Yup, ever since I had tonkatsu in a bento at a restaurant I’ve loved it. For those uninitiated people its breaded pork cutlet, but way better than that ho-hum description. Part of it is the sauce of the same name- thick and sweet with a nice tang to it!
A lunch with sliced tonkatsu on rice bed with some broccoli on the side.
Ok, now my mouth is watering I have to go make some of that!
Keep watching for a pic of whats making my mouth water!
Favorite bento - Facing the tonkastu beast… RAwr!
January 25th, 2010Birthday bento part 3 - Veggie-matic!
July 20th, 2009Now for the other half of the 2nd course, a cold course - veggie sushi.
Taking my cue from what is commonly available I made cucumber, shitake, and sweet potato maki rolls. Since the materials are abundant there were quite a few rolls there. The idea was the children would like the cucumber and sweet potato, but they didn’t care much for the nori wrapping and ended up enjoying the leftover veggies without the sushi.
This dish also had a flower cut from a squash and dyed with food coloring.
Veggie Sushi
Birthday bento part 2 - Japanese coleslaw?
July 17th, 2009Continuing the July 5th birthday feast, we are at course 2. Due to some delays getting the pictures uploaded, they will be linked in later.
The first of these 2 cold dishes was a salad consisting of shredded daikon, cucumber, and carrot with a dressing of rice vinegar, mirin, sugar, splash of soy sauce, grated ginger, and a sprinkle of garlic. I actually let it sit overnight in the dressing so it could be as much pickle as salad I guess.
As with regular coleslaw, this dish met with mixed reviews from people.
Watch for the next dishes early next week! Have a good weekend!
Daikon Salad
Bento #45 - put pork on your fork
July 9th, 2009Today’s bento is influenced by Sunday’s feast. Its things that didn’t get made for the feast.
There is pork filled fried won-tons, treasure rice (sticky rice packages) mixed with leftover pork filling cooked and mixed in, and bok choy in essentially a miso broth with tofu cubes.
I also made some sweet and sour sauce for the won tons (I fried some empties for the kids last night) using lemon juice instead of vinegar since we seem to be out of vinegar right now..
Birthday bento part 1
July 8th, 2009This is the first of up to 10 parts covering all the foods from Sunday’s birthday party. I alternated hot and cold courses, with up to 2 dishes per course.
The first course was miso soup. This was made from scratch which is much easier than you’d expect once you get the miso paste, and silken tofu. Also Mirin seems to be hard to find, but makes all the difference in the world.
The soup was a big hit at the party - even the kids loved it!
Homemade miso soup
Great bento day today!
July 6th, 2009Well, yesterday was the big birthday party and the 6 course meal. I’m wiped out, but it went well. And I get a great lunch today to boot!
Today there is sushi (3 veggie maki, spicy salmon maki, and tamago nigiri), some terriaki beef & chicken (homemade sauce!), tempura sweet potatoes and zucchini, and treasure sticky rice.
There are also a squash flower and butterfly dyed pretty colors with cucumber skin stalks/leaves.
sushi, terriaki, tempura, and sticky rice
My first bento party - coming up!
June 30th, 2009Sunday is a birthday party dinner for a friend.
Since the request was sushi and such, I plan on rounding out the menu with some bento fun dishes.
There will be some children there and the birthday lady likes bento too, so its a good chance to practice bento on a larger scale.
It will also be a good chance to practice my full on presentation skills.
Now to plan the menu, and see what I can make ahead of time so I don’t go crazy!
Keep watching for cool pics Sunday night or early Monday!
Happy tuna bento
June 23rd, 2009
happy tuna sandwhiches, tomatoes, cucumber-carrot bundles
Today the bento is happy!
See the smiles right on the sandwhiches?
Tuna sandwhiches, baby tomatoes, and carrot-cucumber bundles. The bundles are ties with nori belts.
There is some cucumber skin to keep the veggies out of the sandwhiches. Cucumber skin makes great organic food separator sheets.
True bento at last!
June 12th, 2009Last night was the 2nd of 3 japanese cooking classes I am taking, and it was great.
We made tofu miso soup, daikon and cucumber salad with ginger sake dressing, riceballs (or sushi), and best of all scratch made terriaki sauce on sirloin beef, and chicken breast slices.
It didn’t take long to prepare, but it really filled up the restaurant bento box nicely!
Since we had some time to wait for the meat to cook, I made a few decorations - cucumber skin grass, daikon brushes, and green onion trees.
The brushes are simple to make.
1. Cut a rectangle of daikon up to 1″ square by about 3″ long. It must be square profile to work well.
2. Make thin cuts down 3/4″ of the length.
3. Roll over 90 degrees, and repeat.
4. Take the new brush you made, hold the “handle”, and gently push the “bristles” into the cutting board to help fan them out a bit. Don’t push too hard or they will break!
These brushes can be made up to be octopuses, a shaving brush, or actually used to spread sauces on items in your bento box. Plus once finished, you can eat them!
Everything tasted so good, I was stuffed before I knew it!
Miso soup, daikon and cucumber salad, and chicken & beef terriaki
Making layered wood bento boxes
June 10th, 2009Ok, we’re going to go layered here. That means at least one piece for the bottom, one for the lid, and another for the sides. If you want to get fancy you can get different color woods and laminate them together using a non-toxic water proof glue. Cedar is nice, and so are oak, mohagony, and walnut.
- The next step is to figure your size, and number of compartments you want. Let’s say we’re going with a 1 tier box with 2 equal small sections, and 1 big section.
- We will start on the wall section, leaving the lid and bottom to later. Using a pencil and a ruler mark out your sections to ensure they fit and are symmetrical. You might want to leave room for a wasabi well if that sounds fun.
- Next clamp the wood, and drill all the way through the wood in the center of each section you marked out. Go slow so you don’t burn the wood.
- Now you can either take a jig (scroll) or bandsaw and cut the shapes out, or you can use a plunge router from the top.
- Actually if you are going with the router method, you could do the walls and bottom in one piece just by not routing all the way through the wood and leaving a bottom piece.
- Once you have cut the holes in the wood you can start sanding. Start with a medium grit paper, and work towards a really fine grit. You will likely want a lacquor finish, and that is a good idea because a smoother surface absorbs less food and stains.
- Once you are happy with the walls, you can focus on the bottom and lid. The lid will have to overlap slightly for a tight fit, but the bottom can be the same size as the wall section for a straight side construction. Use the wall section to draw a template for your lid and bottom pieces, enlarging the lid slightly as mentioned.
- Cut out the pieces and finish them as before. When the bottom is ready, glue it in place using water-proof non-toxic glue and clamp it in place until dry (usually over night is enough).
- For the lid you will want to chisel out the inside of the lid so that it will fit down tight over the box. Chisels will do this or you can set a very shallow depth on a router for the same effect. Once done, again sand from medium to very fine grit.
- For a traditional look you can just leave the wood grain, by waxing the wood. Use beeswax to ensure it is safe to eat off of, and to water proof it. However this will not be microwavable or dishwasher safe. You will have to carefully wash your new bento box by hand.
- Once completed you can decorate the outside of your box as you see fit, but remember to use non-toxic paints or decorations.
Cedar wood bento boxes with lids
Next time, we will go through 1 piece bento box construction!