His & her pasta frittata bento lunches

Once a year, volunteer language teachers come from Japan to help out at my son’s school, and do a month’s homestay with families from the school. Part of the homestay deal is that the host family is to pack the teacher a daily lunch to eat at school. So that means that I’m back to making adult and child versions of the same lunch while “A-sensei” is with us — I’m finding it stimulating.

It was initially a little weird to be making bentos for a Japanese person. (You know, will she like our food? I don’t want them to look so thrown-together that the other senseis at school wind up gossiping about it.) But we’ve gotten used to each other over the past couple weeks, so I’m less self-conscious now and am learning her food likes and dislikes. The result? I’ve slipped back into my regular old speed bento habits for both lunches.

For this meal I fell back on pasta frittata, a simple egg dish that incorporates leftover spaghetti from the night before. Now whenever I make pasta I just go ahead and make extra, knowing that leftovers will get remade into breakfast or lunch the next day.

Contents of adult bento lunch: Pasta frittata made with leftover spaghetti, shrimp & tomato sauce (see the full pasta frittata tutorial). Sauteed orange bell pepper with garlic & soy sauce, and green grapes.

Morning prep time: 20 minutes for the two bentos, using leftover pasta for the frittata and including prep/cooling time for the frittata and peppers. Thoroughly cooling all foods before closing them up inside a bento box reduces the amount of condensation inside of the box, improving food safety and making it easier to remove the lid of the bento box. (Click for lunch details and a kid-sized version of the same lunch.)

Packing: I cut the frittata into large bite-sized pieces to make it easy to eat on the go. The peppers are packed in a removable food cup that’s part of the bento box, keeping them separate from the grapes. The lunch is packed in a Hakoya 600ml two-tiered bento box (300ml lower tier, 300ml upper tier) that I picked up last year at Soko Hardware in San Francisco’s Japantown (see my bento gear shopping guide for the San Francisco Bay Area). This make it the right size box for an average adult woman, according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Well, the box came back empty and I got a thumbs up on the frittata as an interesting way to use up extra pasta. I hesitate to read too much into it, though — our teacher’s very polite.

* * * * *

Contents of kindergartener’s bento lunch: Same as the adult lunch above: pasta frittata, sauteed orange bell pepper, and green grapes.

Morning prep time: 20 minutes to make and pack the two bentos, which includes time to cook and cool both the pasta frittata and the peppers.

Packing: I cut the frittata into small pieces to make them easier to eat without struggling with a knife in a small container, and packed them in two layers inside the box. The peppers went into a reusable silicone baking cup, and I separated the frittata from the rest of the lunch with a removable divider that came with the bento box. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box: Bug’s favorite and the appropriate size for him according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Got back an empty box.

RELATED READING:

View the original article here

Leftover Remake: Risotto cake recipe & bento lunches

Because I’m not my son’s personal short-order cook, I love to use dinner leftovers in our bento lunches to minimize prep time. But eating the exact same thing for multiple meals can get boring pretty quickly, so finding new ways to quickly transform leftovers into different dishes is always welcome. Today I’ve got a simple Leftover Remake recipe for pan-fried risotto cakes.

With these lunches, I took cold zucchini risotto left over from dinner the night before, and made it into little pan-fried risotto cakes that my five-year-old ate as finger food. They’re reminiscent of Sicilian arancini (deep-fried rice balls stuffed with cheese, meat, or vegetables), but I improvised as I didn’t have a good melting cheese on hand.

Contents of kindergartener bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini (courgette) risotto cakes (recipe below), teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs (my favorite, Aidells brand), red grapes, and steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing. For dinner, I’d made the zucchini risotto from a recipe in Marcella Hazan’s classic cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bentos, including cooling time for the risotto cakes, meatballs and broccoli. In the morning I formed and pan-fried the risotto cakes from leftover risotto, microwaved the frozen meatballs, and steamed the broccoli in my microwave mini-steamer. (Click for full lunch details, an adult variation on this lunch with additional fruit & veggies, and a basic recipe for the risotto cakes.)

Packing: You know that I’m not one for spending a lot of time making elaborate food art, opting instead for food picks and little lunch accessories to give a bento a quick shot of cute. A while back I stumbled on a package of new colorful hugging food picks shaped like Usahana at a local thrift store for US$1, so I used them with the meatballs to make easy eating for little hands. I used all silicone lunch accessories in this bento, with a baran separator and food cup for the broccoli — keeping foods from touching (more of an issue for Bug than it would be for me).

Thorough cooling of the lunch contents before packing up the box is important to prevent condensation that would: 1) make the risotto cakes soften up, 2) create a vacuum inside of the box that would make it hard to open, and 3) increase the odds of food spoilage as bacteria thrive on moisture, protein and warmth. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with movable subdivider, the right size box for a 5-year-old according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Mostly thumbs up with everything gone except the grapes. Bug said he only ate half of a grape because he was trying to get the seeds out and peel the skin off with his fingers as he didn’t like the taste of the skin. He protested when I went to throw the remaining grapes out, though, saying he still wanted to eat them, it just took him too much time at school. So these big red grapes are off the bento list because they’re too time-consuming, but still in the kitchen at home for when we’re not in a hurry.

I added tangerine slices and smoked mushroom salad to our homestay Japanese teacher’s bento to round it out and make it different from the child’s version above.

Contents of adult bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini risotto cakes, tangerines, smoked mushrooms dressed with homemade balsamic vinaigrette, red grapes, steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing, and teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs. I adapted a recipe for smoked mushroom salad in the terrific barbecue cookbook Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue , and my husband smoked them in a vegetable grill basket on his Big Green Egg ceramic cooker. (You know, men love their grills!)

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bento variations, including cooling time for the risotto cakes. The mushroom salad was leftover from a previous dinner, and I quickly sliced up half of a tangerine.

Packing: I didn’t worry about separating the different foods as much for A-sensei, so I put only the drained mushrooms into a silicone food cup to keep the vinaigrette away from the grapes. The lunch is packed in a 600ml two-tier Hakoya bento box that I picked up at Soko Hardware in San Francisco’s Japantown last year.

Verdict: A-sensei ate everything, with a thumbs up on the risotto cakes. When I probed more deeply about what they were like at room temperature (as I ate mine at home when they were still warm), she finally said that she thought Bug might like them better with ketchup or some other dipping sauce. Bug disagreed and said they were good as is, but it’s an interesting suggestion.

* * * * *

Recipe for Pan-fried Risotto Cakes

leftover cold risotto (How much have you got? Try a basic risotto recipe is you’re starting from scratch.)1/4 cup flour (or breadcrumbs)dash of salt & pepper1 Tb vegetable oil (or vegetable oil spray) for pan-fryingkosher salt to tasteIn a shallow bowl or pie plate, mix together the flour, salt and pepper for breading the risotto cakes.Use a small disher or tablespoons to scoop up 2-3 tablespoons of cold risotto. Use your hands to shape the risotto into small rounds about 1/2 inch thick. (This is for small risotto cakes to fit in a bento box; feel free to make larger cakes if you like.)Place the risotto round into the flour mixture and lightly dust. Tap off excess flour and set aside.Heat the vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Place the floured risotto cakes in the hot pan without crowding, and fry until golden brown on the bottom (a couple minutes per side). Don’t mess with the cakes too much when you first put them in — you want them to develop a nice crust that’ll hold everything together when flipping.Flip the cakes and fry until brown on both sides. Remove from the pan with a small spatula, and cool on a cooling rack lined underneath with paper towels.  Blot off any excess oil off with paper towels.Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste while still warm.If not packing in a lunch, serve right away while warm. If packing in a bento, let these cool as completely as you have time for before closing up in a bento box. This’ll help prevent condensation inside the box that would soften the nice crust you’ve developed on the risotto cakes.

RELATED READING:

View the original article here

Bulgogi & spam musubi bento lunches

May I just say that kindergarten bentos have been kicking my butt this year? Bug’s new school starts super-early, and I’m NOT a morning person. Most mornings I’m thankful for every time-saving trick I can find, and I’m guilty of not taking many pictures as we rush out the door.

It’s been getting a little better lately, though. We’re hosting a homestay language teacher for a month, which has prompted me to get on top of our crazy morning routine (and declutter the house!).

Contents of kindergartener lunch: Shrimp & chive har gow dumpling, sauteed mushrooms, bulgogi (Korean grilled marinated beef), steamed broccoli with vinaigrette, and cheese cubes.

Morning prep time: 13 minutes, using a leftover dumpling and bulgogi from an earlier meal. In the morning I briefly steamed the broccoli and re-steamed the dumpling (to re-soften the dough wrapper) in my microwave mini steamer, then sauteed the pre-cut mushrooms. (I got a bag of cut mushrooms as sample at a food event, but I usually cut my own mushrooms with a knife or hard-boiled egg slicer.) I let the mushrooms and broccoli drain and cool in a sieve set over a bowl for a few minutes to prevent condensation inside the box once it was closed up (which also improves the food safety of a packed lunch).

Packing: Reusable silicone baking cups hold the mushrooms, broccoli and meat, keeping all flavors separate for finicky wee ones. Cheese cubes act as gap fillers to stabilize the lunch for transport. Not shown is a small sauce bottle filled with dipping sauce for the dumpling. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with removable divider, about the right size container for a five-year-old according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Bug ate most of the lunch, but left about half of the dumpling behind. He said he ran out of time to eat, which is increasingly becoming an issue with his lunches (they’ve got less time for lunch at school than he’s used to at home). I’m not sure if there’s actually not enough time, or if it’s just more distracting to be eating at the same long table with the rest of his class…

* * * * *

Contents of kindergartener lunch: Spam musubi (rice with fried spam seasoned with teriyaki sauce, see the full spam musubi tutorial), sauteed snow peas with Thai oyster sauce, strawberry pineapple guavas, cherry tomatoes, and a 100% juice jello cup from a local Asian market. I picked up the tiny pineapple guavas (also known as feijoa or guavasteen) at a local farmers’ market; they’ve got a great fragrance and flavor, and we eat them out of hand as a snack. I even discovered a pineapple guava bush in the backyard of one of our friends recently, which they didn’t know about — delicious discovery for them!

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using pre-fried/seasoned spam I had on hand, and frozen rice. In the morning I microwaved the frozen rice and quickly assembled a single spam musubi with my spam musubi press. That was SO the way to make spam musubi in the morning. Super-fast, and totally enclosing the rice in nori makes it easy for little hands to manage.

Speed bento tip: To speed up prep of the spam musubi, you can fry and season the spam ahead of time, and either refrigerate or freeze the seasoned spam so it’s on hand whenever you want it. Combine it with fresh or reheated frozen rice for speedy spam musubi in the mornings.

Packing: I kept the spam musubi whole to make it easier for little hands to eat without it falling apart. I cut the pineapple guavas in half beforehand so that Bug could use the little spoon from the jello cup to quickly scoop out the insides. The snow peas went into a reusable silicone baking cup to keep the sauce away from the other elements of the lunch. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with movable divider.

Verdict: Big thumbs up on the spam musubi, which delights Bug whenever it appears in his lunch. He left behind one of the pineapple guavas (saying he didn’t have enough time), and also mentioned that one of the kids at school said it looked like a poop. We had a good laugh about who might have green poop, and evidently he told the girl, “Don’t yuck my yum!” (Classic food blogger kid — I’ve been using this line on him since reading it in the Michael Pollan NYT article on Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

RELATED READING:

View the original article here

Yum-Yum Bento Box: Fresh Recipes for Adorable Lunches

Oh, boy obento! These cute, yummy, healthy lunches are all the rage in Japan, where mothers think of them as an expression of love for their children. Yum-Yum Bento Box is one of the first cookbooks in English devoted to these healthy and adorable meals they're fresh, they're tasty, and they're almost too cute to eat!

Each step-by-step recipe in Yum-Yum Bento Box is simple and adaptable. Readers will learn how to form their favorite foods into a variety of shapes from zebras, panda bears, and monkeys to kitties, piggies, and puppy dogs. Chapters include instructions for classic bento boxes and character-driven bentos (called Kyaraben), plus shopping advice, general tips and tricks, and much more. Stop wasting money on prepackaged lunches and start making beautiful, healthy bentos!

Price: $16.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

Bulgogi & spam musubi bento lunches

May I just say that kindergarten bentos have been kicking my butt this year? Bug’s new school starts super-early, and I’m NOT a morning person. Most mornings I’m thankful for every time-saving trick I can find, and I’m guilty of not taking many pictures as we rush out the door.

It’s been getting a little better lately, though. We’re hosting a homestay language teacher for a month, which has prompted me to get on top of our crazy morning routine (and declutter the house!).

Contents of kindergartener lunch: Shrimp & chive har gow dumpling, sauteed mushrooms, bulgogi (Korean grilled marinated beef), steamed broccoli with vinaigrette, and cheese cubes.

Morning prep time: 13 minutes, using a leftover dumpling and bulgogi from an earlier meal. In the morning I briefly steamed the broccoli and re-steamed the dumpling (to re-soften the dough wrapper) in my microwave mini steamer, then sauteed the pre-cut mushrooms. (I got a bag of cut mushrooms as sample at a food event, but I usually cut my own mushrooms with a knife or hard-boiled egg slicer.) I let the mushrooms and broccoli drain and cool in a sieve set over a bowl for a few minutes to prevent condensation inside the box once it was closed up (which also improves the food safety of a packed lunch).

Packing: Reusable silicone baking cups hold the mushrooms, broccoli and meat, keeping all flavors separate for finicky wee ones. Cheese cubes act as gap fillers to stabilize the lunch for transport. Not shown is a small sauce bottle filled with dipping sauce for the dumpling. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with removable divider, about the right size container for a five-year-old according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Bug ate most of the lunch, but left about half of the dumpling behind. He said he ran out of time to eat, which is increasingly becoming an issue with his lunches (they’ve got less time for lunch at school than he’s used to at home). I’m not sure if there’s actually not enough time, or if it’s just more distracting to be eating at the same long table with the rest of his class…

* * * * *

Contents of kindergartener lunch: Spam musubi (rice with fried spam seasoned with teriyaki sauce, see the full spam musubi tutorial), sauteed snow peas with Thai oyster sauce, strawberry pineapple guavas, cherry tomatoes, and a 100% juice jello cup from a local Asian market. I picked up the tiny pineapple guavas (also known as feijoa or guavasteen) at a local farmers’ market; they’ve got a great fragrance and flavor, and we eat them out of hand as a snack. I even discovered a pineapple guava bush in the backyard of one of our friends recently, which they didn’t know about — delicious discovery for them!

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using pre-fried/seasoned spam I had on hand, and frozen rice. In the morning I microwaved the frozen rice and quickly assembled a single spam musubi with my spam musubi press. That was SO the way to make spam musubi in the morning. Super-fast, and totally enclosing the rice in nori makes it easy for little hands to manage.

Speed bento tip: To speed up prep of the spam musubi, you can fry and season the spam ahead of time, and either refrigerate or freeze the seasoned spam so it’s on hand whenever you want it. Combine it with fresh or reheated frozen rice for speedy spam musubi in the mornings.

Packing: I kept the spam musubi whole to make it easier for little hands to eat without it falling apart. I cut the pineapple guavas in half beforehand so that Bug could use the little spoon from the jello cup to quickly scoop out the insides. The snow peas went into a reusable silicone baking cup to keep the sauce away from the other elements of the lunch. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with movable divider.

Verdict: Big thumbs up on the spam musubi, which delights Bug whenever it appears in his lunch. He left behind one of the pineapple guavas (saying he didn’t have enough time), and also mentioned that one of the kids at school said it looked like a poop. We had a good laugh about who might have green poop, and evidently he told the girl, “Don’t yuck my yum!” (Classic food blogger kid — I’ve been using this line on him since reading it in the Michael Pollan NYT article on Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

RELATED READING:

View the original article here

Leftover Remake: Risotto cake recipe & bento lunches

Because I’m not my son’s personal short-order cook, I love to use dinner leftovers in our bento lunches to minimize prep time. But eating the exact same thing for multiple meals can get boring pretty quickly, so finding new ways to quickly transform leftovers into different dishes is always welcome. Today I’ve got a simple Leftover Remake recipe for pan-fried risotto cakes.

With these lunches, I took cold zucchini risotto left over from dinner the night before, and made it into little pan-fried risotto cakes that my five-year-old ate as finger food. They’re reminiscent of Sicilian arancini (deep-fried rice balls stuffed with cheese, meat, or vegetables), but I improvised as I didn’t have a good melting cheese on hand.

Contents of kindergartener bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini (courgette) risotto cakes (recipe below), teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs (my favorite, Aidells brand), red grapes, and steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing. For dinner, I’d made the zucchini risotto from a recipe in Marcella Hazan’s classic cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bentos, including cooling time for the risotto cakes, meatballs and broccoli. In the morning I formed and pan-fried the risotto cakes from leftover risotto, microwaved the frozen meatballs, and steamed the broccoli in my microwave mini-steamer. (Click for full lunch details, an adult variation on this lunch with additional fruit & veggies, and a basic recipe for the risotto cakes.)

Packing: You know that I’m not one for spending a lot of time making elaborate food art, opting instead for food picks and little lunch accessories to give a bento a quick shot of cute. A while back I stumbled on a package of new colorful hugging food picks shaped like Usahana at a local thrift store for US$1, so I used them with the meatballs to make easy eating for little hands. I used all silicone lunch accessories in this bento, with a baran separator and food cup for the broccoli — keeping foods from touching (more of an issue for Bug than it would be for me).

Thorough cooling of the lunch contents before packing up the box is important to prevent condensation that would: 1) make the risotto cakes soften up, 2) create a vacuum inside of the box that would make it hard to open, and 3) increase the odds of food spoilage as bacteria thrive on moisture, protein and warmth. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with movable subdivider, the right size box for a 5-year-old according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Mostly thumbs up with everything gone except the grapes. Bug said he only ate half of a grape because he was trying to get the seeds out and peel the skin off with his fingers as he didn’t like the taste of the skin. He protested when I went to throw the remaining grapes out, though, saying he still wanted to eat them, it just took him too much time at school. So these big red grapes are off the bento list because they’re too time-consuming, but still in the kitchen at home for when we’re not in a hurry.

I added tangerine slices and smoked mushroom salad to our homestay Japanese teacher’s bento to round it out and make it different from the child’s version above.

Contents of adult bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini risotto cakes, tangerines, smoked mushrooms dressed with homemade balsamic vinaigrette, red grapes, steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing, and teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs. I adapted a recipe for smoked mushroom salad in the terrific barbecue cookbook Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue, and my husband smoked them in a vegetable grill basket on his Big Green Egg ceramic cooker. (You know, men love their grills!)

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bento variations, including cooling time for the risotto cakes. The mushroom salad was leftover from a previous dinner, and I quickly sliced up half of a tangerine.

Packing: I didn’t worry about separating the different foods as much for A-sensei, so I put only the drained mushrooms into a silicone food cup to keep the vinaigrette away from the grapes. The lunch is packed in a 600ml two-tier Hakoya bento box that I picked up at Soko Hardware in San Francisco’s Japantown last year.

Verdict: A-sensei ate everything, with a thumbs up on the risotto cakes. When I probed more deeply about what they were like at room temperature (as I ate mine at home when they were still warm), she finally said that she thought Bug might like them better with ketchup or some other dipping sauce. Bug disagreed and said they were good as is, but it’s an interesting suggestion.

* * * * *

Recipe for Pan-fried Risotto Cakes

leftover cold risotto (How much have you got? Try a basic risotto recipe is you’re starting from scratch.)1/4 cup flour (or breadcrumbs)dash of salt & pepper1 Tb vegetable oil (or vegetable oil spray) for pan-fryingkosher salt to tasteIn a shallow bowl or pie plate, mix together the flour, salt and pepper for breading the risotto cakes.Use a small disher or tablespoons to scoop up 2-3 tablespoons of cold risotto. Use your hands to shape the risotto into small rounds about 1/2 inch thick. (This is for small risotto cakes to fit in a bento box; feel free to make larger cakes if you like.)Place the risotto round into the flour mixture and lightly dust. Tap off excess flour and set aside.Heat the vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Place the floured risotto cakes in the hot pan without crowding, and fry until golden brown on the bottom (a couple minutes per side). Don’t mess with the cakes too much when you first put them in — you want them to develop a nice crust that’ll hold everything together when flipping.Flip the cakes and fry until brown on both sides. Remove from the pan with a small spatula, and cool on a cooling rack lined underneath with paper towels.  Blot off any excess oil off with paper towels.Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste while still warm.If not packing in a lunch, serve right away while warm. If packing in a bento, let these cool as completely as you have time for before closing up in a bento box. This’ll help prevent condensation inside the box that would soften the nice crust you’ve developed on the risotto cakes.

RELATED READING:

View the original article here

His & her pasta frittata bento lunches

Once a year, volunteer language teachers come from Japan to help out at my son’s school, and do a month’s homestay with families from the school. Part of the homestay deal is that the host family is to pack the teacher a daily lunch to eat at school. So that means that I’m back to making adult and child versions of the same lunch while “A-sensei” is with us — I’m finding it stimulating.

It was initially a little weird to be making bentos for a Japanese person. (You know, will she like our food? I don’t want them to look so thrown-together that the other senseis at school wind up gossiping about it.) But we’ve gotten used to each other over the past couple weeks, so I’m less self-conscious now and am learning her food likes and dislikes. The result? I’ve slipped back into my regular old speed bento habits for both lunches.

For this meal I fell back on pasta frittata, a simple egg dish that incorporates leftover spaghetti from the night before. Now whenever I make pasta I just go ahead and make extra, knowing that leftovers will get remade into breakfast or lunch the next day.

Contents of adult bento lunch: Pasta frittata made with leftover spaghetti, shrimp & tomato sauce (see the full pasta frittata tutorial). Sauteed orange bell pepper with garlic & soy sauce, and green grapes.

Morning prep time: 20 minutes for the two bentos, using leftover pasta for the frittata and including prep/cooling time for the frittata and peppers. Thoroughly cooling all foods before closing them up inside a bento box reduces the amount of condensation inside of the box, improving food safety and making it easier to remove the lid of the bento box. (Click for lunch details and a kid-sized version of the same lunch.)

Packing: I cut the frittata into large bite-sized pieces to make it easy to eat on the go. The peppers are packed in a removable food cup that’s part of the bento box, keeping them separate from the grapes. The lunch is packed in a Hakoya 600ml two-tiered bento box (300ml lower tier, 300ml upper tier) that I picked up last year at Soko Hardware in San Francisco’s Japantown (see my bento gear shopping guide for the San Francisco Bay Area). This make it the right size box for an average adult woman, according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Well, the box came back empty and I got a thumbs up on the frittata as an interesting way to use up extra pasta. I hesitate to read too much into it, though — our teacher’s very polite.

* * * * *

Contents of kindergartener’s bento lunch: Same as the adult lunch above: pasta frittata, sauteed orange bell pepper, and green grapes.

Morning prep time: 20 minutes to make and pack the two bentos, which includes time to cook and cool both the pasta frittata and the peppers.

Packing: I cut the frittata into small pieces to make them easier to eat without struggling with a knife in a small container, and packed them in two layers inside the box. The peppers went into a reusable silicone baking cup, and I separated the frittata from the rest of the lunch with a removable divider that came with the bento box. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box: Bug’s favorite and the appropriate size for him according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Got back an empty box.

RELATED READING:

View the original article here

Leftover Remake: Risotto cake recipe & bento lunches

Because I’m not my son’s personal short-order cook, I love to use dinner leftovers in our bento lunches to minimize prep time. But eating the exact same thing for multiple meals can get boring pretty quickly, so finding new ways to quickly transform leftovers into different dishes is always welcome. Today I’ve got a simple Leftover Remake recipe for pan-fried risotto cakes.

With these lunches, I took cold zucchini risotto left over from dinner the night before, and made it into little pan-fried risotto cakes that my five-year-old ate as finger food. They’re reminiscent of Sicilian arancini (deep-fried rice balls stuffed with cheese, meat, or vegetables), but I improvised as I didn’t have a good melting cheese on hand.

Contents of kindergartener bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini (courgette) risotto cakes (recipe below), teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs (my favorite, Aidells brand), red grapes, and steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing. For dinner, I’d made the zucchini risotto from a recipe in Marcella Hazan’s classic cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bentos, including cooling time for the risotto cakes, meatballs and broccoli. In the morning I formed and pan-fried the risotto cakes from leftover risotto, microwaved the frozen meatballs, and steamed the broccoli in my microwave mini-steamer. (Click for full lunch details, an adult variation on this lunch with additional fruit & veggies, and a basic recipe for the risotto cakes.)

Packing: You know that I’m not one for spending a lot of time making elaborate food art, opting instead for food picks and little lunch accessories to give a bento a quick shot of cute. A while back I stumbled on a package of new colorful hugging food picks shaped like Usahana at a local thrift store for US$1, so I used them with the meatballs to make easy eating for little hands. I used all silicone lunch accessories in this bento, with a baran separator and food cup for the broccoli — keeping foods from touching (more of an issue for Bug than it would be for me).

Thorough cooling of the lunch contents before packing up the box is important to prevent condensation that would: 1) make the risotto cakes soften up, 2) create a vacuum inside of the box that would make it hard to open, and 3) increase the odds of food spoilage as bacteria thrive on moisture, protein and warmth. The lunch is packed in a 450ml Disney Cars bento box with movable sub divider, the right size box for a 5-year-old according to the bento box size guidelines.

Verdict: Mostly thumbs up with everything gone except the grapes. Bug said he only ate half of a grape because he was trying to get the seeds out and peel the skin off with his fingers as he didn’t like the taste of the skin. He protested when I went to throw the remaining grapes out, though, saying he still wanted to eat them, it just took him too much time at school. So these big red grapes are off the bento list because they’re too time-consuming, but still in the kitchen at home for when we’re not in a hurry.

I added tangerine slices and smoked mushroom salad to our homestay Japanese teacher’s bento to round it out and make it different from the child’s version above.

Contents of adult bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini risotto cakes, tangerines, smoked mushrooms dressed with homemade balsamic vinaigrette, red grapes, steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing, and teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs. I adapted a recipe for smoked mushroom salad in the terrific barbecue cookbook Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue, and my husband smoked them in a vegetable grill basket on his Big Green Egg ceramic cooker. (You know, men love their grills!)

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bento variations, including cooling time for the risotto cakes. The mushroom salad was leftover from a previous dinner, and I quickly sliced up half of a tangerine.

Packing: I didn’t worry about separating the different foods as much for A-sensei, so I put only the drained mushrooms into a silicone food cup to keep the vinaigrette away from the grapes. The lunch is packed in a 600ml two-tier Hakoya bento box that I picked up at Soko Hardware in San Francisco’s Japantown last year.

Verdict: A-sensei ate everything, with a thumbs up on the risotto cakes. When I probed more deeply about what they were like at room temperature (as I ate mine at home when they were still warm), she finally said that she thought Bug might like them better with ketchup or some other dipping sauce. Bug disagreed and said they were good as is, but it’s an interesting suggestion.

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Recipe for Pan-fried Risotto Cakes

leftover cold risotto (How much have you got? Try a basic risotto recipe is you’re starting from scratch.)1/4 cup flour (or breadcrumbs)dash of salt & pepper1 Tb vegetable oil (or vegetable oil spray) for pan-fryingkosher salt to tasteIn a shallow bowl or pie plate, mix together the flour, salt and pepper for breading the risotto cakes.Use a small disher or tablespoons to scoop up 2-3 tablespoons of cold risotto. Use your hands to shape the risotto into small rounds about 1/2 inch thick. (This is for small risotto cakes to fit in a bento box; feel free to make larger cakes if you like.)Place the risotto round into the flour mixture and lightly dust. Tap off excess flour and set aside.Heat the vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Place the floured risotto cakes in the hot pan without crowding, and fry until golden brown on the bottom (a couple minutes per side). Don’t mess with the cakes too much when you first put them in — you want them to develop a nice crust that’ll hold everything together when flipping.Flip the cakes and fry until brown on both sides. Remove from the pan with a small spatula, and cool on a cooling rack lined underneath with paper towels.  Blot off any excess oil off with paper towels.Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste while still warm.If not packing in a lunch, serve right away while warm. If packing in a bento, let these cool as completely as you have time for before closing up in a bento box. This’ll help prevent condensation inside the box that would soften the nice crust you’ve developed on the risotto cakes.

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