May 2009

All the content on this site by month.

What to do with Tofu?

  • Posted on: 29 May 2009
  • By: anon.
During Maki's Veggie month, I dedicated three out of the seven days of the week to just eat vegetables and fruits. So, it was kinda like being a vegetarian for half the week. Even though, I was thrilled about the month's theme, this was even more exciting! It was a out-of-whim call to do, but in the end it paid off. After twenty-nine days of this half vegetarian/ half omnivore, I decided to go 100% vegetarian. Risky.. yes... but this site has enough yummies to satisfy me. :]
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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 550 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 10-15 minutes in the morning

Type: Vegetarian, Japanese with a twist

Bento filler: Zucchini flower blossom-end fritters

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Zucchini or courgette flowers are beautiful things to behold at the market. The most commonly seen recipes using them seem to call for stuffing them with meat or cheese, but they are great just simply fried too.

When trying to come up with a fritter that would fit neatly into a bento box, I found that the floppy flower petals got a bit too messy looking. So I cut them off, ending up with just the round blossom ends. They look rather like giant buttercups.

These little fritters are good hot or cold. They are very easy to make, so I would suggest making them for dinner and holding back a few for your bento the next day.

Some site news: May bento contest deadline reminder, the Bento Gear Flickr pool, a cool bento blog, and a big thank you!

I was interviewed on WRS Geneva, an English-language radio station in Geneva (Genève), Switzerland, this past Tuesday, on their food programme called Stir It Up. The MP3 is up now for download (link now corrected!), so if you want to know how I sound, with a stuffed nose (from allergies...agh!) complete with my totally mixed up accent, my segment starts after the rhubarb at around 9:45. It might be of interest to people who want to know why I started blogging about Japanese food after moving to Switzerland of all places. I also talk about about the growing popularity of bento boxes! (Cross-posted to Just Hungry and Just Bento.)

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Bento contents:

  • 1 cup (240ml, about 150g) brown rice, 240 calories
  • 3/4 cup (180ml) vegan iri dofu, 225 calories
  • Snow peas and pickled red ginger (beni shouga) for garnish

Total calories (approx): 465 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 15 minutes the night before; 5 minutes in the morning

Type: Traditional Japanese, vegan

Vegan iri dofu (iri doufu) with garlic chives

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Iri dofu or iri doufu (炒り豆腐) is a simple, homely dish, real Japanese style 'mother's cooking'. Probably every Japanese home cook has his or her own recipe, but the base is plain tofu that is crumbled and then stirred around or gently stir fried (the iri 炒り part means that) until it resembles dry scrambled egg. In fact, it's rather like the tofu version of iri tamago, but with more flavor and texture.

Iri dofu recipes often contain meat (usually pork), dashi or both, but here I have kept it vegan (in keeping with our vegetarian theme for May). I have added umami by including chopped dried shiitake mushrooms, miso and soy sauce. Garlic chives and ginger also add to the flavor, while the sansho pepper (also known as sichuan pepper) adds spice.

The best way to eat this is to simply pile it onto rice. Of course it's perfect for a easy, healthy bento.

Spring Pasta and Chickpea Salad and Bento-Friendly Pasta Salad Basics

Spring pasta salad bento

We are now entering pasta salad season, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere. Easy to assemble and delicious at room temperature, at first glance you might think that pasta salads are perfect in bentos. There are a few things to watch out for though, in order to make sure that your salad is as safe as it is delicious at lunchtime. I also have a super-easy Chickpea and Pasta Salad recipe that is very bento-friendly; it's vegetarian (easily converted to being vegan), to fit in with the theme for this month.

(The survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who responded - your comments were and are truly useful to my project!)

In connection with a project I'm working on at the moment, I'd like to take a short 5-question survey of Just Bento and Just Hungry readers.

I assume you are here because you have at least some interest in Japanese food and cooking. My questions are as follows.

start of veggie bentos

  • Posted on: 4 May 2009
  • By: anon.
So, it's May now and thanks to Maki's new bento challenge, I've been researching on a few vegetarian dishes and ideas. Of course, salads are the most obvious veggie dish, so I made a nice pasta salad. It's really easy, and perfect for my future obentos this week: I call it my greek pasta salad. It consists of pasta ( i choose multicolor spirals just for decoration), green onion, carrots, and a greek dressing. Literally! It's a great bento filer and has two veggies and a helping of carbs.