Vegetarian bento #5 - Hangover bento

As a devotee of porridge in all its forms, I have been wanting to try this recipe for ages, and the UK Bank Holiday weekend provided an excellent opportunity.

I'm sure anyone who is even remotely interesting has experienced what I generally refer to as a cumulative hangover. It's what occurs when you start partying on Thursday night, average roughly three hours sleep each night and go clubbing with people who buy beer in jugs, and keep going until the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Following on of these fun binges, I generally feel like consuming fewer calories and concocting less complicated lunches than normal. This usually means I end up hanging over a bowl of soup, but today, in honour of my new food flask, I decided to try rice porridge, as described by Maki Otoh (my bento guru!) .

This bento takes a bit of planning, but the effort involved is minimal and you can wander off and leave it while you drink water/stand under a cold shower/curse the world's wine-producing nations/gulp Berocca.

For my bento, I put 60g sushi rice and two tbsp dried adzuki beans into a pint jug and filled it to the top with water, then left it overnight to soak. 

In the morning, I crawled out of bed, tipped the whole lot into a pan with a good pinch of salt and brought it to the boil while making myself a cup of tea. Then I turned the heat right down and crawled back to bed. When it was time for me to shower (about 40mins later) I checked the pan to make sure it hadn’t dried out (you want this to be the consistency of breakfast porridge) and hopped in the shower. 

When I was ready to leave the house, I tipped half the mixture into my thermos, half into a takeaway box for the freezer, grabbed some toppings (chopped green onions, sesame salt, a pickled plum) and headed to the office. By lunchtime, it was just the right kind of warm – it’s also filling and comforting and totally guilt free.

Meaty bento #3 - Texan steak

 This week’s lunches are looking pretty carb-free: would you believe it’s simply because I am TOO LAZY to cook rice? But honestly, folks, that is the long and the short of it. I simply haven’t the time or commitment required to cook rice! Appalling, I know. Another factor keeping me away from the rice is the heat: it has been pretty hot here, which makes me crave lots of fruit, protein and veggies and less starch/carbs. 

The most labour-intensive part of the bento was the green bean stew. I get organic food boxes delivered fortnightly and to make sure the vegetables don’t rot before I have time to eat them, I cook them up and freeze them. This recipe took about an hour, but since I was doing it anyway I thought it would make a great addition to my bento.  

And now, a confession: I really have no idea what makes this steak Texan, but I think it is the marinade. I bought it pre-seasoned from Abel & Cole and I'm guessing it has some species of bbq sauce on it. So, if you want to replicate this, I suggest you marinate your steak in bbq sauce. But teriyaki would also be nice.

 The advantage of the steak is that it is thin-sliced, so it took less than five minutes to cook. I heated up the frying pan and dry-fried it for about two minutes on each side and it was cooked through, so you could probably even cook it for a little less if you want your steak rare (I did, but I got distracted!).

To go with the steak, I made a tamagoyaki – something I am getting so much more adept at these days – and a salad of grated carrot with a little tahini, soy sauce and honey. The green stuff is chopped cucumber grown in a colleague’s garden – so nice on a hot day! 

Fish bento #6 - mackerel pate

Yes, I have been eating a lot of fish lately! Today’s bento is one that can be made easily in a hurry as the pate takes just a few minutes to make.

For the pate, take a small (or half) raw mackerel fillet and poach it in a cup of water with some salt, pepper and a bay leaf added. You can also use cooked smoked mackerel from the supermarket – just skip this step and the seasonings. 

Once the mackerel is cooked (about 5-6 mins), remove the skin and flake it with a fork. To get the smoother consistency required for pate, I think you really need to mush the fish with your fingers, which is what I do. Once it is the consistency you like, add 1tsp Greek yoghurt (or any plain yoghurt that is thick rather than runny) and ½ teaspoon mustard. If you don’t like mustard, use an extra ½ teaspoon of yoghurt and use herbs or paprika instead. Mix well with a spoon. 

I popped my pate into a little silicone cup and served it with carrot sticks, cucumber pieces, celery, a boiled egg and some greegages for dessert. 

Fish bento #5

I love cold soba and have always wanted to try a variation on this bento by Makiko Otoh.  This week seemed like a great opportunity – it’s been really hot and I had a portion of black soba noodles left in my store cupboard. 

I made the noodles as per instructions and put them in my bento box with a little container full of chopped veggies.

For the fritters, I varied slightly. With lots of fish in the freezer, I didn’t want to go out and buy prawns, so I cut half a haddock fillet into rough chunks and added that to the batter with chopped spring onions, paprika and furikake. Next time I think I’ll try cayenne instead of paprika, although the paprika gives a lovely flavour.

It takes just ½ a tablespoon of oil to fry eight of these beauties and I only needed four for my lunch, so the fact that they are fried doesn’t make them unhealthy. Also, there is no need to use fish! I wouldn’t recommend using meat, but there are lots of vegetables that would work well – one of my favourites is shredded courgette, although you do need to make sure you drain them for a while first. 

I ticked the fritters into my bento alongside some cucumber tossed in mirin and a couple of cherry tomatoes.