Tag Archives: Rice

Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/72): Te-Mari sushi Bento

The Missus came up with an old favourite of hers with today’s sushi bento: Te-Mari sushi!
Mind you, these are a lot bigger than the ones they serve to geisha in Kyoto! LOL

As you can see she combined Jpaanese and Western tastes in the Te-Mari balls!

One type came with rice steamed wit konbu, then later prepared as sushi rice. She then mixed half with sweet umeboshi flesh and topped the balls with a slice of boiled and lightly pickled renkon/lotus root.

As for the other type, she mixed the rest of the rice with small cubes of cheese and topped the balls with smoked salmon has just brought us from Ireland, and some lemon and capers. A small piece of lettuce was introduced under the ball for extra taste.

Now, the garnish did involve some work:
She cut an avocado in half across the length, and peel it before filling it first with the whites (crumbled) of a soft-boiled egg, then the yolk (crumbeled) of the same egg before topping it with a slice of pimento-stuffed green olive for colour!
She added boiled spinach salad seasoned with gomadare/sesame dessing, and another salad of boiled and broiled satoimo/taro seasoned with roasted black sesame seeds.

Where is my dessert? LOL

Great balance, colourful and tasty again!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/71): Canned Heat bento

The weather has finally turned to Autumn/Fall, especially at night when it’s easier to sleep! Mind you this the typhoon season with some scalding daytime hetin-between.
Now, why did I callthis Bento Canned Heat?
Some of you (the nostalgic ones) will remember the rock group of the same name at Woodstock!

Canned yakitori is a very popular item in Japanese supermarkets and they can be arranged into surprisingly good food!
The Missus always has a few in her “larder”.
I chose the yuzu ksohio yakitori canned yakitori.
The Missus steamed the rice with the yakitori on top.
She then mixed the lot adding her own pickled sansho/Japanese pepper and “tukudani” made with ginger and konbu/seaweed.
It does make for a very tasty and filling rice. And very nourishing, too.
She added some pickled daikon for colour effect.
She added some delicious tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette she concocted with shiso/perill leaves.

She prepared the salad and dessert garnish inside the other (Shizuoka) Mempa bento Box with its T-shaped partition (all lacquerd).
Soba hime/buckwheat sprouts with katsuo bushi/dry bonito shavings in one quarter.
She filled the half section with a salad of beans, konbu, and boiled yellow and pink potatoes (the latter from her family’s garden), the lot on some lettuce leaves and topped with local plum tomato.
As for dessert nashi pears and plums!

Very filling and tasty!
Poor Susan at My Bento Box, who is being deprived of her bentos for 3 weeks is going to scream!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/70): Fall Rain Sushi Roll Bento

Maybe I should have titled this lunch box “Fall Rainfall Sushi Bento”!
It was not raining this morning, it wa pouring!
Which meant I had to wait for the but in the driving rain, board a stuffy bus and find out two hours later that the skies had suddenly cleaned!
Oh well, a bento is here to provide you comfort and make you forget about the little “niggles” of life!

The Missus kept things very simple (and tasty):
She made two kinds of rolls with nori/seawwed:
one contained cheese and “okaka”/Bonito/Katsuo powder, the other avocado.
She placed both on some lettuce.

One more type of sushi with “inarizushi wrapped in sweet aburaage todfu pouches.
Some stuffed olives, tomatoes and sweet tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette for dessert.

Siimple, fulfilling and tasty!LOL

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/69): Chicken Roll Bento

The cooler days finally coming onto us, The Missus is introducing some more meat in her bentos, although she still keeps them full of vegetables and fruit.
Once again she used of the three lacquered boxes of our “Mampa” lunch box exclusively made by a single craftsman in Ikawa/Shizuoka Prefecture.
This time the smaller box conatained the rice whereas the larger one conatined the garnish.

After having steamed the rice with konbu/seaweed and finely chopped carrots (on top), she mixed the lot and sprinkled it wit roasted black sesame seeds. Beautiful deep oroange colour. Back in France we call such a colour “tango”, also the name of beer added with grenadine, or the name of my Rugby Club back home!

She inserted the”T”-shaped separator to prevent ingredients to mix up. THis the most common technique in Japan and make for very versatile use of difference spaces. It certainly helps with the design!

She prepared rolls by first spreading thin a chicken breast between sheets of cellophane paper.
She filled the chicken roll with bacon and cheese before sautee it in sauce. Once cooled she cut slices and put them in the box with lettuce, boiled brocoli and pieces of walnut.

The salad consited of sliced yamaimo/yam, Konbu/seaweed from the steamed rice, sweet pimento, the whole seasoned with ponzu and roasted sesame seeds.
Grapefruit wedges for desert!

Tasty and colourful!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/68): British Sushi Bento

The Missus was finally able to use our new set of lacquered bento boxes!
These bento boxes are called “Ikawa Menpa” and are made exclusively made with materials coming from the forests of Ikawa in the Northern part of Shizuoka Prefecture!

They come into two main styles (I will write a more extensive article soon!), unlacquered and lacquered pine wood.
They have been designated as Prefectural Cullture Asset by the Shizuoka Prefecture Government.
Mr. Mochizuki (I’ll have to check the pronunciation of his first name as it is impossibly long!) is the only crsftsman making them . He is the fifth generation of a lineage of artists dating back to 1830!

The present 3-box set (The Missus used only two this time) even comes with is own bag and partitions!

Now today’s main dish consists of plain sushi rice that the Missus steameda with chopped parsley, cheese and French herbs and Olive Oil Bouillon (see below).
She made two layers of them with cold roast beef atop both. She put the fishing touch with some sliced green olives stuffed with pimento.

Here is the French Knorr Bouillon.
It contains EV olive oil, oreganao, laurel, garlic and onion)

The side dish contains a salad of pink potatoes (not sweet potaoes) and chestnuts with dressing and lettuce leaves, and mint from the verandah, Pickled Mizu Nasu/Water Eggplants which can be eaten raw, Shizuoka-grown Ameera Rubbins Pearl tomatoes, salad of gobo/burdock root, pimeto and cucumber, and a boiled egg seasoned with black roasted sesame seeds.

Dessert? The tomatoes! LOL

Beautiful food in a beautiful vessel!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/67): Late Summer Sushi Bento

The summer and the oppressive heat do not want to leave place to a cooler Autumn/Fall and yesterday Shizuoka was the hottest place in Japan with temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius in Shimizu!
We are in more need of fluids than calories!

The Missus kept the bento as healthy as possible:
She prepared the usual sushi rice and mixed it vegetables (red and green pimentoes, shimeji and maitake mushrooms and celery leaves) she had previusly fried lemon and herb oil. The juices became a natural seasoning to the rice. she added some lemon slices for effect and additional seasoning.

As for the side dish and dessert she placed sliced olum tomatoes and celey leaves at one end, Japanese-style mimosa eggs in the middle (the yolk is mixed with mayonnaise and chopped Japanese cucumber pickles), and nashi pears wrapped in raw ham with a few white grapes at the other end.

Light and tasty, and artistic, LOL!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/66): Back To work Bento

It was back to “normal work” after having spent almost a week on a holiday in Iwate Prefecture and been busy back home with clearing up a backload of work!

My organism needing a rest for all last week’s eating and eating, my beto was comparativeley light.
The Missus prepared plain steamed rice she seasoned with black roasted sesame seeds, sweet umbsohi and home-pickled cucumber and ginger.

That was for the rice.
Now for the accompaniment.

For once I’ll start with eggs.
The Missus prepared this tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette in a novel manner.
She took some okra, slice some of them thin and grated the other.
The sliced okra made for crunchy bits inside the tamagoyaki while providing a nice design. The grated okra gave a fluffy feeling and appearance to the whole.
A very interesting idea!

She then inserted sauteed slices of renkon/lotus roots and goya with a couple of Shizuoka-grown Ameera Rubbins Pearl Tomatoes.
Then she introduced a couple of deep-fried slices of pork fillets interspered with celeri leaves. Good colour and great balance!

To end it up I was given some beans salad added with hijiki/sweet seaweed and some leafy sprouts.

White (they are green, actually!) grapes and sliced nashi pear for dessert.

Plenty and tasty for the day!

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Adventures in Bento Making, American Bento, Beanbento, Bento No1, Bento Wo Tsukurimashou, Cooking Cute, Eula, Hapabento , Happy Bento, Jacki’s Bento Blog, Kitchen Cow, Leggo My Obento, Le Petit Journal Bento & CO (French), Lunch In A Box, My Bento Box, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, The Herbed Kitchen, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat; Bento Lunch Blog (German); Adventures In Bento; Anna The Red’s Bento Factory; Cooking Cute; Timeless Gourmet; Bento Bug; Ideal Meal; Bentosaurus; Mr. Foodie (London/UK); Bento Bird

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Erecting the Kakashi/Scarecrow at Ryunan Primary School Rice Paddy

Ryunan Primary School has been organizing a traditional Festival for the last 40 years: Scarecrow Erecting!

This Festival takes place on the first morning of the second semester of the scholar year.
As I had been invite to attend (I coach cricket there, too) I found myself meeting the kids at 10:40 a.m. in blinding heat!

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The school was founded 46 years and is still a large one by Shizuoka City standards in spite of the declining population.

I told you it was really hot (33 degrees celsius) and the teachers (and I) were wearing bandanas! As for the kids caps are compulsory!

But some kids managed to forget them, which shows that Japanese society is not that much different! LOL

For once I was allowed to take pictures of the kids as this was a public event, and the kids loved the attention (all those V signs!)!

The kids were divided into 21 groups of 5th graders looking after 2nd graders.

The kids who had forgotten their caps were already having second thoughts!

The school rice paddy is located behind the school at a distance and across a wide street.

It is a large rice paddy, by scholl paddies standards, and thekids could walk across it thanks to elevated narrow paths.

That “kakashi/scarecrow” is about to get a sun-tan (or sunstroke!)!

The kids plant their own rice in May.
Until two years ago they used Asahi no Yume/朝日の夢/Morning Sun Dream variety. But they have switcged to Hi no Hikari/ヒノヒカリ/Day’s Sunshine.

I must say were very disciplined and were waiting for their turn to bring their kakashi into the rice paddies with a smile!

Each group went to a preordained spot and waited for their teachers to give a hand (and a hammer) to ercet their charges.

Some kakashi wer cute!
Incidentally, the teacher is not a scarecrow!

This one might scare the crows (loads of them here!) but not the kids!

I’m afraid this one will be eaten by the birds!

Now, what are those red eggs?
The teachers explained that they use only a minimum of fertilizer and pesticide so as not to interfere with the ecology.

-“The eggs of a jumbo Ta Mushi!” as repied one of the kids, taking one of them out to admire…
Big slug!
Actually the paddy is full of life, and the kids have no qualms chasing them!

Smiles everywhere!

The kakashi will stay there for people to admire and birds to avoid until October when the kids will harvest the rice and cook it themselves for school lunch!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/65): Birthday Sushi Bento

Today is my birthday, but I will have to wait 7 more years before someone can arrest me for indecent age!LOL
Incidentally, that makes me a Virgo for whatever it means!

Today’s sushi is of the chirashi/チラシ寿司/decoration-style sushi. It is comparatively light and almost fit for a lady!
Love the colours!

The Missus steamed the rice with konbu/seaweed and mixed with thinly sliced pickled vegetables and boiled renkon/lotus roots. Instead of adding vinegar to the rice she used the pickles brine. Made for extra taste!
She topped it slices of boiled renkon, boiled shrimps, lemon and violet kawaire daikon sprouts. Very healthy!

The salad and dessert box made for an interesting colour combo. Certainly makes you feel better in that heat!

Plain tamagoyaki/Japanese omelete, Shizuoka-grownAmeera Rubbins pearl tomatoes, grapes and blueberries.

More white grapes and blueberries with cress and lettuce.
The figs are grown in Shizuoka and brought to me by Lojol. In spite of their green skin they are ripe. Actually they are a green cultivar. Makes for even more colours!

Very healthy, cheerful and tasty!

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Natto & Rice Patties

Here is a simple way of turning leftovers in a great snack!

Natto & Rice Patties!

INGREDIENTS: For 6 10 cm-wide patties

-Steamed rice (cold): 1 bowl
-Okonomiyaki powder mix: 1 cup/200 cc
-Egg: 1
-Water: 1 cup/200 cc/ml
-Minced meat (of ypur choice): as appropriate
-Nira/Chinese chives: 12 sprigs
-Leek: as appropriateDried hijiki/sweet seawed: 2 tablespoons
-Cabbage: 1/8 (chopped)
-Natto: 1 standard pack

RECIPE:

-Chop all the vegetables including seaweed (as it is). Put them inside a bowl. Cover them with cellophane paper and cook in microwave oven for 3 minutes.

-Take out. Let cool down. Add rice, egg and okonomiyaki powder mix. Mix well.
Add minced meat natto and mix well.

-Heat some sesame oil in a frypan.
Pour the patties batter into the frypan with a ladle and shape as pattiies.
Fry well on both sides.
While cooking, prepare an okoniyaki sauce with mayonnaise, soy sauce, mustard, bbq sauce and a little ketchup.

-Serve at once with a good beer!

Hope this will become an idea you can work on!

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
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