Courtesy of the 'Cooking with Dog' youtube channel. I watched their bento video and immediately knew I had to make this asap. About half way through cooking, I thought this was going to be a disaster, but It shockingly came together beautifully in the end. It tasted super light and clean and was packed with tons of flavor. I particularly loved the contrast in flavors and textures. The best part is, there are an infinite amount of little bento dishes you can make. This is definitely going to be one of my favorite new hobbies.
note:
Since the recipes for all the items shown can by found in the 'cooking with dog' bento video, I will just mention a few things PLUS give you the recipes for the furikake (the condiments on the rice balls).
Pumpkin:
I used a whole mini pumpkin for this dish.
1. Get a good, sharp, heavy kitchen knife and cut the pumpkin in half, and then quarters. To do so takes a good amount of force. Be careful.
2. Microwave the quarters on a plate for 1-3 minutes. Try cutting into the flesh after 1 min to remove the hard outer skin. If the flesh is too hard, microwave for another minute or two until soft enough to cut through the flesh easily and remove the hard outer skin.
Pumpkin glaze:
You just need a very light dab in honey. The pumpkin is already sweet. If you completely cover it in honey it will be overly sweet.
Sausage Octopus Tenticles:
The initial 2 cuts are pretty straightforward. Make 2 cuts down the middle perpendicular to each other to form a "T" cut. This forms 4 legs. My first attempt at halving the 4 legs saw me trying another T cut down the middle at a 45 degree angle to the initial T cut. This didn't really work. The legs ended up tearing off. Instead, cut one leg at a time in half by angling your knife at 45 degrees to the vertical and slowly cut inwards until you cut through. Do this for each of the 4 legs.
Octopus Eyes:
Just dab a black sesame in honey then use one chopstick to place onto sausage and adjust positioning. It is much easier with a chopstick than it is your finger.
Chicken Karaage:
Check future chicken karaage recipe in later post.
Apple Bunny:
Not as easy as it looks to cut those ears. Make an initial V cut that cuts completely through the skin but barely into the flesh. Make sure the V meets at a point. Cut the ears first, NOT the middle triangle. Go slow when cutting the ears and cut into the flesh a decent amount to avoid cutting off the skin by accident. The middle triangle will be much easier to cut out after the ears are done.
Triangle Rice Balls:
Firstly, you don't need that much rice. My first rice ball I used a lot of rice and it completely diluted the flavor of the Furikake (rice condiment). You only need about 1/4 cup per rice ball. It should be around 3" in height. Not bigger than that.
Wrapping nori around the triangle became impossible because I thoroughly coated it in the rice condiment. To get it to stick, simply smush some grains of rice with your finger onto the entire length of the nori to form a glue. The nori will stick on easily afterwards.
Noritama (nori + egg) Furikake:
Taken, and then slightly adjusted by me, from the wonderful website www.justbento.com
Furikake is a japanese rice condiment that you sprinkle on top of rice.
Makes about 2 cups
ingredients:
1. baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. 3 sheets of nori
3. 1 1/2 cups of bonito flakes - what I do is I simply add 1.5 times the amount of bonito flakes to nori in terms of volume. I just eyeball it. Its not vital you get these measurements perfect. Just add slightly more bonito than nori.
4. 1 TBL dark soy sauce
5. 1 TBL mirin
6. 2 hard boiled egg YOLKS
7. 1 TBL toasted white sesame seeds
recipe:
1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees farenheight.
2. Place two eggs into a small pot and cover with cold water until it is 1 inch above the top of the eggs. Cover and place on high heat.
3. Crumple up nori and bonito flakes as small as you can into a large bowl.
4. add soy sauce and mirin and mix well.
note:
its important not to add too much liquid to the dry mixture or else it will not fully dry out during baking.
5. pour bonio/nori mixture onto baking sheet and place into oven. check every 10 min and break apart any large chunks and spread the mixture apart. bake for 30 min. NO MORE THAN THAT.
note:
If you bake for longer than 30 minutes, the nori can end up having a very bitter, overpowering burnt flavor.
6. as soon as the water starts to boil for the eggs, take off the cover and allow to boil on highest heat for exactly 4 minutes.
7. take out eggs and place into ice bath
8. heat up a nonstick pan to medium low. no oil
9. when the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel and place the YOLKS ONLY into the pan. add a very small pinch of salt then crush the yolks with a fork into as small of pieces as possible.
10. continue to dry heat the yolks while mixing and crushing it every few minutes until it is very dry to the touch. should take around 15 minutes. you do not want to brown the yolks.
11. After EXACTLY 30 minutes, take out bonito/nori mixture from the oven and dump into food processer. Pulse around 10 times until finely ground.
12. add dried out yolks to the bowl then quickly toast sesame seeds until lightly browned then add to the bowl.
13. Mix well.
14. sprinkle a little on some rice, taste, and add salt if needed.
Carrot and sesame furikake:
makes around 2 cups
ingredients:
1. 4 medium carrots
2. 4 TBL sesame seeds
3. 1 TBL soy sauce
4. 1 tsp light brown sugar
5. 1/4 tsp nanami tohgarashi(a japanese assorted chili powder that I have no way to obtain unless i order it online or make my own)
substitutes are 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper which i used because i had no red pepper flakes.
recipe:
1. peel then grate the carrots using a grater.
2. heat up a pan over medium-low heat then add grated carrots.
3. allow to dry cook for about 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are very dry to the touch and have reduced in volume to 1/4th its original. you do not want to brown them.
4. add soy sauce and stir rapidly until it has evaporated.
5. add sugar and spice, mix, then transfer to a bowl.
6. increase heat to medium high and add sesame seeds. toast for a minute or two until they are lightly browned and begin to POP, then add to the bowl.
7. gently mix everything, then sprinkle a little onto some rice, taste, and adjust salt, sugar, or spices if needed.
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