Showing posts with label cucumber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cucumber. Show all posts
Ham Salad Bento
Labels:
apple,
apricot,
blackberries,
bread,
carrot,
cucumber,
green asparagus,
ham,
strawberries,
yellow tomato
·
For a change, no rice, pasta or potatoes in my bento but a bit of bread, ideal to accompany the homemade ham salad in the purple box. The salad (minced ham with 1 Tbs of philadelphia cheese, herbs, onion and radish) is topped with two green asparagus spears.
In the green box, I have a veggie salad composed of yellow tomato, cucumber, carrot, shallot and green asparagus, sprinkled with chives.
Dessert is coordinated with the colour of the box it is in : mini strawberries, blackberries, a sliced up pink lady apple and a little apricot.
Bon appetit.
Tian Provençal Bento
Labels:
blackberries,
cherry tomatoes,
cucumber,
eggplant,
garlic,
onion,
plum,
strawberries,
white rice,
zucchini
·
Another workday, another bento.
I cooked a tian provençal this weekend (with eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic and onion) and made sure I had plenty left over to fill couple of bentos this week. It's such a summery and savoury vegetable dish, that I could eat it every day. And thus I will :o)
To accompany the tian, I have some plain white rice topped with diced cucumber with two sliced up meatballs left over from last night's dinner. I added a little cucumber/cherry tomato skewer. Dessert is all red and blues : mini strawberries, blackberries and hidden beneath all that goodness a little dark plum.
Bon appetit.
Summer bento
Although the weather is far from summery at the moment, I decided to go for a sunny bento today. So, in the bottom tier, I have a quinoa salad (with mint, spring onion, tomato and cucumber), a grilled piece of corn and a few slices of zucchini and feta terrine. The top tier has the usual suspects : srawberries, a tiny plum, apple, nectarine and the last two mini clafoutis.
Bon appetit.
Fennel Mushroom Risotto Bento
Labels:
carrot,
cherry tomatoes,
cucumber,
fennel,
oyster mushroom,
risotto,
shitake,
steak
·
After seeing Gamene's post featuring fennel, I remembered I still had a fennel bulb in the fridge. I bought it a while back, meaning to prepare it with sometype of fish but never came round to it. Luckily for me, my fridge is an excellent one with the vegetable drawer being at a constant 0 degrees. So more than two weeks after purchase, it was still nice and fresh. :o)
I searched for a recipe that would combine fennel and mushroom as I still had some oyster mushrooms and shitake in that drawer too. And that's when I came across this recipe. Because cups aren't a regular measuring unit over here, I had to wing it a bit as far as quantities were concerned but it came out perfectly. To accompany the tasty risotto (containing shitake, oyster mushroom, fennel, asparagus and spring onion), I cooked some steak and added a little tomato skewer and carrot sakura for a bit of colour. For dessert I have a little sidebox, but I didn't take a picure of it.
Bon appetit.
Saveurs d'orient bento
Labels:
brocoli,
carrot,
cauliflower,
chicken,
cucumber,
grapes,
olives,
orange,
ramiro pepper,
redcurrant,
strawberries,
taboulé
·
As the title already suggests, today's bento is inspired by the Orient and more particularly, Morocco and its cuisine. I made some taboulé (couscous with tomato, onion and cucumber) to accompany a bit of lemon chicken, sprinkled with green olives. I need to finetune the recipe a bit so I will post it later on. The "greens" are mini corn cobs and cauliflower hidden under some carrot slices, brocoli rosets and ramiro pepper slices. The dessert section is composed of black and white grapes, blueberries, blackberries, redcurrant, a strawberry and orange slices.
Bon appetit.
Chicken Sausage Bento
Labels:
banana,
clementine,
cucumber,
edamame,
grapes,
green asparagus,
potato,
romanesco,
sausage,
snow peas,
strawberries
·
First of all, yes I am aware that the furoshiki I used as a background is in bad need of ironing, but as the main focus of the picture is supposed to be the bento, I thought that all in all it didn't look too bad. Call it artistic freedom :o)
When looking at all the bento boxes last night and considering which one to pick for today's lunch, I was again drawn to my favourite M4SB, with its colourful compartments. As usual I didn't really plan on the box to be (rather) colour coordinated but halfway through packing, I realised I was doing it again ... OCD anyone? :o)
Anyway, today I will be having a sliced up chicken sausage, green veggies (being romanesco, edamame, snowpeas, cucumber slices and green asparagus tips), steamed potatoes with spring onion and the usual fruit selection i.e. grapes, clementine, strawberries and two banana chip slices.
And all this for a total points value of 9,5 WW propoints.
Bon appetit !
Chicons au gratin bento
Labels:
apple,
banana,
carrot,
cheese,
cherry tomatoes,
cucumber,
grapes,
ham,
strawberries,
witloof
·
Today's bento features a typical Belgian dish : (Belgian) Endives rolls, locally knows as Chicons au gratin (in French) or Witloofgratin (in Dutch). Basically these are braised endives, rolled in a slice of ham, covered with bechamel (or as I did cheese sauce - although I didn't add any liquids to the bento) and generously sprinkled with grated cheese, before getting a tan in a hot oven.
It is a typical winter dish as well, as endives are very much in season now. I always go for the field-grown variety as I find those more savoury and less bitter than their greenhouse counterparts.
So besides, the endives, my bento has a few cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots and cucumber slices. The sweet dessert portion consists of half a banana, white grapes, apple and a few strawberries. And all this for a total points value of 6,5 WW propoints.
Bon appetit !
Empanada de atún bento
Labels:
bento,
blueberries,
cantaloup melon,
cherry tomatoes,
cucumber,
empanada,
grapes,
lettuce,
mozarella,
nectarine,
olives,
orange,
radish
·
Spanish flavours in today's lunch, as I decided to make empanadas de atún last night to pack in our bento boxes. As it was a kind of a "spur of the moment" idea, I didn't have the time to make it completely from scratch as my MIL used to do. Luckily for me, the "organised business woman" I am, has everything she needs in her fridge and cupboard to produce these savoury pastries in a relatively short time.
As my (Spanish) Sweetie grew up with these flavours and with MIL's comida casera, cooking up a Spanish dish is always a bit tricky. No matter what I do, I'll never make things exactly the way she did. And as she sadly passed away a few years ago, I can't ask her for advice anymore neither. Nevertheless, I had to shoo someone out of the kitchen last night, who had picked up the familiar scent, trailed it back to the kitchen and was intent on stealing a few scraps out of the hot pan. I guess I can consider that a compliment :o)
So both our bento have an empanada de atún on a bed of young lettuce leaves, radishes, cucumber, tomato/mozzarella skewers and a green olives skewer. It's nice to include raw veggies again, it reminds me that sunny days are on their way and that it will soon be BBQ weather again :o)
The dessert section has grapes, cantaloup balls, orange parts, nectarine and blueberries.
How-to speedy Empanada de Atún :
Ingredients for 8 empanadas:
* 3 garlic cloves (or less, if you're not a garlic fan as we are)
* 2 red onions
* 400g of canned tuna (I used tuna in olive oil, but on brine would work too)
* 2 (bell) peppers (traditionally you'd use green ones, but I used the two red ramiro peppers I had in the fridge)
* 1 jar (400 ml) of tomate frito (my fave brand : Solis)
* 2 hardboiled eggs
* 1 egg
* 2 puff pastry sheets
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Dice the onions and peppers and finely chop the garlic. In a skillet, fry the onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, and add the peppers when the onions have glazed over.
Once the peppers are starting to tender, add the tomate frito and let it simmer for a while on low heat.
Meanwhile, drain the tuna and crumble it. Chop up the hardboiled eggs and add them together with the crumbled tuna to the tomate frito. Stir all the ingredients together and let it simmer a while longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. The filling should now be rather consistent and not watery or liquid.
Roll out the pastry sheets. The ones I had in the fridge were round ones, which aren't the easiest to use. If you make your own pastry dough you can make roll it out in a sheet, cut out round shapes, reshape the remaining dough into a new flat sheet, cut out again, etc. (empanadas are normally presented as half circles, like goyza)... But I just cut the round doughs in four, filled them and then (painstakingly) tried to close them.
Whisk the egg and brush it on top of the empanadas, before putting them in the oven for about half an hour (depending on your oven).
The empanadas are delicious hot and cold, which makes them ideal for bento.
Garlic mushroom bento
How time flies. The blink of an eye and it's already the middle of the week again. And this time there is a three day weekend urging me on, as a carrot on a stick. :o) I really look forward to it, as I have so many pending projects I would like to start on. If the weather decides to finally give in to spring and the rain and wind would subside, this would indeed be a perfect break. Fingers crossed that the sun will be quicky rerouted to my part of the world. :o)
Back on the bento front, there isn't anything special today. I have been thinking of making a bunny/Easter themed box, but don't seem to be able to come up with something nice ... maybe tomorrow, maybe (don't get your hopes up).
Anyway, my bento has sausage slices (left over from last night's dinner), some white rice with cheese sakura, fresh carrot kinpira (made a whole new tupper of it yesterday) and baby mushrooms sauteed with garlic and shives. A cucumber baran separates main course from dessert, being the usual fruit selection (orange, plum, nectarine, grapes, apple and kiwi).
Fried rice with shitake bento
For some odd reason, I never made fried rice. Come to think of it, even back in the days, fried rice never came out of my mom's kitchen. I used to get some from a good Chinese take-away nearby but when that place closed down more than a year ago, I never bother to look for a replacement supplier. All the more reasons to dive into my favourite cookbook (aka internet) and see how to reproduce the yummy dish in the privacy of my own kitchen.
So yesterday I decided to throw myself in at the deep end ... until I realised that I wasn't at the deep end at all, rather in the toddler's section. This is such an easy dish to make, why didn't I give it a try years ago?
Anyway. I had some leftover brown rice in the fridge and turned that into fried rice together with some sliced shitake, scallions, smoked ham strips and a diced omelet. The fried rice took up almost the whole bento, but for some extra veggies, I added a little cucumber baran, two cherry tomatoes and a few green manzanilla olives.
I spotted some strawberries at the store yesterday and although they're still expensive (almost 3 EUR for 250g) because out of season and therefor imported (from Israel this time), I couldn't pass up on the juicy red sweetness. My fruit section has strawberry (of course), kiwi and apple slices, some orange wedges, a piece of yellow plum, two lonely black grapes and some cantaloup melon. It was a pleasure to encounter a cantaloup, it's a telltale sign that spring finally getting here :o)
As always the main ingredients of Sweetie's bento are the same as mine. Besides the fried rice, I added 2 slices of manchego cheese, boursin (garlic & herbs) balls, a tomato & oliver skewer and some carrot sticks which I attempted to cut into flowers (attempted being the key word!).
The fruit sidecar has again strawberry, kiwi slices, a piece of apple, some orange wedges, a piece of yellow plum, black grapes and some cantaloup melon balls.
Cajun Turkey Bento
A very simple and straightforward bento for Monday's lunch because I just didn't have the time nor energy to come up with clever ideas last night : my parents returned home after a small vacation and I had to pick them up. Between driving to the airport, waiting for what seemed an eternity (their luggage didn't make it to Brussels so they had to do some paperworks), driving them home and having a little holiday debrief, it was already passed midnight when I finally saw my kitchen again.
So today's bento just has whatever was leftover from last night's dinner, which had been "quick & easy" also. I went to Stonemanor last Friday and while strolling through the aisles looking for novelties, I came across the Discovery Food range. The packaging looked appetizing, so I grabbed the Cajun and Creole stirfry sauces for those times when you need a quick turnaround to get dinner on the table. I used the Cajun sauce and spices last night and it turned out really good. I was afraid it might be a bit too spicy but it was just perfect. (Completely off topic, but I also found for the first time Reeses pieces at Stonemanor's, oh boy, after sour skittles I feel a new addiction coming up ... I only wish my addiction involved readily available candy, instead of me having to depend on my friends abroad to get my candy fix :o( )
Anyway, I disgress. Back to today's bento which has brown rice, cajun turkey and a cucumber baran separating it from some grapes, orange, kiwi and plum slices and an apple piece.
P.'s bento has the same items but my camera battery gave up on me before I could take a pic of it. It looked quite simliliar though :o)
ETA : I got a shunshine reward from MyBentolicious (thank you Lia !!) and I will upload a post dedicated to this award later tonight or tomorrow. I'm still thinking about the blogs I want to nominate for this award. Stay tuned :o)
St. Patrick's Day bento
Labels:
apple,
bell pepper,
brocoli,
brocolini,
cucumber,
green asparagus,
iceberg lettuce,
kiwi,
kiwiberries,
olives,
pak choi,
snow peas,
sprouts,
sugar snaps
·
Not a drop of Irish blood is running through my veins, nor is Lá Fhéile Pádraig celebrated around these parts, but any holiday involving drinks, food and having a jolly good time in general is worth dedicating a bento to :o)
In my pursuit of using green items, I clearly went "a bit" overboard but the sun is shining, trees are budding, the birdies are singing to their heart's content and they even announced a peak of 18°C for tomorrow, so I think I am entitled to some green euphoria :o)
My Paddy Day bento has green rice (coloured using Maki's technique posted on JustBento.com) with a cucumber peel shamrock in a green lettuce cradle, brocolini, asperagus, baby pak choi, brocoli sprouts, leftover sausage covered with snowpeas, goat cheese maki and a orange bell pepper heart for that dash of colour. :o)
The fruit section is equally green with granny apple, grapes, kiwi slices and kiwi berries, separated from the rest with cucumber baran. And for the final touch, as Easter is nearing, pistacchio Easter eggs :o)
Sweetie's bento is also ... green, what did you expect? :o) It has as usual roughly the same ingredients : green rice with a cucumber peel shamrock, leftover sausage, snowpeas & sugarsnaps, goat cheese maki, carrot slices and orange bell pepper hearts. On the other side of the cucumber baran : granny apple, grapes, nashi, kiwi slices, kiwi berries and a little Easter egg.
Pasta Salad Bento
Labels:
apple,
bell pepper,
bento,
blueberries,
cappellini,
cucumber,
mozarella,
pasta,
plum,
quail egg,
snow peas,
sprouts,
sugar snaps
·
Because I turned the pasta into a salad, with different ingredients, I didn't add any additional vegetables to my bento.
The salad consists of cappellini pasta, spring onion, cucumber, tomato, smoked ham & lean bacon strips, a chopped up scrambled egg and parsley. I mixed a dressing of oliver oil and strawberry vinegar (a Taiwanese product I found in the Asian market, smells and tastes delish) into the pasta to avoid it drying out and getting sticky.
Some cucumber baran is separating the pasta from the different fruits : clementine, red and white grapes, red and yellow plum, nectarine, kiwi and the jelly like substance is a new strange fruit, the grenadillo. More about that below).
Sweetie took the owan tsukumi bento to the office today which has the same pasta salad as the sakura bento in the bottom tier. In the top tier there are mini tomato/mozarella skewers, green olives, quail egg, snow peas and sugar snaps, broccoli sprouts, cauliflower, bell pepper flowers and two pieces of manchego cheese.
No working day being complete without the essential vitamin break, I packed quite a few fruits in one of my new Kutusitanyanko boxes. The first really kawaii box, P. is taking to the office. As I have packed up both boxes in a solid colour furoshiki, it will be the lunchtime surprise. Let's see how that one will go :o)
Anyway for the fruits : half of the grenadillo (see more below), white and black grapes, red and yellow plum, kiwi, clementine and a piece of apple.
STRANGE FRUIT #2 - GRENADILLO
On my continuous quest of trying every strange thing in the supermarket, this is the latest instalment.
With a name like grenadillo, I thought the inside would be more like a pomegranade. As you can see for yourself, it is not.
Now on the inside, it doesn't look very appetizing, does it? Green/greyish jellylike substance with lots of seeds ... I sure know how to pick them :o) The taste however is delicate and sweet (if you can block out your apprehension - closing your eyes helps ;o)). I never had fresh passion fruit but it looks quite similar and I think tastewise they mustn't be too far off. I tried eating one of the seeds but it was like an apple seed, quite hard, so I don't think these are edible. Slurp it up and spit out the seeds seem to be the way to eat this baby. Upon googling the grenadillo, it appears that I should have cut it lengthwise instead of through the middle as I did. I don't think the cutting method alters the taste though.
More strange fruit tomorrow ... I got a last strange thing in the fridge :o)
Spanakopita bento
Labels:
blueberries,
cherry tomatoes,
clementine,
cucumber,
duck,
feta,
grapes,
kiwiberries,
macaron,
mozarella,
nectarine,
plum,
sausage,
spanakopita,
spinach,
sprouts,
strawberries,
vitelotte
·
I might post of few of the bentos I made for the last two months. But before looking back it's more interesting to look ahead and more particularly look at today's lunch. :o)
Inspired by Blorgie1's mouthwatering Spanakopita snail bento picture, I decided to give that Greek pastry a try. Googling the name for recipes lead to many posibilites and variations, and unable to choose the "right one", I opted for making my own version of it. It's probably not traditional (nor very greek for that matter) but in the end, it's the taste that matters.
I have to admit however that I made the triangle just for the bento and haven't tasted it yet, but the filling was good in itself (yep, I'm the type of girl that can't help snacking on whatever she's making), so baked and wrapped in filo it can only be better :o)
P.'s bento for the day consists of a spanakopita triangle, two skewers composed of cherry tomatoes, smoked duck and mozarella, a grilled chicken sausage, vitelotte mash in a lilac cup, cucumber baran and beetroot sprout. The fruit section has a selection of mainly dark fruits : blueberries, grapes, strawberries, kiwiberries, nectarine, clementine and plum. I also added a mini blackberry macaron for sweetness.
How to Spanakopita, the BentoBliss way :o) :
The following ingredients make 4 triangles
* 250g fresh spinash
* 100g greek feta
* 100g mascarpone (I wanted ricotta but didn't have any available)
* 2 spring onions
* 2 garlic cloves
* 50 g of melted butter and 1 TBS of olive oil
* 8 filo sheets
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp chopped mint
* chopped parsley
* salt, pepper, nutmeg
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
Blanch the spinach, drain, squeeze the excess water out of it and chop it up.
Chop the spring onions and fry them shortly in a pan. They have to be a bit tender but not brown.
In a large bowl, mix together the spinach, the onion, the crumbled feta, the mascarpone and the herbs and spices.
Beat the egg lightly (as you would for making a scrambled egg) and add it to the mixture.
Take your filo sheets and lay the first sheet open, brush the butter/olive oil mix on the sheet and cover with a second sheet. Repeat until putting the forth sheet on top.
Cut the sheet in half lengthwise, add a fourth of the spinach mix on the bottom of filo rectangle and twist it into a triangle. It's the same method as for making briouats, see the pic below on how to do this.
Repeat the same procedure with the remaining 4 sheets to have 4 triangles in total.
Put the triangles on the baking tray lined with baking parchment paper, and bake them in the oven until the colour golden brown. The exact time depends on your oven, in my case, it took about 20 minutes.
My bento for today, has roughly the same ingredients as the one Sweetie got. I just left out the duck skewers for me and replaced the chicken sausage by surimi & tzatziki rolls.
Jambalaya bento
Labels:
apricot,
babybel cheese,
bento,
blueberries,
cherry tomatoes,
clementine,
cucumber,
grapes,
jambalaya,
olives,
plum,
pomegranate,
radish
·
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.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.
* 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)
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 !
A long overdue update
Labels:
babybel cheese,
bell pepper,
bento,
butternut pumpkin,
carrot,
cucumber,
daikon,
fennel,
kumato,
quail egg,
radish,
snow peas,
surimi,
sweet potato,
witloof
·
An overview of the bentos of the last few days :
Nov. 12, 2009 : Quinoa pancakes & sweet potatoes bentos
Reading other bento blogs is always an inspiring process a browsing through HapaBento's blog is no exception to the rule. This week she posted bentos with quinoa as well as sweet potatoes, and her recipes seemed so easy and yummy that I decided to give them a try.
Then I added the quinoa/red lentils pancakes, the sweet potato mash in a silicone muffin cup, the regular carved cucumber and radish, three little rolls of cooked ham topped with cheesy stars and carrot triangles, a quail egg, the last of the snowpeas, alternating carrot and parsnip slices and a parsnip/carrot flower with a tomato heart.
For the recipes for the sweet potato mash and the quinoa pancakes, I refer you to the postings on hapabento's blog I linked to above. I didn't use mirin (because my other half isn't a big fan of the taste) for the pancakes but added nutmeg (a spice I add in every dish, I have to admit) and my sweet potato mash is chili-free.
My other half also had a bento of course, containing roughly the same ingredients : Quinoa/red lentil pancakes and sliced sweet potato in the bottom tier; ham roll skewer,brocoli, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, radish, snowpeas and carrot/parsnip slices and flower (with a quail egg heart).Nov. 11, 2009 : Armistice Day -> holiday -> no work -> no bento :o)
Nov. 10, 2009 : Butternut pumpkin bento
As the main part of my bento was going to be a mixed salad, I took my little round bento again to work, filled with lots of beggies.
For the vegetables in the top tier I tried out some of my new carving equipement, with varied success : a cucumber garland, a carrot twist and flower, cherry tomato, babybel cheese, radish, leek sprouts and half a kumato filled with the potato/butternut pumpkin puree leftover from last night's dinner.
The same ingredients also went in the other bento :
In the pink tier : another carrot swirl, a radish which was supposed to be Crysanthemum Flower but ended up strangely spiky, a bit of the witloof salad from the other bento and an ovenbaked sweet potato. It was the first time that I tried making a sweet potato and apparently P. found it so yummy that half of what I baked, never even made it into the bento. :o)In the black tier : butternut pumpkin/potato puree rolled in ham, yellow zucchini, olives, carrot flower with a cherry tomato heart.
How to butternut pumpkin/potato puree :
It wan't really my intention to turn this into a puree, but running back and forth between the study (facebook addict), the TV (trying to catch some of the news) and the kitchen, I overcooked the potatoes, leaving me with no other aesthetic possibility than mash them up.
What I used :
1 butternut pumpkin
1 onion
4 potatoes
Dice the onion and flash fry it in a bit of olive oil. Peel the butternut pumpkin, remove the seeds and other mush interior, keeping only the firm flesh and dice it. Add the pumpkin to the onions, add a bit of water to cover the bottom of the panand let it simmer until the pieces are tender. Keep an eye on your pan and make sure your pan always has a bit of water in the bottom to prevent scorching your veggies. I let it simmer for half an hour, but everything depends on your cooker of course. As for the seasoning, I always cook my vegetables using a bouillon cube (a half one or a complete one according to the amount of water I am using), making it unnecessary to add salt or a lot of spices (especially since I cook with very little salt, much to my dinner's partner dismay). The only thing I always add is freshly ground nutmeg, but then again, I'm a nutmeg addict :o)
Meanwhile, boil your potatoes in salt water as usual. When cooked, drain them and put them back on the heat for a few seconds, to evaporate the remaining water. Take off the heat, add the pumpkin to the potatoes and mash everything into a even puree. I added freshly chopped parsley, but you could also add coriander leaves. And that's it, can it be easier?
What I used :
1 butternut pumpkin
1 onion
4 potatoes
Dice the onion and flash fry it in a bit of olive oil. Peel the butternut pumpkin, remove the seeds and other mush interior, keeping only the firm flesh and dice it. Add the pumpkin to the onions, add a bit of water to cover the bottom of the panand let it simmer until the pieces are tender. Keep an eye on your pan and make sure your pan always has a bit of water in the bottom to prevent scorching your veggies. I let it simmer for half an hour, but everything depends on your cooker of course. As for the seasoning, I always cook my vegetables using a bouillon cube (a half one or a complete one according to the amount of water I am using), making it unnecessary to add salt or a lot of spices (especially since I cook with very little salt, much to my dinner's partner dismay). The only thing I always add is freshly ground nutmeg, but then again, I'm a nutmeg addict :o)
Meanwhile, boil your potatoes in salt water as usual. When cooked, drain them and put them back on the heat for a few seconds, to evaporate the remaining water. Take off the heat, add the pumpkin to the potatoes and mash everything into a even puree. I added freshly chopped parsley, but you could also add coriander leaves. And that's it, can it be easier?
Nov. 9, 2009 : Apple/fennel bento
In case you're wondering about the different colours of top and bottom tier : I only realised after I filled them up, that I inverted the bentos, so P. and I both got bentos in Swedish colours today. If I had known beforehand, I might have made köttbullar to stick with the theme :o) Maybe I should hold on to that thought, it might come in handy ...
My blue top tier had a organic rice mix I found in the supermarket consisting of red, black and white longgrain rice as well as wheat; and a leftover of the fennel with apple I made for Sunday night's dinner (made this with a yummy salmon/scallop "roast" ~ I'm not sure if the word is also used for fish in English, but you catch my drift).The yellow bottom tier had surimi, green asparagus, yellow beans with spring onion, daikon flowers/carrot slices and yellow turnip flowers on green salad bowl.
Again, rougly the same things in the second bento :
Top tier : same rice mix as in mine with smoked trout on some salad leaves.Nov. 6, 2009 : Symphony of green & orange
Last Friday, the neko bento had the privilege to accompany me to the office, filled with a orange & green colour scheme.In the top tier : radish, olives, leek sprouts, cherry tomatoes, carrot stars and carrot/orange bell peper bundle, green veggies stirfry (brocoli/asparagus/snowpea) and a strangly cut cucumber (which should have been star shaped but ended up alien-like :o))
In the bottom tier : crayfish with spring onions and spirulina tagliatelle with cheese flowers.
And P. needed lunch as well, so the second bento I made had :
On the left : two kumato halfs filled with surimi salad, spirulina pasta (Again I wisely omitted to inform the other half that spirulina are algae :o) ; orange bell pepper flowers, another attempt at creating a lotus cucumber flower (I hope I'll get better results with the carving tools I ordered today), cherry tomatoes and olives.That's it, an extra loooong post to make up for my absence last week. See ya tomorrow :o)
First single tier bento
Labels:
bento,
brocoli,
carrot,
cucumber,
daikon,
green asparagus,
quinoa,
radish,
red lentils,
snow peas,
teriyaki salmon
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Inspired by sherimiya's awesome single tier bentos, I decided to leave my tow-tier bentos in the cabinet tonight, which means that I will be taking a plain tupper to the office. The contents will have to make up for it. :o)
My single tier bento has (from L to R) : quinoa with red lentils and carrots, teriyaki salmon, a carrot/daikon skewer, snow peas, green asparagus with sesame, brocoli, radish, cherry tomatoes, cucumber flowers with a carrot heart and a little jar of carrot/ginger légumaise (everything on a bed of leek sprouts).
How to : cucumber flowers with carrot hearts
Ever since I saw this amazing Thai woman carving vegetables and fruits at the kokerello fair, back in 2007, I have been fascinated by the beauty of these carved veggies. Given the additional space I had in this box, I decided to give it a try. Googling carving let to a wide array of websites, but I found this site, with what seemed to be a rather straightforward cucumber flower. "Seemed" because when you don't really have the proper knifes for carving, it can be a bit messy. But still, I'm quite pleased with the final result :o)
The radish was carved following the tutorial from FrenchBento.
How to : teriyaki
I usually always have a store-bought mix of teriyaki marinade in my cabinets, but I emptied my bottle last time and didn't come round to buy a new one yet. However, I found a simple recipe to make the marinade in one of my books and as it is so simple, I thought I'd share it with you.
Put 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of mirin and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a pan and heat the mixture up until it thickens. Take off the heat and marinate your fish/meat in this liquid for a least half an hour, and that's it.
Smakelijk.
Mid-week bentos
Labels:
babybel cheese,
bell pepper,
bento,
brocoli,
cappellini,
carrot,
cucumber,
kumato,
olives,
pasta,
radish,
smoked salmon,
surimi,
yellow turnip
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Yesterday evening was a bit hectic and I didn't have a lot of time to spend on my bentos. So these ones ended up in the quick and easy range :o) But that doesn't mean they aren't tasteful of course!
A little round bento for me today, perfect for leftovers from last night's cappellini alla bolognese.
In the top tier : yellow turnip slices, brocoli, babybel cheese, half of a kumato filled with homemade surimi "salad", cucumber stars and red bell pepper flowers on leek sprouts and 2 green olives to fill in the remaining space.
For those who wonder about the kumato, you should check out this website. It's a sweet, dark tomato, that not only taste devine but looks fabulous in any dish (although granted, you can't see too much of it in the top picture).
The surimi salad is very easy to make and can be used as spread or as a filler for tomatoes or other veggies.
How to :
Take two surimi sticks and roll them open in order to have two small "sheets". Slice them up (horizontally and vertically) until you have small pieces. Mixed these pieces with freshly chopped parsley and chives and add a teaspoon of mayo or sour cream. And that's it :o)
The second bento I made, seemed Ok last night, but looking at the picture now, it seems a bit empty ... :o(
Top tier : smoked salmon/salad/zucchini wraps, olives and a red bell pepper filled with the surimi salad.
Bottom tier : kumato and yellow turnip slices, brocoli, radish and my first attempt at "merging" vegetables. Not the crisp look I was going for but I guess it takes some practicing. Better next time :o)
Bon appetit.
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