Quick Bento

So, we made all those lovely bento fillers last week, and I had a goal to make pretty little arranged bentos all week, and then my week kind of fell apart. I won't go into it, but it was quite stressful. In the end, I only got one day of true bentos in.They were, however, quite impressive. I had a lot of fun putting them together.

Brandon's bento is the green one. He wanted an upright bento to fit in his messenger bag. This is pretty much the only upright bento available right now. It's a bit expensive, but worth the splurge. Plus it looks super chic!

After Monday, we were back to just throwing things into tupperware containers like usual, but it was still way worth it to make bento food ahead of time. All week, I didn't have to cook once, which was super handy. That's exactly why bentos are such a time saver, even if you don't go to all the trouble of decorating them!

Onigiri (Rice Balls)

Brandon and I like to pack our lunches for work every day. I find that it's healthier and more cost-effective, and it's far less work than a lot of people think. Generally, I cook a huge batch of something on the weekend, then every morning while we're having breakfast, I throw a portion of it into two tupperware containers, which we reheat at lunchtime. It's a lazy approach, but it gets the job done.

Well, not this week. This week I wanted to get back into doing traditional Japanese bento lunches. So, we made a batch of dumplings a few days ago, and today we made a big batch of onigiri as well.

Onigiri is like the Japanese PB&J. It's just a really standard, comfort-food that is simple, yummy and filling. I'd like to walk you through how to make a couple different kinds of onigiri.

First, you need to make your filling. There are a number of traditional fillings, like pickled plums and salted salmon, but I make a slightly more Americanized filling. It has chicken, carrots and onion. You chop them up roughly and cook them in a skillet with soy sauce, brown sugar, and a dash of lemon juice.

It doesn't matter how you chop them, they're going in the food processor soon after.

You can play with the sauce if you want, but I prefer to season it very simply. I think this is an appropriate approach, since Japanese food is quintessentially clean and simple. Once the mixture has cooled a bit, put it through the food processor and get it chopped up very fine.

If you have excess sauce, you can pour it back over the finished mixture. The more flavor the better, there's going to be a LOT of rice at the end.

Next you need your rice! Nishiki, or sushi rice, is best. It's stickier than Chinese rice and is specifically made for this sort of thing. I use my rice cooker, but I know it can be done on a stove, it just takes a little practice.

The rice has to be hot when you use it.

You can make the filling ahead of time, but the rice absolutely must be fresh. It has to be hot and sticky in order to hold together properly, so make it right when you need it. If it cools to room temp, it's no good for onigiri.

The setup is a bit complex, but I'm also notoriously messy when I make onigiri, so that might be my fault. The main thing you will need is a bowl if warm salt water. You'll have to constantly dip your hands in the salt water so the rice doesn't stick. This can make a bit of a mess, so I keep a dish towel across my lap to catch drips of water and stray grains of rice.

Pajamas are totally appropriate onigiri-making attire.

If you want, you can use fancy onigiri presses, or you can just make them free-hand. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses. I'll show you how to do both.

Top right is traditional triangular onigiri. Top left is - I believe - a sushi press. Bottom two are for decorative "kawaii" onigiri shapes.

So let's start with a traditional onigiri. First, get your hands wet in the salt water. This is way more necessary than you might think.

Without the salt water, you will end up with rice-hands rather than onigiri. Trust me on this.

Then take a handful of rice - be careful, it can be extremely hot right at the beginning. Press it firmly into a ball.

Step 1.

Then do a "pinch-pot" sort of move with your thumb or fingers and create an opening. You want it to be large enough to spoon in the filling.

Does anybody remember pinch-pots except me?

It's okay if the ball starts to fall apart, just cradle it in your hand so it mostly retains its shape.

If I put this down, it would fall apart immediately, but that's ok! Because I'm not going to put it down.

Now spoon in the filling, making sure to keep it all in the opening. You want to use a tiny spoon, a teaspoon or smaller. The Japanese like their food to look very clean and plain, so try to keep the filling on the inside, so the outside of the ball is pure white when you're done. This part is tricky and takes practice, so don't worry if you don't get it right away.

I use the back of the spoon to smoosh the filling down, so it doesn't spill out when I try to close the ball.

By the way, at this point I've probably re-dipped my right hand in the saltwater at least about 5 times. You'll find yourself losing some grains of rice in the water bowl, that's okay. The important part is that you don't have rice sticking to your hands, and your onigiri aren't falling apart.

Once you have the filling in, you want to close the rice around it. If you've overstuffed the onigiri (which I do very often) you can grab more rice to cover the gaps. Once everything is covered, you can carefully shape the ball until you like it.

 This would be a traditional triangle shape.

Today I just did traditional triangles and plain spheres, but in the past I've done some really fancy shapes. This is a photo from a few years ago:

Diggin' things up from the blog archives!

As you can see, I added the seaweed early on. I learned very quickly that this is a bad move, it makes the onigiri taste fishy. So, as cute as it can be, leave the seaweed off until it's time to eat them. In any case, all the onigiri in that photo are hand-made! So, the fancy shapes can be accomplished without an onigiri press. But it does make things quicker. So here's how I use mine:

First, put a tiny bit of rice, and try to make a well for the filling with your finger. 

These are going to be more like snack onigiri. They're very small.

Add the filling,

Some of the filling will show on the sides, it's sort of unavoidable with these molds.

Then top them off,

Pile it high for a better result.

Then replace the lid and squeeeeeeeeeeeze!

Trying to look excited even though I'm exhausted.

The end result is adorable!

The hand-made onigiri are more dinner-size, whereas these are more lunch- or snack-size. 

Lastly, you can make onigiri with rice seasoning (furikake) mixed throughout rather than filling spooned into the center. I use a mason jar to get the seasoning mixed evenly throughout the rice. If you do it right, you can mix the rice ball right there in the mason jar. It's tricky though, I've only gotten it to work once or twice. You have to shake it at just the right angle for it to arrange neatly into a ball. 

On the right is egg-flavored (tamago) and on the left is salmon.

Ready to rock! Or shake, as the case may be. 

Action shot!

 Done! And oh-so pretty!

Since there is no protein and no vegetables in this type of onigiri, it's definitely meant as a side dish. But it can be a fun, decorative alternative to putting your stir fry over rice. 

The veeeery last step is to cut up some seaweed to put over the onigiri. This adds some crunch and flavor, but mostly, it keeps the rice from sticking to your hands. 

It comes in square sheets for wrapping sushi, but for onigiri you just need small strips.

"... Can I eat it now?"

Now THAT is a happy customer.

I'll show you guys some photos of our bento lunches later in the week!

Random Treats

A while back, I had my first honest-to-goodness full, exhausting, crazy 8 hour day in lab. And it was on a Sunday, of all things.

In any case, I came home exhausted and hungry. Brandon went out and got me some of my favorite foods.

This is supposed to be my surprised face.

 That's a grocery store tuna roll, a very hearty salad with avocado and leftover aioli dressing, a margarita (with a tiny umbrella!) and some chocolate brownies. 

I used the leftover tuna sushi for our lunches for the next day, along with the fried sesame tofu that we had made the day before.

I need to use my other bento more often so you guys can see it. 

<3

Exciting News!

Brandon got a job! He started on Monday, so it's only been a couple days. But we're both pretty excited about it. It has already changed our routine quite a bit. Oddly, we're more productive in the evenings now. We don't just sit on the couch and watch TV.

I packed Brandon a bento lunch for his first day:

The black bento on the left is mine. The green one on the right is Brandon's. Yes, that's a flower-shaped hard-boiled egg. 

After his first day, I found this photo on the camera:

I'm glad he was excited enough to want to document the occasion. I asked him if I could take a picture on Tuesday and he let me:

I love the little messenger bag.

So yaaaaay for employment!!

Tampopo Omelette

I need to geek out for a second.

Today I was reading this entry on the Tampopo Omelette on Just Hungry, the sister blog of Just Bento, one of my favorite Bento blogs. The Tampopo omelette is a dish that was invented for the movie Tampopo, which is one of my favorite movies. It's a Japanese satire about food, and if you haven't seen it, you should. It explores our emotional connection with food through a series of vignettes about various odd and humerus characters and THEIR strange and surprising relationships with food. The main story line is about a woman named Tampopo who owns a ramen stand, and wants to improve her business.

So. The omelette. There's a video in the Just Hungry article showing the scene of the movie where it appears, but for the moment I want to just talk about the recipe itself. The omelette consists of lightly fried, lightly seasoned rice, a plain french omelette laid over top and ketchup. That's it.

I know, it sounds boring, but hear me out, because when everything is done correctly it's absolutely delicious.

Firstly, the rice. It's a Japanese film, so the rice has to be nishiki, or sticky rice. Because this rice holds more moisture than Chinese rice, it makes a very different kind of fried rice. In the film it's fried very lightly - not browned, and not dry. Then the ketchup is added and mixed in while it's still over the heat, giving the rice an orange color throughout.

Next, the egg. The cool thing about this recipe is that it requires that you make an honest-to-goodness omelette. Like, true French, Julia-Child style omelette. It's not a simple task, and it's not something many people have done. It only takes about 30 seconds, but it's extremely delicate and tricky.

In any case, the character in the movie does it expertly. He taps the handle on the frying pan, turning it lightly until it closes entirely with no seams at all, and he pulls it off the heat before the center has a chance to cook through. Then, he slices it open lengthwise to show that the center is still slightly wet. The edges are fluffy, but not brown.

So, this dish is a simple and clean celebration of the plain flavor and texture of properly cooked rice and properly cooked eggs and - oddly enough, ketchup! When was the last time you really stopped to taste ketchup on its own? This dish is plain enough to let that occur. Now, when I first saw the movie, I thought it was seasoned with tabasco sauce, not ketchup. So I decided to add a pinch of cayenne to my rice in order to give the dish a slight kick. I also seasoned it with pepper and garlic powder.

Oh - did I forget to mention that? I MADE IT. I was so excited I came right home and made it. We didn't have any day-old rice in the fridge (as you're technically supposed to use for fried rice) so I made my nishiki with slightly less water than it requires, and let it cook off a little more moisture after it had finished.

I also have never made a proper French omelette before, so it wasn't perfect. But it's closer than I've ever gotten, and I intend to keep trying. Here's a photo:

The egg-to-rice ratio is off in this photo because we later moved half the omelette to Brandon's plate, which had more rice on it.

Now, we put a few too many eggs for the size of pan I was using, so we had to cook it longer before it would turn, which means the bottom got a bit browned. But the inside was almost as gooey as I had hoped! And ohhh it was delicious.

Please, give it a try some time. It's a delightful, quirky little dish that sits directly at the intersection of Japanese, American and French fusion.