Just Bento - a healthy meal in a box: great bento recipes, tips, and more

Book review and giveaway: 501 Bento Box Lunches

maki — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:35:25 +0000

501 Bento Lunches: 501 Unique Recipes for Brilliant Bento is a cute little book (about 6 inches / 15cm square, or the size of a small bento box as you can see from the photo). As the title says, it contains 501 bento box meals within its compact covers. If you’ve been a bento fan for any length of time, you’ll probably recognize many of the bentos in the book from blogs and Flickr pages around the web. There’s a brief recipe (in most cases more of an assembly how-to rather than recipes for individual components) for each bento, plus an introductory chapter with a how-to section and more detailed recipes by Amorette Dye, a.k.a. Sakurako Kitsa, one of the better known charaben artists in the English speaking world.

The bentos featured in 501 Bento Lunches lean rather heavily towards the cute and colorful, though not all are charaben/kyaraben. Pros: While you could spend many hours of internet browsing to see all of these bentos online, it’s nice to have them all in one book. Cons: The photos are in full color, but unfortunately the quality does vary a bit, depending on the skill of the photographer. The font used for the recipes is tiny, and to my eyes hard to read. That coupled with the format of the book, which is like one of the pocket-sized art books that make great little gifts rather than a cookbook, it might be hard to use this as an actual cookbook in the kitchen. However, it can provide hours and hours of colorful inspiration for your future bento creations.

(Full disclosure: I was invited to contribute my bentos to this book, but declined.)

Format/Size: Paperback, 288 pages, about 6 inches/15cm square
Publisher: Graffito Books
Amazon.com link; Amazon UK link (On Amazon UK it’s still called ‘500 Bento Lunches’ - they must have added one before the book went to print.)

The giveaway part!

I’m giving away one copy of 501 Bento Lunches, courtesy of the publisher, Graffito Books - the copy you see in the photo, minus the chopsticks. If you’d like a chance at it, just leave a comment to this post. To make it interesting (because as with all the giveaways around here, I think just a bunch of “please enter me” comments are boring) tell us what your one favorite bento making tool is. Is it an egg mold? Cookie cutter? Favorite knife? If you can link to a photo, all the better!

Deadline: Your comment must be posted here on or before 23:59:59 of Tuesday, July 7th.

Eligibility: Anyone!

Bento filler and staple: Sweet stewed haricot, navy or white beans (Ingen no nimame)

maki — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:09:07 +0000

Nimame (煮豆　にまめ), or stewed beans, are a standby item for bentos. They are usually rather sweet, though not dessert-level sweet, and serve the purpose of a hashi yasume or “chopstick rest” (see anatomy of a Japanese meal), a little something that contrasts in flavor and texture from the rest of the bento.

While it takes rather long to cook these, like most bean dishes, this is a terrific staple item. The beans keep for at least a week in the refrigerator, and freeze well in small batches too. Tuck in a spoonful in any bento for something a little sweet, a little salty, and good for you.

You can make nimame with any kind of dried beans, but here I’ve specified white or navy beans, or haricot beans, which are widely available and inexpensive. You could use cannellini beans instead.

You’ll notice that the only remotely exotic ingredient used here is soy sauce, so anyone can make this! Yes it’s still authentically Japanese. (It’s another one of my mom’s recipes.)

Recipe: Sweet stewed haricot, navy or white beans (Ingen no nimame)

200 g / about 7 oz. or 2 U.S. cups of dry white or navy or haricot beans
50g / about 1/4 cup raw cane sugar or sucanat; you can use white sugar or your preferred artificial sugar substitute here
1/2 tsp. baking soda (重曹　じゅうそう　juusou in Japanese)
About 1 Tbs. soy sauce
A drizzle of honey (optional)

Sort through the beans and take out any broken ones or small stones, etc. Rinse the beans and cover with plenty of water in a large pot or bowl. Leave for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Drain the soaking water away, and put the beans in a pot with fresh water to cover. Bring to a boil, then throw away the water. This gets rid of much of the surface scum on the beans. Rinse the beans again, and fill the pot with more fresh water. Add the baking soda to the water. (The baking soda helps to make the beans more tender, but you can omit it.)

If you’re cooking the beans conventionally, bring the beans to a boil, lower the heat, and cook for about 40 minutes to an hour until the beans are firm but tender. You can tell when they are tender by taking one out and eating it!

You can also use a crockpot or slow cooker in the same way, though it may take longer to cook.

If using a pressure cooker: Close the lid, and heat the pot until it’s up to pressure, then lower the heat and cook for about 5 minutes. Release the pressure until you can open the lid. (Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.)

Add the sugar to the pot, and simmer for about half an hour. This gives them that caramel color. Add the soy sauce and the honey, and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. (You can add these with the sugar if you want to save some steps, but the beans won’t be as shiny and burnished.)

Use a paper or aluminum foil otoshibuta

This is optional, but if you want really perfect beans, you’ll want to use a temporary “lid” made of a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil, crumpled up to fit right on top of the beans in the pot, with holes poked in it, for the second stage of the cooking process (when you add the sugar) onwards. This is called an otoshibuta (落としぶた）and the rationale for using it is explained in this recipe for stewed eggplant.

Using undried fresh beans

If you can get a hold of undried fresh beans, you can use them instead of dried beans. You don’t need to soak them in advance. Here my mother is holding up a bunch of cocos rouge, a type of haricot bean that is available in the markets in Provence right now. Yep, she really loves her beans, which is why she’s looking so happy! (Well that and the sun, weather, and whole vacation thing.)

The winner of the May Vegetarian Bento Contest is...

maki — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:24:56 +0000

And the winner is…

Lavash Bento, by sherimiya! She wins a $50 shopping spree at From Japan With Love!

However, the vote was so very close - with more than 300 votes cast, the difference was only 7 votes! So I’ve decided that hapa bento, who submitted the runner-up Wheat Meat Bento, should also get a prize.

So…congratulations to you both, and please contact me at maki at makikoitoh dot com ASAP!

Male Bento Boxing

paul — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:05:03 +0000

(From the forum - what do you think about men making bentos, and 'manly' bentos?)

Hi All - I am Paul a male at the age of 33 from the Netherlands.

I am working in a relatively fast-paced job. Altough I am half Indonesian (mother 100% Indonesian / Father 100% Dutch) years back I totally fell in love with the Japanese kitchen, culture and country.

I love cooking Japanese myself and after stumbling across the Bento Box I decided to extend this to my lunch as well. I am traveling a lot (national and international) and decided that the Bento Box fits in perfectly to enjoy my lunch regardless of the geographical location.

Well deciding to go for the Bento Box was the easy part, getting a proper Bento Box (not for it's size but for its looks) proofed to be a journey in itself. But it was most defenitely worthwile because along the way I came across some interesting websites of which this one stands out.

Is it just me or aren't there much men out there who included the Bento Box in their daily routine? As I included it in my routine I get nothing but interested and positive feedback from co-workers and even clients I visit as I work from their location. Including the Bento Box in my routine also introduced this wonderfull timeslot in my otherwise hectic schedule wherein I totally relax, enjoy healthy food with pure flavours and recharge to take on the second half of my day.

I have enjoyed recipes from this site and it would be my privilege to contribute by giving back to the community.

Many kind regards,
Paul

Homemade furikake no. 11: Spicy radish leaves

maki — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:14:23 +0000

This furikake may not even look like furikake, since it’s wet, but it can be used in every way dry furikake can. You can keep it in the refrigerator for a week or so, or freeze it in small batches. And since it’s using radish leaves (leftover from making radish pickles for example), it’s very frugal and nutritious too. It’s a vegan variation of the first furikake recipe I posted, and just as delicious.

Recipe: Spicy Radish Leaf Furikake

Radish leaves, well washed
Sesame oil
Dried Thai red chili pepper, seeds removed and shredded (you can leave the seeds in if you like it really spicy. You can use another type of red chili pepper too)
Soy sauce

The amount of ingredients varies according to the amount of radish leaves you have. The first thing to do is to blanch the radish leaves in plenty of boiling water for a couple of minutes until they are wilted. Then, drain them well, refresh them in cold water, and squeeze out all the moisture out of them as well as you can.

Chop up the radish leaves finely, then put the chopped leaves in a cup. For each cup of chopped blanched leaves, use about 2 tsp. of dark sesame oil, 1 Thai red chili pepper deseeded and shredded or chopped, and 1 to 1.5 Tbs. of soy sauce.

Heat up a large frying pan with the sesame oil over medium heat. Add the shredded red chili pepper, then the radish leaves. (Adding the chili pepper at the beginning of the cooking process makes the heat more subtle; if you want it really spicy, add the chili pepper towards the end of the cooking process.)

Sauté until the radish leaves are quite dry but still green, not brown. Push everything to one side, add the soy sauce to the hot pan surface so it sizzles, then mix it all together. Take off the heat.

Cool and store in the refrigerator for about a week. You can also freeze it in small batches.

(The chili on top of the green mound is just there for decoration by the way; the working chili is in the mix!)

Radish leaf brown rice onigiri

Here’s what I did with this batch. I mixed about 2 tablespoons of it per cup of cooked still-warm brown rice, then formed the mixed rice into onigiri, using a little bit of salt on my hands. I packed them with fresh shiso leaves, which we used to wrap the onigiri when we ate them.

Here are the onigiri sitting on a stone bench somewhere in the Provence.

As we ate them, my mom and I turned to each other and said, almost simultaneously, “Nothing is as good to eat outdoors as a great onigiri, even in France!” The (Swiss) Guy nodded in agreement.

neko-manma

umaimon — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:34:00 +0000

(From the forum - a sign of the times?)

Hi guys!

I recently learned that there's a new food fad in Japan called "Neko-manma", which consists of rice mixed and matched with various toppings.
"Neko-manma", which literally translates into kitty food, refers to leftovers like rice mixed with miso soup or whatever was from the night before. It was probably named because people in the old days would give that to pets.
But the present-day neko-manma completely shatters preconceived notions. Some of these topping combos are unexpected, like potato chips and mayo (boy do Japanese people love mayonnaise!), others are not that out of the blue, for example, oden and the soup from it poured onto the rice, or natto and okra and egg. Books dedicated to neko-manma (the one I just saw was http://news.walkerplus.com/2009/0223/3/photo16.html) are popping up and selling like hotcakes because they are very cheap (you don't need many ingredients, and you can use leftovers too...the link above's main catchphrase is "One Meal for 30yen"), easy to make at home (you just need to pour everything on top of a bowl of rice, and you don't really need to cook much), and easy to clean and eco-friendly too (you only need one rice bowl).

Anyway, I have been sort of practicing neko-manma since I was a kid myself. (I'm a Japanese born and raised in Southern California where there is a wide selection in Japanese markets) so I decided to jump in on the fad and try it again...it was awesome: shirasu (tiny baby sardines) with butter and soy sauce on rice. http://umaimon.tumblr.com/post/120248903/shirasu-and-butter-on-rice-with...

Please write if you've heard of this before, if you're willing to try it out, or if you also have your own neko-manma story to share! I'm excited to hear back.

-Alissa (from http://umaimon.tumblr.com)

Ichiban Kan USA to close their online business, but other online bento supply merchants are doing fine

maki — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:14:37 +0000

One of the major online sources for bento boxes and other supplies, Ichiban Kan USA, will be closing their mailorder business down as soon as they sell out their existing stock. To quote part of the announcement from their official blog:

Ichiban Kan has been hit by the recent economic situation, and it has been determined that there is no way to continue the online store at this time.
While we do hope to re-establish our online presence in the future when a better financial situation arises, we will be indefinitely closed.

This is sad news indeed, especially for bento fans in the U.S. While they haven’t been in the online business for long, Ichiban Kan was a great source for inexpensive bento goods and other Japanese products. They say that that they will continue to operate their brick and mortar stores in the San Francisco area.

I contacted some other popular online bento supply sellers to see how they were doing in the current economy, and the good news is that they seem to be doing very well. Here’s what they said.

Peter Payne of J-List.com (and the PG-version, JBox.com): “J-List/JBOX is frankly doing great, selling more Hello Kitty onigiri sets and bento boxes than we can restock, even in the soft economy. I think the fact that we have so many items, including fun but inexpensive items for people to choose from, is helping us. ”

Sofia Takami of From Japan With Love: “We are doing very well, and are always adding cool and unique items to our bento section and happily ship to anywhere in the world!”

Thomas Bertrand of Bento&Co also says that they are doing very well and continuing to develop and grow their business; they are already shipping to North America regularly despite the fact that they are still working on an English version of their site. (To quote him directly: “Bento&co continue son développement. Pour l’instant, le site n’est qu’en français, mais cela nous permet d’apprendre et de nous professionnaliser avant une ouverture en anglais pour un meilleur service.” Things always sound better in French, don’t they?)

So I think there’s no reason for bento box and accessory fans to worry about their sources drying out. I personally believe that it’s well worthwhile splurging on a cute or beautiful bento box or two that you’ll enjoy using every day. Even if your budget is too tight to buy cute bento things, you can start out with basic, inexpensive airtight boxes that you can buy in any household good store. See Selecting the right bento box for more ideas.

Do keep in mind that you’ll be saving money overall by bringing your own, healthy lunches instead of eating out or buying fast food and takeout. There have been several articles in the Japanese press recently about more people taking homemade bentos to work because of the economy. Bentos are great for saving money in these tough economic times!

Bento filler: Green beans and aburaage (fried tofu skins)

maki — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:34:04 +0000

I swear this site has not gone all vegetarian - I’ll have some recipes for you omnivores soon! Still, now that the weather is so sunny and beautiful here, and with the abundance of great produce, it just seems easier to think up vegetable recipes. This one can be used as a filler or a vegan main in a bento, and is dead easy to make - and it just uses four ingredients! The main ones are fresh green beans and aburaage, deep fried tofu skins. No oil is added, since we utilize the residual oil on the aburaage instead. This dish keeps quite well in the refrigerator, so you can make a batch and use it throughout the week.

Recipe: Stir-fried green beans and aburaage (fried tofu skins)

This makes about 6 servings when used as a vegan main, with 50 calories per serving; all the calories basically come from the aburaage.

1 packet of aburaage (they usually contain 3 per pack, and can be found in the frozen or refrigerated section of a Japanese grocery store)
About 225 g / 8 oz or so of fresh green beans; I used the thin kind called haricot verts in the UK/US (which just means ‘green beans’ in French), but any kind of fresh green beans will do. (You could use frozen green beans, though they won’t be as good of course.)
2 Tbs. soy sauce
A pinch of dried chili pepper flakes. Alternatively you can use ichimi tohgarashi or shichimi/nanami tohgarashi instead if you have one of them around for your udon and soba - see Essential Japanese ingredients

Cut the aburaage into thin strips. Do not blanch the aburaage; this goes against the usual advice given for dealing with aburaage, and against the advice I’ve given you before - see inarizushi redux. But hey, rules are made to be broken sometimes! As you cut the aburaage, you will notice that your hands get a bit oily. We’ll be using this oil as the cooking oil for the whole dish.

Wash and cut off the tops and tails of the green beans. If needed, slice them in half.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan or wok. Add the aburaage strips, and stir fry until the strips get a bit crispy. The pan should be a bit oily at this point, from the oil in the skins.

Add the green beans, and lower the heat to about medium. Stir fry a little, then put on a lid and steam-cook for about 3-4 minutes until the green beans are crisp-tender.

Remove the lid and turn the heat up again. Add the soy sauce to the hot surface of the pan, not directly onto the green beans, so that you see and smell the soy sauce sizzle. Rapidly stir fry so the soy sauce coats everything.

Add the red chili pepper flakes or ichimi tohgarashi powder. Taste, and add a bit more if you like it spicier, or a bit more soy sauce.

Let cool before packing into a bento box.

This will keep for up to a week, well covered, in the refrigerator.

Variations

Add a few drops of dark sesame oil when you are sautéing the aburaage, for that toasty flavor it gives.

You could, in a pinch, use pre-cooked canned inarizushi skins…but since they are already stewed, they may sort of disintegrate if you put them in first. If you use the canned skins, sauté your green beans first in a little oil, then add the strips of inarizushi skin later. You may want to use the can liquid instead of soy sauce. But do try to get unstewed aburaage for this, since it will be way better.

The biggest aburaage I’ve ever seen

I made this particular batch with some fresh aburaage that my intrepid mother brought with her all the way from Japan. She’s holding up a couple of them up here - just look at the size of them! They are at least as big as four regular aburaage skins.

We used the middle bits for the green bean stir fry, and the end pieces to make some inarizushi. The skins were a tad oily and quite puffy, since they are virtually handmade by a small tofu shop in Kyoto. The inarizushi were quite spectacular - very puffy and beany, in a good way.

May Vegetarian Bento Contest: The Finals

maki — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:29:35 +0000

We are down the the finals of the May Vegetarian Bento Contest! The voting was really, really close, but in the end, it’s a showdown between two very talented bentoists.

Presented in no particular order:

Finalist no. 1: Lavash Bento by sherimiya

Original entry page

Explanation: “MisterMan gets lavash “pizza” with cheddar, mushrooms, spinach, semi-dried tomatoes and onions. The lavash is whole wheat, sprayed with olive oil and layered with ingredients before baking for just a few minutes. It is a hit with the kids, and easy to adapt to individual preference.

Also, a tangerine called Ojai Mammoth, which tastes exactly like satsuma mandarins (kind of tart and seedless too) except they are huge (and I LOVE them!), cinnamon apple chunks, giant strawberry, cottage cheese with blackberries and sunflower seeds, edamame skewer and cucumber.”

Finalist no. 2: Wheat Meat Stir Fry Bento by hapabento

Original entry page

Explanation: “Vegetarian Bento for Saba Man. The wheat meat (seitan) cooks perfectly in a stir fry. The texture is like chicken.”

So, your task is to vote for your favorite out of these two beautiful and healthy, and of course vegetarian, bentos. Difficult, I know! Send in your vote to contestvote [at] justhungry [dot] com by 23:59:59 CET on Friday June 27, 2009. The winner will get a $50 ‘shopping spree’ at From Japan With Love.

Good luck to the two finalists!

Quick onigiri tip: Show what's inside on the outside

maki — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:28:48 +0000

Here’s an ultra-quick tip from a Japanese magazine. Sometimes I make a lot of onigiri, for a picnic or a party for example. I usually like to stick to the basics and wrap them in nori seaweed. The problem with that is that they all look the same from the outside, so the only way to identify what a particular onigiri’s filling is to crack it open slightly! That can get a bit messy.

The ‘why didn’t I think of that’ simple solution: Just put a tiny amount of the filling on top of the onigiri, as I’ve done in the photo. Not only does it show what’s inside, it makes the first bite into the onigiri that much more tasty. I think it also looks rather cute!

For these onigiri, I used brown rice, and my mother’s homemade umeboshi, which she brought along all the way from Japan. Beautiful, aren’t they?

Check out her recipe for making umeboshi over on Just Hungry!