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.

Vegetarian bento #4 - Greek Salad

One of my favourite songs to listen to in summer is Rufus Wainwright's Greek Song (I am listening now as I type!), which is the inspiration for this bento - warm weather, beautiful people, cocktail glasses pearled with drops of water and colourful salads for lunch.Best of all, it's unbelievably simple.

For the top layer, I used some cucumber, cherry tomatoes, leftover feta and black olives

Those are pretty much the ingredients of a Greek salad, of course, but I have LOADS of lettuce from my veg box which needs to be used up before I go away tomorrow afternoon, so in the bottom layer I put a generous handful of lettuce and a little panda pot full of homemade lemon dressing.

Lemon dressing

(makes 4 little pots)

2 dessert spoons olive oil
juice of half a lemon
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp parsley (freshly chopped or dried)
salt
pepper

Put all your ingredients into a clean jar and shake vigorously, then decant into pots as you need it.

Vegetarian bento #3 - Broad bean risotto

Summer is making its first tentative steps into the UK, which suddenly gives me the urge to eat all things light and green. In my most recent food box, I received some lovely broad beans and I wanted to make the most of them.

Of course, 'light' isn't an adjective one usually uses to describe risotto, but I have found a great way of lightening it.

Here is how I made today's dish. This recipe is meant to serve four for dinner, but it works out at about six servings in my little geisha bento and I found that filling enough even after a workout!

Broad bean risotto

1 dessert spoon vegetable oil
2 celery stalks or 3 spring onions
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
200g aroborio or carnaroli rice
100ml dry white wine (I used sparkling)
1l vegetable stock
100g broad beans
30g parmesan, grated

Put the oil in a pan and gently fry your celery or spring onions and your onion on a low heat. At this point, put your stock in another pan, and keep it warm on a very low heat.

After a minute or two, add the rice and garlic, and stir for 5-7 minutes - the rice and venegetable shouldn't get brown, but it should start to become translucent, and the pot should start feeling hot. Pour in the wine - it should really sizzle - and stir. Once the wine is absorbed, start adding the stock a ladleful at a time, waiting until one batch is absorbed before adding the next. About ten minutes before the rice is ready (when you're down to your last 3 ladles), add the broad beans. When the rice is cooked, take the risotto off the heat, add the grated parmesan and stir it in vigorously for 2-3 minutes. You should now have something nice, glossy, and not too rich to put on your plates!


For the bento, I put some risotto in one section:

and filled the other one with lettuce and cucumber slices - I just love the combination of warm risotto and cool salad, but perhaps that is just me being weird....

Un peu de village life

As you may be aware, I live in London, one of the world’s biggest cities. Not only that, I am a devoted city dweller, who tends to prefer enjoying the countryside in transit – i.e. from the window of a train while whizzing from one city to the next.

So, it’s probably quite surprising that I decided to spend five days staying with a friend’s family in a village in Central France. 5 days without theatres/cinemas/galleries/nightlife. How did I manage it? Well, it was quite lovely! This is the house - isn't it gorgeous?

Mix and match bento #1

This is a mix and match bento because while my version has meat in it, it doesn’t have to. I just used what I had to hand – you could easily swap in some tofu or more veggies or whatever you fancy, or leave that element out altogether.

It’s still really grey and muggy here in London and I’ve been trying to find dishes that fulfil my need for stodge, but are still healthy enough for Weight Watchers. And on top of this, I want my meals to look summery. Yes, I am demanding!

Today’s bento has a roasted vegetable salad and a lot of protein in the form of cheese and a pigeon breast :) I need to fill up today, it's Tuesday and I have exercise planned before lunch, and an 8km walk after work (and before dinner). 

Top layer: This aubergine salad by Abel and Cole is simply delicious. I adjusted the oil quantities in the dressing to reduce the WW points and left out the red onion because I forgot, but it still tastes really good and is probably less, um, fragrant, if you know what I mean. 

Bottom layer: I dusted a pigeon breast with lemon zest, salt and pepper, pan fried it and sliced it up. I then filled the box up with shredded gem lettuce and added 30g of cheese to go with my apple for dessert. 

The whole thing (30g cheese included) came to a modest 7 WW points and I felt very full after eating it, so mission accomplished!

Fish bento #4 - maki

I haven't made sushi for ages, but after spying a pack of nori sheets in my food cupboard yesterday I couldn't resist.

The sushi part

For today’s bento I made two different kinds of maki:

Mackerel: for this I spread 100g cooked sushi rice onto the nori sheet and topped it with freshly cooked mackerel fillet mixed with salt, pepper, a dash of Dijon mustard and a spoonful of low-fat plain yoghurt

Red pepper: again, I spread 100g cooked rice on the nori and then laid some lightly fried strips of red pepper on top.

The salad part

For the salad, I peeled and chopped a pear and sliced two sticks of celery. I added a little salt and pepper and stirred in some plain yoghurt.

The filler

I filled in any gaps using broccoli stalk poached in soy and dashi.

Apologies for the crap photo - I have been too lazy to recharge my camera, so I used my phone.