I had no illusions that I'd ever find a glimpse of summer's heatwaves in your eyes

[venta]

Last week, I was browsing for a link online to the scary Japanese egg-moulds that some people think are an essential ingredient of bento boxes. As a side-effect, I found the rather wonderful website, Just Bento which is run by a Japanese lady living in Switzerland, and provides masses of information about making bento boxes.

Bento, as the website helpfully explains, is just a Japanese word for any meal served in a box. In British Japanese restaurants, a bento box is a full meal served in a lacquered, multi-section box, which is how I usually understand the term. However, it seems that the rather simpler approach is the sort of boxed lunch that I'm led to believe is the standard Japanese packed lunch.

Anyway, I pottered around the Just Bento website, and got quite excited and decided that I quite fancied making myself bento boxes for lunch. The major disadvantage of this, as Just Bento Lady points out, is that you have to get out of bed a bit earlier to actually assemble the thing. I am not good at getting out of bed.

Reading the website, I very nearly succumbed to a creeping evil I call new-hobby disorder. Ooh, I thought, I could make a trip to the nice Japanese shop in West Acton and buy various ingredients, and I could order a pretty bento box online that'll be the right shape to fit in my bag...

Oy, I said. Stop it, I said. See if you can manage the getting up of the morning and actually doing it part first, then start purchasing the glamorous accessories. Accordingly, my bento boxes this week will be presented in those cheap, white plastic containers that take-away meals arrive in.

So, yesterday morning I bounced out of bed (aided by being actually quite excited at the prospect of assembling my exciting new lunch). On Saturday I'd bought a piece of salmon and made some salted salmon, and I made up a batch of pepper and onion confit. I'd also cooked a batch of rice and frozen it in portions as recommended by Bento Lady. Yesterday morning, I nuked the frozen rice and squashed it into one end of a box. I cooked a piece of the salmon, dolloped out a portion of vegetable confit and made a little Japanese omelette (tamagoyaki). The omelette had been a bit daunting, as I don't have a proper tamagoyaki pan (or indeed a small normal frying pan), but at the last minute I found a cheaty one-egg one-person-sized tamagoyaki method that used a normal frying pan.

I shoehorned everything into the box, realised there was an odd-shaped space left, so steamed some broccoli florets to fill the gap (where by steamed I do mean nuked in a mug in the microwave :)

I was quite proud of the resulting box:



It survived the trip to work without suffering mishap, damage or becoming disarrayed. It was pretty good, though it was a first attempt and I feel it could be improved. I'd massively over-salted the salmon, for example, and found it a bit too much.

The rice was also a little hard and dry. Which is what I expect from frozen rice, but I'd been won over by Bento Lady's assurances that if you wrap it up in cling film while still warm, cool it, then freeze it it'll be ok. It was indeed "ok", but no better; I'll try again with a shorter-grain rice as I believe they freeze better (if you can't tell from the pic, that's brown rice).

The omelette was bloody marvellous, though :)

Yesterday morning, it did take me quite some time to put my box together: around 35 minutes. However most of that was unfamiliarity: can I just put this cling-film wrapped portion of rice straight in the microwave? Will it explode if I don't puncture the cling film? (The answers, by the way, are yes and no, respectively). I had to keep consulting recipes and instructions, and I also faffed around chopping up, wrapping and freezing the rest of the salted salmon. I am optimistic that this time can be improved on.

I'm not put off the idea yet. Watch this space for further boxes and the debate of various philosophical lunch-related points...

Comments

[killalla]

I have a number of inexpensive bento boxes and some related items (egg moulds, rice shapers, etc.) and I sometimes prep bentos, but I often can't be bothered to put it all together in the morning, so I go for cold leftover combinations that can be prepped and left in the fridge the night before. That way, so long as I remember to take it out of the fridge, I have a nice packed lunch ready to go.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I will follow this with interest, as I also love the idea of bento boxes but not the fiddly getting-up-early business.

I might have a whack at salted salmon, too; I happen to have a couple of fillets in the fridge right now!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

OMG, is that a still from Sherlock Hound???

[venta.livejournal.com]

I can't answer your question, but I have a suspicion that you and killalla might get on well...

[venta.livejournal.com]

The recipe recommends Maldon sea salt, on account of it's "round, flat flakes". I didn't have any sea salt, and my local deli could only provide me with an Italian brand which I figured would be ok.

The granules of the salt I bought were more or less like hailstones, so when salting the salmon I ended up using a lot more than was probably intended.

I'm not saying that this can only be done with Maldon sea salt, but definitely approach with caution!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm not sure how long my enthusiasm will last for cooking stuff up (or at least heating it) every morning. The Bento Lady is very firm on the idea that you should do things in the morning, but once I feel I've got the hang of it a bit more I suspect I might start to veer towards laziness :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

My flatmate has some trendy salt which may or may not be Maldon...

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I like http://www.lunchinabox.net and bentolunch. Most of my lunch boxes are boring cheese sandwich affairs, especially atm, but I have B's permission to make more interesting things up to half the time, and make more interesting things for me and J if we have lunch out. Home made sushi is yummy even if a Japanese person probably wouldn't recognise my version, and I'm not big on rice generally.

As for the egg moulds, I use them even if we're not going out. Judith loves car shaped eggs, so sometimes I boil us eggs for today and save one to shape for tomorrow.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Damn, you replied before I could fix my aberrant apostrophe :)

Maldon salt is certainly very hipster-compliant, as I understand it.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, and in case you're interested, this is the last time I made a lunch worth sharing and gives a reasonable idea of the 'more interesting' things I might put in lunch.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Gosh, you cook in cups! How does one do a cup of marg? I've always wondered!

(Cookies do sound good, though...)

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Big in Japan; marvellous!

I so wouldn't want to eat Miffy-shaped boiled eggs though, it just seems cruel.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I cook by eyeballing it. I think I may once have packed marge into a cup to see how much it looked like, but mostly I just guess, and pick my audience as to whether I translate into appproximate weights or volumes.

In that case, I think I got it from a source that used cups but adapted it quite a bit.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

How can you eat such a tiny little lunch? Did you have a spare one as well?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er... I didn't think it was tiny! It seemed like plenty of food (and I was expecting to have a main meal in the evening). Everything is quite densely packed (there's about a cup measure of brown rice in there, for example, which I find pretty filling, and the piece of salmon is bigger-salmon-shrunk-down on account of the salting, so is denser than expected).

I think of myself (in general) as someone who's quite a big eater, so I'm slightly alarmed to have the magnitude of my lunch called into question :)

Also I'm not doing the big exercise things that you're doing, like canoeing, so maybe I need less food?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes! When I was a kid, I never understood why making food teddy-bear shaped was meant to make me want to eat it :)

Also, one kudo.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I read the salted salmon instructions with some puzzlement. If I still have to freeze it and then cook it, what was the benefit of salting it exactly?

Bento boxes are cool, though. I look forward to seeing what you get up to with them!

[venta.livejournal.com]

An interesting fact (which may not be true): Bento Lady reckons that, assuming you're following her approximate guidelines for carbs:protein:vegetables ratio then the calorie content of one's lunch is approximately the same as the capacity of the box in millilitres. (Obviously depends wildly on what you put in the box :)

Which means mine is about 600, although I'm not convinced that I'm really following her guidelines anyway.

(It's worth noting that the "traditional" ratio above is alledgedly 4:2:1, which is very much not what Bento Lady is aiming for because apparently she's trying to lose weight. I'm not entirely sure what ratio mine was yesterday.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

It makes it taste different :)

I think also it improves the keepiness once you've cooked it: the whole aim is not to have to put the box in the fridge, so it has to be able to cope happily at room temperature between cooking and eating.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Looks about the same size as my typical lunch, certainly.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

So you eat the box contents cold?

[venta.livejournal.com]

This is something coming up in a future post :)

I'm aiming for what I'm informed is the traditional approach which is eating it at room temperature (not chilled), as I hate chilled food.

I guess it depends what's in the box: pretty much everything yesterday would have made sense if I'd microwaved it at lunchtime.

[venta.livejournal.com]

In case it isn't obvious: I'm aiming for that approach because it's appealing, not because it's traditional!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Ah, of course. I mainly eat sandwiches which are less dense on account of bread being full of bubbles :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Blame it on the bubbles :)

I actually find sandwiches really unpredictably filling. I guess it depends perfectly logically on type of bread, type of filling, etc, but I don't appear in practice to be able to work it out. The usual result is that my sandwich lunches are not quite big enough (or, occasionally, too big, but mostly too small).

[killalla]

Yes it is! I love it - it's Miyazaki + Sherlock Holmes two great tastes that taste great together, and I have all six DVDs. If you live in or around Oxford, you could come watch them or borrow them from me.

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Also bear in mind that this refers to bento boxes that are _stuffed_ to the lid, especially the rice portion.

In my experience, it is about a meal's worth thanks to the rice, yep. Hmmm maybe I should restart bentos too... d'you think it's cheating if I have them at home?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, my intention is to stuff to the lid (if only to prevent the contents shifting about in transit), but practicalities have got in the way. If you're going to stuff, you need to get the quantities spot on (or, I suppose, make sure that every day you have enough of something that you can stuff until full and keep the leftovers).

Also... it's actually just more difficult than expected! Even getting the damn rice packed into the box at one end has been quite a challenge of dexterity for me. Every time you think you've got it sorted, a bulge develops somewhere else. I guess it might be easier with proper sushi rice rather than brown longrain, though!

d'you think it's cheating if I have them at home?

No! (http://www.justbento.com/why-make-bento-lunch-if-you-work-home) :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I find triangular ones more filling than square ones even though they are exactly the same amount of bread. I suspect it's to do with getting two mouthfuls per sandwich that are entirely crust and no filling, while with square ones at least you have a right angle to chase a little bit of ham into.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Interesting :) Assuming one's bread is (very) approximately square, I always cut my sandwiches into only two rectangles, because that's much more filling than four squares (or triangles). Something about little tiny sandwiches makes me feel like I'm not getting a proper meal.

(Though logically, I guess I should be more full after four squares, because I'd probably eat them more slowly.)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I don't cut it at all and just eat the big square :) nomnomnom

[venta.livejournal.com]

That's just crazy talk!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Drat, I am in London or I would in a heartbeat. All I know of the series is 2 adventures that I'd take out of the local video shop over and over again...

(My first love is Dogtanian but I will flirt with other historical anthropomorphic cartoon dogs.)

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'm really tempted to get an egg-mould for next time I make pickled eggs!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I'm exactly the opposite, I always cut into four pieces to make it seem like more sandwich.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Interested by the bit about freezing cooked rice and subsequently reheating. I've been told repeatedly by T that this is the royal road to food-poisoning, so I've been a bit wary of it lately. But perhaps this is just her family superstition, or there's some step that makes it safe.

(Mind you, I was also told that microwaving things wrapped in contact with clingfilm [as against eg. in a bowl with clingfilm over the top] is the royal road to exciting cancers. I don't suppose that's true either.)

[lnr]

With rice you have to cool it quickly and then keep it cool. If you do that it doesn't get a chance to grow the bacteria that grow on rice and produce a toxin which isn't destroyed by heating. There's nothing actually wrong with reheating rice per se though.

So I'm less worried about the cooked, frozen and reheated aspects and more by the keeping it room temp until lunchtime. But I guess since you're effectively eating it same day you reheated it'll still be OK.

rice everday

[(Anonymous)]

How much time do you take to prepare your bento daily? While preparing other food, 3/4 rice usually takes about 10-15minutes to cook in a rice cooker. So you can prep ur rice and prepare other food...

ee
http://ee-myjunkhobby.blogspot.com/

Lazy

[deena caunt (from livejournal.com)]

I ALWAYS make my bento the day before and keep them in the fridge , they're fine done that way . And the egg moulds are really cheap you know , they work perfectly too . Treat yourself , you NEED star shaped eggs .

[venta.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that since Japanese people have been carrying their lunchtime rice about since pre-refridgeration it's probably fine... except I realised that by the same argument I'd have to accept all the 15th century British meat-related practices...

It's usually going to be <6 hours between reheating and eating, so I'm hoping that's fine. I'll get back to you :)

Re: rice everday

[venta.livejournal.com]

... if you have a rice cooker :) Which I don't. And I know they're not very expensive, but I don't think I really want another space-hogging gadget in my kitchen...