Bento Bridge

Crispy Skin Trout Bento Box🍱🍱🍱

-The most delightful way to consume five servings of vegetables in one sitting is with this bento box filled with vibrant vegetables and fish with a crispy skin.

Ingredients:

4 medium free-range eggs.
600 g trout fillets with skin left on (4 small fillets).
2 sheets nori, crumbled.
2 cups cooked brown rice.
1 large avocado, sliced into wedges.
1 large carrot, thinly sliced.
1 large cucumber, finely sliced.
4 cups mixed salad leaves.

Quick cabbage pickle:

1/4 head red cabbage, finely sliced.
1 teaspoon ginger, fresh, minced.
30 ml apple cider vinegar.
1/4 teaspoon sea salt.

Dressing:

30 ml tamari.
30 ml extra virgin olive oil.
30 ml apple cider vinegar.

Directions:

-First make the Quick Cabbage Pickle. Add all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and massage the cabbage until it starts to soften. Leave to pick for 15 minutes while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

-Heat a medium-sized saucepan over high heat and bring water to a rolling boil. Add in eggs and cook for 6 minutes and 30 seconds until hardboiled. Dunk into cold water to stop the cooking process. Peel eggs and set aside for serving.

-Heat a large frypan on medium-high heat. Drizzle in a generous amount of olive oil and add in trout, skin side down. Cook for 5 minutes until the skin is nice and crispy. Turn trout over to cook on the other side for a final 2 minutes.

-Serve meal by placing crispy-skin trout, cooked eggs, nori, brown rice, avocado, carrot, cucumber, salad leaves and pickled cabbage amongst four different bento boxes or plates.

-Place all ingredients for Dressing into a jar and shake to combine. Drizzle over bento boxes to serve.

Tonkatsu Bento❤️❤️

-Tonkatsu Bento is a bento box featuring tonkatsu as the main ingredient. Tonkatsu, cooked rice, plus a few minor side dishes make up this meal. It should be consumed at room temperature.

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice
50g/1.8oz Goma-ae with snow pea shoots
2 tomato wedges
50g/1.8oz Japanese Potato Salad
A handful of shredded cabbage
100-150g / 3.5-5.3oz Tonkatsu cut into 2cm/¾" wide strips
Black sesame seeds with salt (optional)
Bulldog tonkatsu sauce in a tiny bottle/jar/container
A bento box of your choice (I used a double decker bento box)
A mini foil cupcake liner

Directions:

1st Box

-While the rice is still hot or warm, place the rice in the bento box and let it cool.

-Put snow pea shoots goma-ae in a foil cupcake liner and place it next to the rice.

-In a small space next to the cupcake liner containing goma-ae, place tomato wedges.

2nd Box

-Place the potato salad at one end of the box.

-Place shredded cabbage next to the potato salad, allowing sufficient space for the tonkatsu to fit in

-Place the tonkatsu pieces to fill the box.

-If the container of tonkatsu sauce is small enough to fit in the corner of the bento box, put it in the box. Otherwise, pack it separately.

Aisai Bento (愛妻弁当)

What speaks “love” better than Aisai bento (愛妻弁当) – a bento made by loving wives? All Japanese women know the secret to their man’s heart – and it’s through his stomach.

Typically, it is usually the mother who prepare these Aisai Ben for the husband and the children to be taken to work or school. However, nowadays, these special bento boxes can also be handmade by young women in relationships to express their care and affectionate feeling towards their significant others. In total contrast to convenience store-sold bento boxes, these Aisai Bento are visually eye-catching, nutritiously balanced and most importantly, deliver a love message (either edible or not).