish making the chard filling A: Once the chard/onion mixture has cooled, add the pine nuts, currants, cheeses, sugar, milk, cumin, salt/pepper, and eggs to the bowl and mix well.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F once both fillings are prepared, and melt the butter (either in the microwave on reduced power, or on the stovetop)

5. Grease or butter a 12 x 15 inch baking pan (or roasting pan). It also works in a lasagna or cake pan half this size, you’ll just need to cut the phyllo sheets in half before assembling (bourek won’t be quite as crispy & flaky then, but it’ll still taste good).

6. Divide the phyllo sheets into three equal parts. Lay one phyllo sheet in the pan, brush the surface with melted butter, and sprinkle with a few drops of milk. Put the second sheet on top of the first, butter, and sprinkle with milk. Repeat until one third of the sheets are used up. Spread the cheese filling evenly over the entire surface.

7. Build the second layer of phyllo sheets the same way (phyllo, butter, milk) until the second third of the sheets are used up. Spread the chard filling evenly over the entire surface. Then build up the last layer of phyllo sheets the same way, and butter the top generously. Carefully cut into 16 squares with a very sharp knife.

8. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with plain or garlic yogurt (1/2 pint thick yogurt mixed with 1 minced garlic clove and a dash of salt).

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Published by Biggie on February 25th, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, phyllo or pancake or other, recipe, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Speed Bento: leftover storage and portion guidelines

Another speed bento that took about 5 minutes to pack, using leftovers and a microwave mini steamer for the broccoli. There’s also chicken salad from CostCo and seasoned beans that I got from a nearby Korean market’s panchan bar.

Using dinner leftovers is an obvious speed bento tip, but you can take it a step further by packing leftovers directly in little containers that will drop right into your bento box or Laptop Lunchbox. A couple of nights ago after dinner, I cut the leftover sauced ravioli into quarters (to make it easier for my son to eat on his own) and packed them neatly into one of the containers that drop into his little 270ml Thomas the Tank Engine bento box. I then covered it with plastic wrap and threw it into the fridge, where it waited to be packed into a lunch at some undetermined point in the future. This works for me as I’ve got spare sub-containers, but if you didn’t you could always use cupcake liners or other food cups (stored in tupperware in the refrigerator).

BTW, I usually refer to the size of my bento boxes in milliliters (ml) because a rule of thumb in Japan is that when you pack a bento box normally (A: 3 parts starch, 2 parts veggies/fruits, 1 part protein; B: without candy or junk food; and C: without lots of empty space), calories correspond directly to capacity. So a 270ml bento box should hold approximately 270 calories worth of food. Capacity (å®¹é‡) is usually written on the bento box package and also often on the bottom of the bento box in raised plastic. It’s helpful for portion control.

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