La petite biscotte

During the last two weeks I didn’t get much time to post but I managed to keep reading my favorite blogs and some very interesting things have been posted:

Biggie over at Lunch in a Box updated her link section (click here) with a lot of new bento blogs/sites. Over the past year or two the trend seems to have spread and there are so many bento blogs now, it’s amazing!

For everyone that lives in Europe and especially in France it might be very difficult sometimes to come buy Japanese articles such as bento boxes or cooking utensils. Ichiban Kan is a Japanese discount dollar store that has several subsidiaries all over America. You can get all those great colorful articles from Japan there for very cheap. Unfortunately in Europe there is no such store yet. But luckily thanks to Biggie on Lunch in a Box, I found out that Ichiban Kan is opening an online store. Check out Ichiban Kan’s blog for more info. Bento Toys r Us, yay!

Did you ever hear of furikake? No? (And I’m sorry to disappoint but it’s nothing filthy I’m getting at) Furikake is a topping for rice that can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge. You can assemble bentos very quickly in the morning with it and most of the time it enhances the looks of the bento greatly. Maki at Just Bento made a few great posts about several furikake recipes. They are a great help, especially if you don’t have much time.

One last AWESOME thing I discovered for bento lovers is this flickr community, which is very active and frequently updated with bento pictures. There are so many that you couldn’t watch all of them in a whole day! Me likes.

That’s it so far, more to come soon!

Exams are finally over!! I can’t believe that I’m still alive :p I have shadows under the eyes the size of apples, my stove hasn’t been used in two weeks and my cat is deliberately ignoring me because he didn’t get any attention for some time now… But the first thing I did when everything was over was shopping fresh ingredients and making a nice bento which I had for lunch. What a treat after a fortnight of processed foods and salad

Contents of this bento:

• Red bean rice with sesame seeds
• Tamagoyaki
• Snowpeas
• Teriyaki fried Salmon

Verdict:

The bento was quite nice, I enjoyed the red bean rice the most, however next time I’ll have to be more careful with the amount of liquid I put into the rice cooker. With the cooking liquid from the red beans and the soy sauce there was slightly too much, so the rice was a tad on the mushy side (which I hate but my husband likes so that was ok).

Nothing special about the salmon beside that I didn’t like the taste of the Teriyaki sauce. Last time I went to the Japanese shop around here I bought one from Kikkoman, which I had great expectations for which unfortunately were not met. I think I’m going back to making it on my own next time.

Snow-peas were a little bland (think I’m going to add some chili flakes or soy sauce next time). The tamagoyaki on the other hand turned out really well. I’m happy about that one because I managed to make it in a round pan. So far I’ve bought three rectangular frying pans. Yes, three (unfortunately from the same brand because of a lack of choice), and after the first use the non-stick coating of the pans always stopped working (and I didn’t use anything but a plastic spatula inside it). During the second use the egg started to stick so badly that I couldn’t even have gotten it off with a shovel. That means back to good old round pan and it worked!

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Red Bean Rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups of uncooked Japanese rice
• 1/2 - 1 cup of cooked red beans with two Tbsp of the red water they cooked in (you can use canned beans as well or you can precook the beans on the weekend and just use them for this recipe during the week)
• 2 Tbsp of soy sauce

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1. Wash the rice according to these instructions and put it in your rice cooker. Add the red bean water to it and the soy sauce. Now fill the pot with water until you reach the usual liquid mark for 2 cups.
2. Turn the rice cooker on and proceed as usual.
3. When done, serve with toasted sesame seeds for example. Serves 2.

Another speed post (I’m sorry), exams aren’t over yet:

Contents:

• Fried Rice
• Baked Broccoli with Gruyère
• Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 Red Bean Burgers

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Et oui, encore un article abrégé, les examens ne sont pas encore terminés:

Contenu

• Riz frit
• Brocoli gratiné au gruyère
• Tomates cerise
• 2 Steaks de haricots rouges

Exams take their toll on students, not only mentally but actually physically as well. Personally, I have to ressort to take-out / fast food / sandwiches just to be able to eat anything (we really have that little time). I really loath this and I feel unhealthy during this period: I’m tired, don’t have much energy and am simply unsatisfied after every meal.

I’m still trying to squeeze in a bento every now and then and I wouldn’t be able to do so without my speed tips:

1. Plan your bento on the way home from work.
When you take the bus or the car to drive back home you probably have a minute or two to yourself. Use that time to plan your bento! Think about what you have in the fridge, what needs to be used, what you FEEL like eating and compose your imaginary bento. If necessary you can even stop by the supermarket and fetch a few ingredients on the way.

2. Cook more or cook in advance.
Once you come home you’ll have to eat anyway, so why not make more of what you eat tonight so you can put some in your bento for tomorrow (given the fact that you make something preservable)? That’s catching two birds with one stone. If you have the main dish already ready for your bento, the other components come together really quickly. There are also great dishes that can be cooked in advance and that preserve really well for up to a week in the fridge. More recipes for such dishes coming soon.

3. The principle of 3.
My bentos mostly have 3 components: Main dish, side dish, additions (decoration/dessert/condiments). If you think like that you are limited in the number of dishes you have to put together, which will prevent you from drifting away too much and cooking up too many things. Try to keep it simple and don’t stuff your bento with too many things, you can always get fancier when you have time.

4. Think about your bentos while shopping.
You can buy great things that are available in every supermarket to stuff your bentos quickly. A few examples: cherry tomatoes, little cheeses, canned foods (say what you want, I don’t find it a shame to use a canned foods once in a while), pickles, frozen vegetables (can be steamed quickly in the microwave), nuts, sweets or crackers in satchets, grapes etc. The trick is, you must stimply think about picking those things up while you shop.

5. Freeze in portions.
When you have rice left over (while it’s still hot) or any other type of food that freezes well, don’t just stuff everything in one bag. Measure 1-cup portions and freeze them individually. This will speed things up greatly because there is nothing more time consuming than trying to chop off one portion from a frozen chunk.

Soon I’m going to be done with exams, then I’ll get to post much more. I really want to include a few recipes for things I posted during this busy period and I’d also like to make more general posts about quick filler dishes for bento that you can store in the fridge and use when needed. For now only the list of contents (recipes coming soon):

• Tortellini with tricolor pepper relish
• Colorful salad (lettuce, red beans, cherry tomatoes)
• 1 mini-doughnut (filled with apple sauce)
• Miss-Kitty container with vinaigrette

This pepper relish is actually something that normally doesn’t go with pasta… it’s a great stand-alone dish that you can prepare ahead of time and use up over the week. Today I tried to mix it with pasta - surprisingly the taste was quite good! I think it mixes really well with rice too. The relish is made by cutting up 1 pepper of each color (green, red, yellow) and simmering them in a sugar/vinegar reduction with onions or shallots. More detailed recipe soon, if I’m still alive after the exams :p

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En français:

La fin des examens approche et bientôt j’aurai plus de temps pour écrire sur mon petit blog! J’aimerais vraiment publier les recettes pour certains des plats que j’ai montrés ici pendant cette période stressante. De plus j’aimerais écrire des articles plus généraux sur des petits plats que vous pouvez cuisiner en avance pour les utiliser tout au long de la semaine dans des bentos. Voici donc la liste du contenu de cette bento (les recettes à suivre très bientôt!):

• Tortellinis avec un mélange de poivrons à trois couleurs
• Salade colorée (feuilles de laitue, haricots rouges, tomates cerise)
• 1 mini beignet (parfum: pomme)
• Mini pot “Miss Kitty”, rempli de vinaigrette

Normalement le mélange de poivrons ne se mange pas avec des pâtes… c’est un magnifique petit plat appart que l’on peut cuisiner en avance pour ensuite l’utiliser tout au long de la semaine dans des bentos. Aujourd’hui j’ai tenté de combiner ces poivrons avec des tortellinis et en fait c’était plutôt bon! Je pense que les poivrons vont également très bien avec du riz. Pour le mélange il vous faut un poivron de chaque couleur (vert, rouge, jaune) que vous coupez en tranches et puis vous les faites revenir dans une réduction de sucre et de vinaigre avec des oignons ou des échalotes. Je posterai une recette plus détaillée bientôt, si je sors vivante des examens

I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’m still very busy with exams. I did manage to make this bento today though, so I’m posting it quickly, without the usual wall of text! But fear not, I’m eager to start babbling again as soon as I get a bit more time Oh and I decided to add a french section to my posts as I seem to get a lot of visitors from France lately.

Contents

Japanese rice with salt and toasted sesame seeds
Tamagoyaki
Miss Kitty container with vinaigrette
Cherry tomatoes & mozzarella salad
Tempura fried vegetables

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En français:

Contenu

Riz japonais avec du sel et des graines de sésame grillées
Tamagoyaki (Omelette japonaise roulée)
Mini-pot “Miss Kitty” rempli de vinaigrette
Tomates cerises et mozzarella en salade
Tempura de légumes

Just a quick heads up that things got quite busy over the past few weeks, with Christmas/New Year’s Eve preparations. Also we just about entered the stressy period of exams. Still a quick picture of a bento we made not so long ago!

Contents

• Taboulé
• 2 Onigiri (with tuna)
• 1/2 Egg
• 2 Cherry Tomatoes
• Peas
• Raspberry Roulade

Best wishes for 2008, may you stick to your resolutions longer than I did. I managed to stay without eating a cookie for about half a day

Contents

• 2 Onigiri
• 1 Vegetable burrito, cut in half
• Salad (Baby spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, surimi)
• 1 Hard-boiled egg
• 1 Store-bought raspberry roulade, cut in half

Verdict

The bento was really tasty, especially the vegetable burritos, and I think the meal as a whole turned out to be visually appealing. Also it didn’t contain any heavy meat dishes (I’m not much of a meat fan). Preparation went smooth and it didn’t take much time once all the components were cooked/steamed (after washing the rice, I put it in the rice cooker and added all the vegetables for the burrito inside the steaming container of the rice cooker). Afterwards it was just pure assembly.
The only thing that didn’t go that well were the eggs. I left them in the water too long so they were a little overcooked :/

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Veggie burritos

Ingredients

• 200g canned red beans
• 70g corn, cooked
• 70g peas, cooked
• 70g carrot slices, cooked soft
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• salt, pepper
• chili powder (you can also add any Mexican spices you normally like)
• ketchup or salsa for serving
• 2 tortillas

Preparation

1. Put the beans in a medium sized bowl and crush them with a spoon/fork. Add the other vegetables and the shallot. Incorporate well until you get a firm mixture (the other vegetables will get crushed a little too, which is normal and intended), add the spices and the seasoning while you are mixing.
2. Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet. Once hot, turn the heat to medium and transfer the mixture into the pan. Let it cook now while stirring occasionally until golden brown.
3. Remove from heat. Fill the tortillas with the veggie mixture and add a little ketchup or salsa.

Serves 2, enjoy.

Contents

• Rice sprinkled with toasted black sesame seeds
• Salmon cakes
• Simmered Sweet Potatoes
• Green beans
• Quick carrot pickles

What I liked about this bento

The bento was put together rather quickly and pretty much everything is easy to make: While I put the rice to cook I used the steaming container that came with the rice cooker and steamed the green beans at the same time. Then I cut the carrots in julienne stripes with my kitchen mandolin, salted them and put them aside. After that I diced the sweet potatoes and put them in a little pan with water. While the potatoes were simmering I put together to batter for the salmon cakes and cooked them in a pan. Once that was done, everything else was pretty much done as well and I could fill my bento box.
I liked the taste of the salmon cakes and for myself I packed 2 salmon cakes cut in a half. The above pictured bento was for hubby. The vegetables gave the whole thing a nice balance and the meal didn’t feel too heavy.

What I didn’t like about this bento

Sweet potatoes were a little overcooked, going to cook them a less next time. The salmon cakes were somewhat too big for my taste and the pan that I used to make them in was simply not suited. It didn’t distribute the heat equally so the cakes were dark brown on one side and not brown at all on the other side. Lastly I hoped that the sweet potatoes would be yellow rather than orange but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. They pretty much look like carrots but oh well :p

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Recipes:

Quick carrot pickles

Ingredients

• 2 large carrots
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp soy sauce

Cut the carrots in julienne stripes, add the salt and mix well. Put the carrots aside for 30 mintues.
Drain the carrots from the salty liquid and rinse them.
In a small bowl combine vinegar, mirin and soy sauce. Add the marinade to the carrots and let infuse anywhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours (depending on how much time you have).
Serves 2.

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Salmon Cakes

• 60g smoked salmon
• 1 green onion
• 2 buns, bagels or large slices of bread (can be old)
• 1 tsp of Dijon mustard
• 3 eggs
• salt, pepper

If the bread isn’t dry yet: cut it in small dice and layer a baking tray with cookie sheet. Spread the bread crumbs on the sheet and put in the oven at approximately 150°C for 8-10 minutes.
In the meantime: chop the salmon finely and slice the green onion.
Remove the bread crumbs from the oven and crush them with a heavy bottle.
In a medium sized bowl combine the onion the salmon and the bread crumbs. Beat the eggs a little and add them. Also add the mustard and salt/pepper to taste. Mix everything well until you have a nice firm batter that can be shaped.
Should the batter be too liquid, gradually add flour to thicken the batter until it reaches the desired consistency.
In a large pan heat 3 Tbsp of olive oil. Meanwhile shape 5-6 round cakes from the batter and lay them on a cutting board.
Once the oil is hot turn the heat to medium low and cook the salmon cakes in the pan until they are golden brown on both sides.

Makes 5-6 cakes, enjoy!

Contents

• Potato pancakes (see below for recipe)
• Radishes
• Ricotta (for the potato pancakes and the radishes)
• Red pepper/green bean stir fry with soy sauce
• Mini sandwich (using whole-wheat bread with poppy seeds) with comté (french cheese) and ham
• Chocolate cookie

What I liked about this bento

Visually thumbs up. Pretty happy about the balance of colors and the overall detail of this bento. The ricotta cheese went really well with the pancakes but you can also eat them with apple sauce if you have a suitable container to transport it. Oh, why the heck apple sauce you’re asking? Well in Germany potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) are often served with apple sauce… and actually it goes really well! It’s like baked camembert with redcurrant jelly or goat cheese with honey. And yes I can assure you that my taste buds still function properly ^^
Vegetable stir fry had a really nice taste to it. My husband who only eats vegetables if they are drowned in potato purée actually liked them!

What I didn’t like about this bento

If you plan on packing potato pancakes in your bento you better make a bunch for dinner and use the leftovers in your bento the next morning because it takes quite long to make them. It took me about 20 minutes which I’d consider way too long in the morning.
The green beans were a little overcooked and the sandwich was simply too much (if you only have time to eat once). If you can have several breaks the sandwich is actually perfect for a little afternoon snack at about 3 or 4 pm.

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Potato Pancakes

Ingredients

• 500g waxy potatoes
• 1 egg
• 40g flour
• salt/pepper to taste, a little nutmeg if you like
• olive oil or butter, as you prefer

Preparation

1. Peel the potatoes, rinse the starch off a little and grate them. You can also cut them in julienne stripes if you have a suitable kitchen mandolin.
2. Add the egg, the flour and the spices. Mix well until you get a nicely smooth batter.
3. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Once it’s hot, drop generous spoons of the batter in the pan. Flatten the piles of batter with the spoon to a thickness of 1 cm approx. Cook over medium heat until golden brown from both sides.
4. Repeat until no batter is left. Makes about 7-8 pancakes.

Serves 4, enjoy. This goes really well with ricotta, cream cheese, crème fraîche or apple sauce.