Jambalaya bento

I didn't make any bentos last Thursday and Friday, because we both had working lunches planned. And no bentos, no blog postings.

However a new week has started and I have boarded the bento train again, at least until next Thursday. On Friday at noon, we are going to a restaurant with the whole office for our traditional New Year's lunch and after lunch we are free to go home as well.  So no bento then, but an early start of the weekend. :o)

But first let's get back to today's bento.  I tried for the first time to make Jamabalaya last night and the leftover portions are in today's lunchboxes.  This is most definetely not the most traditional jambalaya around (I guess any real Cajun would shake his head in disbelief at my makings), but you have to try somewhere, right?  Moreover as I am on a diet (yes, yes, still haven't given up :o)), I tried to keep it as low-fat as possible and it still turned out a yummy hearty winter dish.

My bento has jambalaya, cucumber slices, carrot sticks, green olives, a mini babybel and some cherry tomatoes.  The fruit section has clementine, white and blue grapes, blueberries, pomegranate seeds, apricot and plum.

How-to Jambalaya :

First of all, I encountered a little problem with the rice while making this dish.  I had to cook it for 45 minutes in order to get it tender instead of the normal 25 minutes O_o, but otherwise, it came out very tasty. I think the problem might be linked to the small burner I had to use as button operating the large burner of the stove is out of order :o( , so I'll keep the normal cooking times in this recipe.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

* 120g lean breakfast bacon (can be replaced by chicken as well)
* 1 onion
* 2 garlic cloves
* 250g mushrooms
* 1 red bell pepper
* 1 tsp olive oil
* 120g brown rice (uncooked)
* 400g sifted tomatoes
* 150ml vegetable stock
* 400g gambas (pealed & cooked)
* 1 TBS parsley
* a pinch of sugar
* to taste : salt, pepper, thyme (and if you like spicy, you can add tabasco sauce as well)

Dice the bacon, the onion, the garlic cloves, the mushrooms and the bell pepper.

Bake the bacon in the teaspoon of olive oil, add the vegetables and stew.

Add the uncooked rice, tomatoes and vegetable stock.  Season with salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar (and tabasco if you want) and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the gambas and heat for an additional 5 minutes, finish with the tablespoon of parsley (and thyme).





Sweetie's monkey bento had the same ingredients (1) in the square tupper : jambalaya, cucumber, green olives and some cherry tomatoes. and (2) in the fruit sidecar: clementine, white and blue grapes, apricot and plum.






I am wishing you all a great and yummilicious new bento week !

1 comment:

Jacqueline said...

Oh, das sieht wieder einmal sowas von lecker aus! Ich bin immer neidisch auf deine tollen Bento ;)