Here is the bottom part: a small, round bowl from Target. Broccoli and purple cabbage with about a teaspoon of the vinegar-based dressing I used in the cucumber salad from yesterday. Quarter is for scale.
And the top part, another bowl from Target, this one is larger and slightly flower-shaped. It's so perfect for bento-sized steaming. I just make sure that there's a little liquid in the with whatever I'm steaming and stick it in the microwave for about 30-40 seconds. And it looks so cute! Like a little mushroom/flower thing!
Bottom layer: onigiri with umeshiso paste inside, red pepper on top. Roasted asparagus, baby carrot, cut to add some lift to what's going on top of them.
The final thing! (Onigiri and asparagus and carrot from the previous picture) + 3 Okazu: vinegar-steamed broccoli with red cabbage, saffron/lemon Spanish chickpeas, soy-roasted portabello mushrooms with carrot flowers. Also, a cup of frozen sour cherries.You can see the quarter peaking out there for scale. This box is also the one that I took pictures of while holding it in this posting, so long ago. It's pretty small, only holds 450 ml, if my memory serves me correctly.
I had a lot of fun with this bento, I actually made little portions for it, instead of just using little bits of what's in the fridge already. The asparagus and mushrooms were roasted with a little olive oil and salt in the toaster oven. When the asparagus was pretty and bright green, I took it out, and poured a little soy sauce over the mushrooms. Then they got turned once and cooked until brown and the soy sauce was all glaze-y.
It was also fun to use my little onigiri press. It makes the process soooooo easy. The only complaint I have is that it's hard to fill tiny ones, but I prefer tiny onigiri to the bigger ones because I can eat them in one bite without stuffing my face like a chipmunk. Also, I usually use 2:1 white to brown for my rice blend and I have to say that having more brown rice makes for less cohesive onigiri. What price fiber...
By lunchtime, though, everything was still great. Delicious and great and filling. I'm not totally sure how much rice 6 mini onigiri is in cups. Maybe I should measure that. Anyways, I was nice and full after lunch. Hooray!
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The process photos on this are really interesting. I know you shouldn't have to do this every time, but seeing it every now and then really gives me greater understanding of what's in the bento and how/why it goes there. I'm really impressed you would spend so much time making all those different little cups of food. I've really started rethinking what to do with small portions of leftovers, it used to be i would never leave just a little rice or what have you (I would just eat it, even if I was full), but more and more I'm starting to realize that it just adds variation to a lunch, even if it's just a teeny little bit, it's still nice to have provided there's enough for the meal over all. Those mini onigiri are really cute too, how long does that sushi rice last after you make it? are you inclined to make onigiri and then freeze them? They look super cute in your bento!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I may start including more process photos. As you know, I usually just pack leftovers, but I was feeling extra cook-y for this one. Since the broccoli dish was microwaved and the asparagus and mushrooms were done on the same pan in the toaster oven, it really wasn't all that much work.
ReplyDeleteThere are some great instructions about how to freeze onigiri and rice in general over at JustBento: http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-basics/how-freezing-preportioned-rice, but I have never been inclined to do it because it uses saran wrap. I don't usually buy saran (because it's not recyclable) and I'm pretty leery of microwaving in plastic (which is how you get the texture back).
With that said, I think that making it the night before, the onigiri the following day, and the day after don't suffer too much for texture. After that point, they get a little dry. The more airtight your bento box, the better they will fare. As for food safety, your guess is as good as mine. As you know, I'm pretty laissez-faire about it. I haven't gotten sick yet!