venta

I did promise that I wouldn't post about my dinner much any more. However, here is a bento from a week or two ago that I made to fulfill a promise to

huskyteer...

I've been pottering along happily with my bento boxes, grabbing frozen rice to defrost each morning. Then suddenly one evening I thought, right tomorrow I'll have... er... oh. No, I won't. No rice.

Can I be bothered to cook rice from scratch in the morning? Er... probably not. If you're doing Japanese-style rice properly, it takes bloody ages. Hmm. Maybe tomorrow is a day for going to the work canteen.

Or... Hmm. I formed a plan, got a bit of smoked haddock out of the freezer to thaw, and went to bed.

The following morning I got up, washed a handful of basmati rice and threw it on to boil with turmeric. I rubbed the bit of fish with garam masala and powdered ginger, wrapped it in foil and popped it in the oven to bake. I stuck an egg on to boil. I chopped a piece of a portable mushroom up finely, and some spring onions.

And, er, I poached some celery in wine, which wasn't really very on-message but celery was the only thing I had on hand remote resembling a green vegetable. Spinach would have been a better bet.

The result... the deconstructed kedgeree bento:

bento box of yellow rice, sliced egg, baked fish and celery

bento box of yellow rice, sliced egg, baked fish and celery

As you can see, my ability to take in-focus pictures first thing in the morning hasn't improved.

It was moderately successful as a lunchbox. The rice - despite being alledgedly flavoured with turmeric, and having onion and mushroom mixed through it - was a little bland. I know the turmeric-flavouring works well for something you're going to eat hot, but it doesn't stand up well to being eaten cold.

Suggestions for improvement are welcome, though with a prep. time of nearly forty minutes this one ain't happening often.