August 2008

All the content on this site by month.

Quick tip: Using tofu in bento-friendly recipes

Tofu is a great protein, especially useful for vegan or vegetarian, but also useful for lightening up meat based recipes. I use tofu in a number of recipes here, but I thought it would be useful to address how to deal with tofu when you're using it for bento recipes.

Mediterranean flavored green vegan burgers

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I've loaded up the recipe archives with several chicken recipes, so now it's time to add some more vegan and vegetarian recipes! To kick things off, here is a versatile, very tasty and very nutritious tofu based burger.

I haven't done much in the garden this year, but I did rather randomly sew a whole lot of 'cut and come again' type greens seeds. Despite not taking much care of them, at the moment we are inundated with loads of slightly insect and slug-nibbled arugula or rucola, Swiss chard and other greens.

These vegan burgers are a very nice way to use up lots of greens like these in ways other than in salads. They are light yet very flavorful, so that even the most hardened carnivore is likely to gobble them up. They are good plain, or with a dipping sauce, and are great for bentos.

The Onigiri (Omusubi) FAQ

smileyonigiri.pngI have written quite exhaustively about onigiri, or rice balls, here on Just Bento as well as on Just Hungry. Many people have asked similar questions about onigiri, which seem to just be gaining and gaining in popularity these days.

So I've assembled a list of Onigiri FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). I'll update this list when I see (or remember) other questions periodically. Hopefully your questions are answered here - if not, you know what to do! (ask in the comments!)

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Whenever I use the little apple shaped mayonnaise container in my bentos (as I did in the most recent bento no. 48) I always get comments or emails asking where they came from. It's designed by Shinzi Katoh, a very popular graphic designer and ilustrator in Japan. Of interest to bento fans is the fact that he has designed several bento boxes and accessories.

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Bento contents:

  • 2 slices of bread, 85 cal each - 170 cal
  • Pan-fried salty chicken, 2 small chicken thighs totalling 70g (2.5oz) with skin, 150 cal
  • About 1/3-1/2 cup carrot kinpira, 50 cal
  • Lettuce and cherry tomatoes, 5 cal
  • 1/3 cucumber with dill, 10 cal
  • 1/2 Tbs. mayonnaise (in apple shaped container), 50 cal

Total calories (approx): 435 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5-10 minutes in the morning

How Just Bento is organized, and finding your way around

I have noticed a lot of new visitors coming to Just Bento lately, so now is a good a time as ever to explain how the site is organized, and how to find your way around. (And if you are new here, welcome! I hope you enjoy the site!)

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A bit off-topic, but a visual treat for you for the weekend. This is an assortment of delicate rice crackers from Kyoto, that my mother sent to me in her latest care package. They are mostly savory, but a few (like the brown flat ones that look like mini pancakes) are subtly sweet. I've arranged them in a hand lacquered two-tier wooden bento box. I'm contemplating whether I'm brave enough to pack a regular bento in there since it's so beautiful!

But what I wanted to focus on were the rice crackers. Here is a closeup:

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I think the blend of colors and textures is so beautiful and elegant without being at all garish. It really has a Kyoto aesthetic.

As I've said here a few times previously, I'm not really into cute charaben/kyaraben, but if I can manage to make my bento boxes as visually appealing as this humble assortment of rice crackers, I'd be very happy indeed.

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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 400 (how calories are calculated)

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Bento contents:

  • Approx. 1 cup of white rice, 200 cal, with a little furikake on top
  • Stewed chicken dumplings and carrot using about 90g of dark skinless chicken meat, 120 cal
  • Blanched green beans, 30 cal
  • 2 cherry tomatoes, 5 cal (if that)

Total calories (approx): 355 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5-10 minutes in the morning, just to pack everything in the bento box

Type: Japanese, chicken!

Miso chicken (tori misoyaki)

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The last recipe in my chicken mini-marathon is this so-simple yet tasty miso marinated and pan-fried or grilled chicken. I've again used chicken thighs, but this works well with breast meat as well as other meats such as pork and beef, and fish too. Sweet-salty miso marinades like this are quite standard in Japanese cooking. (See New Potatoes with Sweet-Spicy Miso, over on Just Hungry.)

Balsamic Sesame Chicken

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Continuing the chicken theme, here is another very simple recipe using boneless chicken thighs. This time I have used skinless meat. The thighs are cut into pieces, marinated in balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, and coated with sesame seeds. The balsamic vinegar adds tang and a little sweetness. They are then simply pan=fried in a non-stick frying pan that is barely coated with oil. I've used both black and white sesame seeds for a little added color, but you could use all-white (light brown) sesame seeds. (Using all black seeds might make them look carbonized!)

Simply grilled or pan-fried salted chicken thighs

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Continuing on the chicken-fit-for-bento theme, here is another very simple grilled or pan-fried chicken recipe. This time, instead of chicken breast, chicken thighs are used. I know that many dieters avoid dark meat, and it is admittedly higher in fat content than white. But I think it's so much more flavorful, especially when it comes from ordinary supermarket chicken.

When I was in college, I did the bookkeeping for a midtown Manhattan Japanese restaurant for a few months. The pay was mediocre and the work itself was quite boring, but I did at least get free lunch. Even though theoretically I could choose anything from the menu (barring the really expensive sushi or sashimi) on most days I chose the chikin shioyaki teishoku (Grilled salt chicken set). It was just a large salted chicken thigh with side vegetables (broccoli and something else, which I can't remember), a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of white rice, but that chicken was so delicious! I couldn't figure out why it was so crispy on the outside yet juicy on the inside. Some time later, I found out their 'secret' in a roundabout way. The key is to salt the chicken meat, then let it rest for a while. This causes the chicken to exude excess moisture, and firms up the meat. It does mean you need to plan ahead a bit to allow for the resting time, but it's well worth it. You might wonder if a chicken dish can be so good with just salt and a little pepper, but it really is!

Two kinds of chicken tsukune: Stewed dumplings and panfried mini-burgers

More chicken recipes! Tsukune is a term that means "kneaded and shaped into a round shape". It usually means a dish made with finely ground and flavored chicken or fish. Chicken tsukune are very well suited to bentos, since they are soft and stay nice and moist. They are also gluten-free (no breadcrumbs!), if you take care to use a gluten-free cornstarch or potato starch and soy sauce.

Today I'll show you how to make two type of chicken tsukune from the same basic recipe. First, the very traditional stewed tsukune dumplings, cooked in a broth with carrots (tsukune-ni).

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And here are some pan-fried tsukune, or tsukune baagaa (tsukune burgers) - actually mini-burgers to fit neatly into a bento box.

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The easiest always-moist poached chicken

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Poached chicken is a really handy thing to have around, for making chicken salad, sandwiches, and a whole lot more. When I have the time and the will, I poach whole chickens and stock them in the freezer. These days though, I don't have the time or the energy for such tasks, so I cheat a bit and poach boneless chicken breasts.

While chicken breasts are so handy, it's very easy to overcook them. This method is just about the easiest and most foolproof way of cooking the white meat so that it's moist and tender, yet cooked through properly.

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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 410 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 10-15 minutes in the morning

Type: Japanese, chicken!

Pan-fried lemon chicken nuggets

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Although I use chicken quite a lot in my bentos, I realized that I have very few bento-appropriate chicken recipes up here on Just Bento, or even over on Just Hungry. I am going to rectify this situation over the next few days, so if you are a chicken fan, stay tuned!

The first chicken recipe is one I have made for years and years - tender, lemony white meat nuggets that are infused with lemon. They very quick to make, good hot or cold, and versatile. They are pan fried, not deep-fried, so they are not crispy on the outside, but are delicious nevertheless. You can use them in a rice based bento, with noodles, or as a sandwich filling. They can be eaten as-is with a cocktail stick or the fingers too.

Cooked to death hot and sweet peppers

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Greenhouse grown peppers are available year round, but summer is when peppers are really in season. I picked up a bushel load of colorful hot and sweet peppers at a market last week, and some of them turned into this item which is great for bento.

It couldn't be easier to make, but does take a little time. A mixture of mildly hot chili peppers and sweet peppers are briefly stir fried in sesame oil, then simmered for about half an hour or more. The peppers are falling-apart soft, spicy, sweet and salty. It's great to tuck into the corner of a bento box, and, well drained of the cooking liquid, also makes a great and unusual filling for onigiri (rice balls).

My grandmother used to make this kind of 'cooked to death' or until very limp (kuta-kuta ni) vegetable dish quite a bit. It's a great way to reduce a big pile of vegetables to a manageable eating amount. This method works well with green beans too. I think it's rather similar to the way some vegetables such as greens are cooked for a long time in American Southern cooking. I'm no nutrionist, but you do eat all of the 'cooking liquor' alongside the vegetables, so nutrition loss may not be so bad, though raw-food advocates may shudder.

The key here is the selection of peppers. The spicy chili pepppers should only be mildly spicy. In Japan you would use shishito peppers. Here I used a variety from Italy that I'm not sure of the variety name of, but it is similarly thin-walled and mild enough not to burn my mouth. Jalapeños or anchos might be good choices too. For the sweet peppers, I used the long red peppers that are called banana peppers, Hungarian peppers or paprikas, depending on who is selling them and where.