You can fight the sleep but not the dream

[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:



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.

Comments

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

Crowded House, always take the weather with you. But I thought it was find, not fight. So it may be a completely different one.

And Kedgeree Bento sounds different...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

That looks yummy!

My preference for flavouring cold rice is olive oil and garlic, or cook the rice in stock instead of water in the first place... but neither is exactly super secret tech.

Looking at that pic, could I ask you for a quick tip: How do you go about peeling boiled eggs? Mine always end up falling apart before I have all the shell off.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, that does look good!