Archive for February, 2007

Speed Bento: microwave mixed rice

Today both my son and I have bentos that took about 10 minutes to make. I used a shortcut to make cheater’s 5-minute “fried rice” in the microwave that I adapted from Japanese bento cookbook åœ’å…ã®ãŠã¹ã‚“ã¨ã†ã€€(”Kindergartner Bentos” published by Kodansha). I’ve also got tangerine, grape tomatoes and a mini pudding; my son has tangerine wedges that have been almost fully peeled to make it easier for him to eat by himself.

I’ve had a stack of Japanese bento cookbooks for a while, but had been resisting their speed recipes as I thought they looked too simple to be good. When I serve fried rice for a family dinner, for example, I definitely take the time to do it right with more ingredients in a pan. But I’ve got to say that this speed recipe worked well and tasted fine — this way I can serve “fried” rice for lunch even if I don’t have any already made up.

I took some leftover white rice, roast pork and a green onion from the refrigerator, and frozen green peas from the freezer. First I chopped up a handful each of pork and green onion. (This is all the chopping I did for the whole dish!)

Then I put the leftover cold white rice in a microwave-safe bowl, and topped it with the pork, green onions, and frozen peas right out of the bag. Covered it with plastic wrap and put it in my 1100W microwave for one minute (times will vary depending upon how much food you’re nuking and the power of your microwave). If you have fresh rice made up, just nuke the meat and veggies on their own, and mix them together with the hot rice afterwards.

When it was hot, I added a teaspoon or so of soy sauce, a dash of salt and a splash of sesame oil, and mixed it all up. Done! Speed “fried rice”. I wound up mixing in a tablespoon of chogojujang (Korean spicy sauce) to mine to give it some spice. Next time I may add some kimchi, maybe substitute some leftover roast chicken or beef for the pork, try different veggies, etc. — there’s no reason it needs to be exactly this combo (but I do like using the green onion, one protein and one fast veggie option to reduce prep time). Whatever’s on hand.

And here’s my son’s little meal:

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Published by Biggie on February 23rd, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, meat, recipe, rice, tips, tutorial or how to | 29 Comments »

Speed bento technique: Freezing sandwiches

Today’s vegetarian toddler lunch took about five minutes to pack up, using leftovers and frozen cutout sandwiches (today’s speed bento tip). The sandwiches are blueberry jam (sugar-free) and peanut butter, speedy homemade jello cups, purple potato salad with mojito, grape tomatoes, blueberries, and leftover sauteed bell peppers and onions with mustard sauce. The blueberries are in little paper food cups with jokes in Japanese and the answer on the bottom of the cup (”What gets fat and skinny in the night sky?” “The moon!”)

Today’s speed bento technique is freezing sandwiches, which can then be packed frozen in the morning, and left to defrost in the lunch (or warmed in a toaster oven or regular oven). Whereas putting bread in the refrigerator makes it go stale faster, putting it in the freezer halts the staling process. Freezing sandwiches is actually a pretty common tip in Japanese cookbooks; the trick is in choosing freezer-friendly fillings, and freezing them properly to avoid freezer burn. Wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap and put the sandwiches in a freezer container (freezer bag, tupperware, cookie tin, etc.). When packing them in a lunch, either keep them wrapped in plastic wrap or unwrap them (then pack in a covered container like a bento box) — these small ones defrosted on the counter in only about 10 minutes.

I think it might be nice to have a few of these cutout sandwiches frozen for busy mornings when I’m making my son’s lunches, but for myself I like multi-flavored deli-type sandwiches that won’t tend to freeze as well because of the raw greens and mayo. The less intricate cutout shapes (like the rectangle, heart, circle, etc.) will keep longer as I’m able to wrap them more tightly with plastic wrap.

I’ve put together a short list of sandwich fillings below.

DO FREEZE:
bananas (but it will soften; sprinkle with citrus juice if browning bothers you)
Branston pickle
carrots (raw or cooked)
cheese (sliced)
greens (COOKED) (i.e. spinach, cabbages, etc.)
jams, jellies
lunchmeats (ham, roast beef, turkey, etc.)
Marmite or Vegemite
mushrooms (cooked, or raw — but without surface water)
Nutella
peanut butter
tomatoes

DON’T FREEZE:
cream cheese
cucumber (raw)
greens (raw) (i.e. spinach, cabbages, etc.)
honey
lettuce (raw)
mayonnaise

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Published by Biggie on February 21st, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, freezing, parenthacks, sandwich or wrap, tips, tutorial or how to, vegetarian | 43 Comments »

Pineapple lunch for toddler

Â Quickie lunch for my son today: fresh pineapple, steamed broccoli with a ponzu/sesame dressing, and spaghetti with a basic homemade tomato sauce.

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Published by Biggie on February 16th, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, lactose free, pasta or noodles, vegetarian | Comment now »

Organization madness: Lunch accessories

My bento lunch accessories were threatening to take over my kitchen, so I took some drastic organization measures. This is my obsessive way of keeping them neat and within reach when I’m packing lunch in the kitchen. The first is a US$0.99 metal strip from Ikea, and oversized magnetic spice canisters from Ikea (3 for US$4.99) with food picks and sauce bottles (both empty and pre-filled for speed). Click on a photo for notes on what’s stored where.

The plastic boxes on the microwave (from a Japanese dollar store) hold less-used things, while the wooden under-cabinet shelf with drawers holds the most frequently used accessories. The wall shelf with drawers is from Ikea’s FÃ–RHÃ–JA line — the wood drawers hold more than the glass drawer option (which were pointed in the back and didn’t fully utilize available space). Great idea from Flickr user Yurippe.

This is a little box I picked up from Ichiban Kan (a Japanese dollar store) for US$0.99 — perfect for seeing all sizes of food dividers (”baran”) available. Someone help me — it’s an illness… Anyone have any good lunch gear organization ideas? (EDIT: I ran a lunch gear organization event and contest; here’s the event round-up and my kitchen reorganization using some of the ideas from it.)

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Published by Biggie on February 16th, 2007 tagged equipment, organize, parenthacks, tips | 37 Comments »

Speed bento technique: making & freezing yaki onigiri, onigiri

This is another speed bento made with previously frozen yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls) that I defrosted/warmed in the microwave for good texture). The yaki onigiri worked out surprisingly well — I don’t usually have fresh rice hanging around the house, so this’ll be another time saver on mornings when I suddenly feel like rice. The homemade ma po tofu, store-bought Korean octopus panchan, steamed kabocha and juice jello cup were all leftovers, so it only took about 5 minutes to assemble this bento in the morning.

Yaki onigiri freeze extremely well, retaining their shape and flavor when packed in bento lunches and eaten at room temperature (important: reheat in the microwave before packing). Yaki onigiri are classic izakaya (pub) or bento food — very nostalgic for us. I’m lucky my husband didn’t eat all of them when I was making them!

First I made rice balls with triangular onigiri molds, then lightly firmed them up with my salted, wet hands for a flavor boost. Using molds is optional, of course — you could form them freehand if you like. In Japan, I usually saw yaki onigiri without stuffing or nori wrapping, but make them however you like best. You can grill them on an indoor fish grill (shown here), a grilling rack placed directly on a gas burner, an outside gas or charcoal grill, inside grill pan, etc. (EDIT: you can also make them over low heat in a nonstick frying pan lightly oiled with vegetable oil.) First heat the grill to medium heat, place the onigiri on the grill, and don’t move them at all for several minutes. Gently turn it over once the bottom is lightly browned as shown here. Grill the bottom half until browned, then turn down the heat to low.

With the heat now reduced to low, lightly brush the browned top with soy sauce and turn it over so that it heats through. Brush the other browned side with soy sauce, and turn it over again so that both sides have been grilled twice: once plain, and once with soy sauce. If you like, you can also brush the sides with soy sauce and grill those as well. The onigiri should now have a crisp outside crust.

It’s now ready to eat, pack in your lunch, or freeze. To freeze, first wrap each individual onigiri in plastic wrap, freeze, then put them all in a freezer bag for longer-term storage (sucking the air out of the bag with a straw — think of do-it-yourself FoodSaver vacuum-packing). To use a frozen yaki onigiri, it’s important to reheat it first in the microwave before packing (on Cook until it’s warm), otherwise the texture of the soft rice inside will be nasty. The crunchy exterior softens in the freezing/reheating, but otherwise tastes the same as when it’s fresh.

My son had a similar bento today, but with pre-frozen onigiri rolled in sakura denbu (sweet, colored fish flakes) and red hana ebi (savory, colored fish powder).

Surprisingly, you can actually prepare onigiri in advance and stash them in the freezer. No, seriously, you can — it’s in Japanese-language bento books and I saw people do it when I lived in Japan. The trick is to use very fresh rice (that’s moist and hasn’t been sitting in the rice cooker for hours), wrap each onigiri individually before freezing, and after you take them out of the freezer be sure to heat them in the microwave until they’re warm and soft again. If you thaw them on the counter or in the refrigerator the texture will be hard and nasty, so the microwave step is very important. (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.)

In this photo I put all of the freshly wrapped, warm onigiri (shaped in molds) on a metal pie plate to speed freezing.

After freezing, I put them in a labelled freezer bag and sucked all of the air out of the bag with a straw before sealing (like do-it-yourself FoodSaver vacuum packing). This helps ward off freezer burn.