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There would be no reason if you really didn't care
I had a plan for various bento box constituent parts this week, but none of them involved roast lamb. Due to a minor butcher-related issue at the weekend (they could sell us a half-shoulder of lamb that was too small for four people, or a full shoulder that was too large) we have a small excess of cold roast lamb in the fridge.
Bento Lady (who writes Just Bento, and isn't really called that at all) is all about using up leftovers when making bento boxes. Sadly, she tends to have complicated Japanese leftovers, and was low on suggestions (that I could find) of how to use up the remnants of a Sunday roast.
I could, of course, just put some slices in with my lunch. However, I find cold roast lamb by itself to be a bit fatty-tasting (obviously it's no less fatty when you cover it with sauce, but it's less noticable). I've also been following Bento Lady's guidelines on packing lunch...
Bento boxes, if you're being all traditional about it, are meant to be eaten at room temperature. Obviously you can nuke them before eating (assuming you have access to a nukerer in your office), but the idea of room-temperature meals really appealed to me. I have a violent dislike[*] of cold/chilled food. When I've taken to work a packed lunch which needs to be fridged, I've been known to take it out an hour or so in advance to chambre. I've also been known to forget quite a lot more frequently. I also like the idea of being able to just eat my lunch, without waiting for a turn at the microwave, waiting for it to heat up, waiting for it to cool down enough to eat, etc.
However, if you're going to make your lunch in the morning, and keep it out of the fridge, it'd be nice if it remained safe to eat at lunchtime. Bento Lady's guidelines for this are basically: pack the box hot, let it cool, put its lid on. Even if you have pre-cooked constituent bits, at least heat them up before packing them into the box. The whole plan also precludes any form of raw fish or raw/partcooked meat getting involved :)
So, while my parcel of frozen rice twirled round in the microwave this morning, I chopped some bits off the lamb and heated them up with a smidgeon of water, some chopped spring onions and some ginger. Once I figured they were heated through, I threw in some tonkatsu sauce. And I made a batch of carrot kinpira, and as a side-effect filled the entire flat with smoke.
Since I'm using generic take-away containers, my box doesn't have any dividers. I was worried that things were going to get a little mixed up (obviously not a big deal, really, but would spoil the pretty-bento-neatness of it and let the very different flavours intermingle) so I made myself some dividers out of cucumber.
Here's the finished box (which seems to be rather less in-focus than yesterday's):
It was pretty nice, actually, and didn't taste that blurry. Though I really must learn that, when cooking with chilli flakes, the answer to "how much?" is "slightly less than that". The carrots could also have been cooked for less time; I was worried they were going to end up overly crunchy, but actually I felt in the end they might have benefited from a little more crunch.
Despite my cucumber-based segregation (I ate the dividers as well, by the way), quite a bit of the sauce from the carrots and the lamb had ended up at the bottom of the box, mixed up, which improved the rice a lot.
Compilation took about 20 minutes, and I have enough carroty stuff left for another box later in the week. I still feel like there was no need for it to take that long; even allowing for chopping the carrots into matchsticks (which I could have done in advance the night before) there really wasn't an awful lot to do. Actually, it might well have been more like 25 minutes by the time I'd washed the wok and the saucepan, and put stuff away.
Incidentally, even if you have no intention of making a bento box, I recommend those carrots as a cold side-dish sort of thing. I think they're great, and I don't even like carrots all that much.
[*] Exceptions do exist. I eat ice cream cold.
Bento Lady (who writes Just Bento, and isn't really called that at all) is all about using up leftovers when making bento boxes. Sadly, she tends to have complicated Japanese leftovers, and was low on suggestions (that I could find) of how to use up the remnants of a Sunday roast.
I could, of course, just put some slices in with my lunch. However, I find cold roast lamb by itself to be a bit fatty-tasting (obviously it's no less fatty when you cover it with sauce, but it's less noticable). I've also been following Bento Lady's guidelines on packing lunch...
Bento boxes, if you're being all traditional about it, are meant to be eaten at room temperature. Obviously you can nuke them before eating (assuming you have access to a nukerer in your office), but the idea of room-temperature meals really appealed to me. I have a violent dislike[*] of cold/chilled food. When I've taken to work a packed lunch which needs to be fridged, I've been known to take it out an hour or so in advance to chambre. I've also been known to forget quite a lot more frequently. I also like the idea of being able to just eat my lunch, without waiting for a turn at the microwave, waiting for it to heat up, waiting for it to cool down enough to eat, etc.
However, if you're going to make your lunch in the morning, and keep it out of the fridge, it'd be nice if it remained safe to eat at lunchtime. Bento Lady's guidelines for this are basically: pack the box hot, let it cool, put its lid on. Even if you have pre-cooked constituent bits, at least heat them up before packing them into the box. The whole plan also precludes any form of raw fish or raw/partcooked meat getting involved :)
So, while my parcel of frozen rice twirled round in the microwave this morning, I chopped some bits off the lamb and heated them up with a smidgeon of water, some chopped spring onions and some ginger. Once I figured they were heated through, I threw in some tonkatsu sauce. And I made a batch of carrot kinpira, and as a side-effect filled the entire flat with smoke.
Since I'm using generic take-away containers, my box doesn't have any dividers. I was worried that things were going to get a little mixed up (obviously not a big deal, really, but would spoil the pretty-bento-neatness of it and let the very different flavours intermingle) so I made myself some dividers out of cucumber.
Here's the finished box (which seems to be rather less in-focus than yesterday's):
It was pretty nice, actually, and didn't taste that blurry. Though I really must learn that, when cooking with chilli flakes, the answer to "how much?" is "slightly less than that". The carrots could also have been cooked for less time; I was worried they were going to end up overly crunchy, but actually I felt in the end they might have benefited from a little more crunch.
Despite my cucumber-based segregation (I ate the dividers as well, by the way), quite a bit of the sauce from the carrots and the lamb had ended up at the bottom of the box, mixed up, which improved the rice a lot.
Compilation took about 20 minutes, and I have enough carroty stuff left for another box later in the week. I still feel like there was no need for it to take that long; even allowing for chopping the carrots into matchsticks (which I could have done in advance the night before) there really wasn't an awful lot to do. Actually, it might well have been more like 25 minutes by the time I'd washed the wok and the saucepan, and put stuff away.
Incidentally, even if you have no intention of making a bento box, I recommend those carrots as a cold side-dish sort of thing. I think they're great, and I don't even like carrots all that much.
[*] Exceptions do exist. I eat ice cream cold.
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This of course means I never believe in leaving lamb behind......
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This of course means I never believe in leaving lamb behind......
Where were you when we needed you on Sunday, then !?
;)
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Last night: mug of rice up to the panda's head, two mugs of stock, half an onion, some chopped lamb... enough biryani for four people. Magic.
(Not very convenient magic, as it turned out, since there was only two of us.)
Vaguely terrified by this BBC recipe which reckons 10 1/2 oz (uncooked weight) rice to serve 1! Surely a mistake :)
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I usually solve this by adding frozen yoghurt into the lunchbox, or sometimes something else frozen, such as chicken wings or pumpkin pie. Everything is room temperature by lunchtime, but the frozen stuff helps it warm up more slowly, preserving it. That's the theory anyway, and none of us have had food poisoning yet.
Roast lamb also makes a nice filling for onigiri, especially if you have a little gravy to keep it moist. Here's a guide to making onigiri with biscuit cutters but actually I have onigiri moulds or I use ice cream sandwich moulds or just use my hands.
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Thanks for the tip, though - re-purposing existing kitchen bits rather than buying special single-purpose equipment is useful for people running out of kitchen-space (ie me).
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