Bento: recipe, cooking features and reviews

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Bento is a classic Japanese-style takeaway. Japanese housewives consider it their duty to be able or learn how to cook such meals well for their household. Most often, bento - containers with rice and fish - children take with them to school. But adults also collect or purchase ready-made boxes of food in stores to have a snack at work.

History of bento

The concept of box lunch dates back to the twelfth century in Japan. Of course, in those days, bento were not like modern ones. They were small bags in which lunch was taken to work. Most often it was boiled, and then dried rice. They were eaten either dry or poured with boiled water. A few centuries later, the Japanese began to make beautiful carved wooden boxes and stored their meals there.

As a rule, bento is a school lunch. In wartime, school canteens could not provide children with lunch, so schoolchildren carried food with them. After the Second World War, bento became even more firmly established in the life of the Japanese. Microwave ovens appeared, taking lunch with you and warming up at work has become commonplace. Although traditionalbentos are not warmed up, they are eaten cold.

Bento boxes

If you decide to put together a Japanese bento style dinner, the recipe should certainly be based on rice, fish and boiled vegetables. Boxes can be both ordinary plastic and real works of art made of wood. There are drawers in several tiers. But more often in stores there are boxes that are somewhat reminiscent of American lunch boxes. They consist of one or more small compartments separated by a partition.

Bento ingredients

Before you start preparing a lunch box, you need to decide what products the bento consists of. The recipe is most often based on boiled rice, fish and pickled or boiled vegetables. A favorite dish of the Japanese is rice balls, small sushi and boiled vegetables in the form of various figures.

It's important to know exactly how to make a bento. The recipe must include dishes that can withstand and not deteriorate at room temperature. Traditional Japanese dinners don't need to be refrigerated, microwaved, or chilled.

Remember, if you are cooking hot rice or putting sausages in the bento, etc., the food must be cool before closing the lid. Japanese bento dinners, recipes, the nuances of their preparation - all moments for the Japanese are subject to certain rules. From buying a lunch box to properly storing prepared meals.

Types of bento

• Sushizume - special sushi for takeaway meals.
• Noriben is a simple dish consisting of boiled rice wrapped in a nori sheet.
• Toriben - chicken dish.
• Makuno-uchi is a homemade bento recipe with rice, fried fish pieces and boiled eggs.
• Jukuben - special children's meals with original presentation of dishes.
• Sake bento is a lunch of rice and salmon.
• Kyaraben is an artistic type of bento. All dishes are carved or decorated in the form of animals, trees, flowers, butterflies, etc.

Options for bento recipes

• Steamed rice. In the center is a dried plum. Chicken cutlet and vegetables complement this lunch.
• Sticks of boiled carrots. Rice balls. Fried chicken with teriyaki sauce.
• Sea-boiled young soybean and vegetable garnish in the form of carrot sticks.
• Fried or steamed rice. Steam vegetables and special sauce.
• Japanese Geza dumplings and pickles or boiled vegetables.

Make our own bento at home

Before you start cooking Japanese bento, the recipes of which we will give below, it is important to remember a few simple rules. First, prepare as much food as you can eat. Portioning is the main feature of bento. Standard: 4 servings of rice, 2-3 servings of vegetables, and one serving of meat or dessert.

Secondly, if you are going to constantly cook bento for your child at school, then try to choosequality containers or lunch boxes. They should close tightly.

Third, to make a classic Japanese bento, the recipe calls for colorful ingredients. Do not be afraid to experiment with color, it is only welcome. Orange carrots, white rice, red cabbage, green pickled cucumber – there are many options, the main thing is color.

Fourthly, when you are making bento, do not be afraid to experiment and use various tools at hand for cooking: toothpicks, stencils, brushes, etc. Even spices can become additions to the picture.

Salad with carrots and corn

To prepare the salad you will need: three tablespoons of canned corn, 100 grams of processed cheese, 70 grams of Korean carrots, an omelette egg, s alt, pepper - to taste. This salad can be seasoned with olive oil or homemade mayonnaise. Here, as they say, a matter of taste and proper nutrition.

To make bento salad, the recipe calls for finely chopped processed cheese into small, long sticks. Add canned corn and Korean carrots to it. We mix the salad and season it with oil or mayonnaise. Then s alt, pepper. Although you can not do this, because carrots already contain a lot of spices.

Put the salad into one side of the bento lunch box. The recipe is simple, but it will be much more satisfying and tastier if you add an omelet to it. As a rule, one egg is enough for the Japanese to make an omelette, but you can fry more.

Vegetarian rolls

Sushi orrolls are a favorite food of the Japanese, and very often they put them in bento. The recipe for making vegetarian rolls is very simple and quick. You will need: rice, rice vinegar, nori sheets, bell pepper, cucumber, avocado, soy sauce.

These rolls are prepared just like regular rolls, except that they do not contain fatty and high-calorie butter, cream cheese or fish. Vegetarian rolls consist of layers: rice, avocado, cucumber, bell pepper. Layers can be varied, as well as the type of rolls. They can be made rice side up or wrapped in a nori leaf.

Rice casserole

Rice and chicken are the main and favorite ingredients that are quite common in Japanese bento. Easy recipes consisting of fried chicken and boiled rice do not take much time for housewives.

To prepare a quick casserole you will need: one hundred grams of rice, 200 grams of water, 100 grams of chicken fillet, s alt, onion, spices, vegetable oil, 100 grams of fat sour cream and one egg.

Boil rice in lightly s alted water. We heat the oven to 200 degrees. Meanwhile, start preparing the rest of the ingredients. Chicken breast should be cut into small cubes. Finely chop the onion. If desired, improvised products can also be added to the casserole - leftovers in the refrigerator (tomato, mushrooms).

We take deep dishes (baking tray, frying pan or a special baking dish) and put rice there. Top with a little butter and sprinkle with spices. The next layer is chicken breast fried until golden brown. Then we layother ingredients: onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. Top the layers with a mixture of heavy cream (sour cream) and eggs.

Bake at 200 degrees. Cooking time 10-15 minutes. A couple of minutes before the end of cooking, sprinkle the casserole with grated cheese and let it melt under the heat of the oven.

Stewed chicken breast with vegetables

As we have already noted, chicken and rice is a favorite combination that all simple bento recipes include. The Japanese boil chicken, deep-fry it and, of course, stew it.

For cooking you will need: 150 grams of chicken fillet, vegetables to taste (bell pepper, carrot, onion, leek, tomato). S alt, spices, ground pepper. Vegetable or olive oil for frying vegetables. Soy sauce.

All ingredients are cut into cubes or small strips. Vegetables are laid out in a pan and fried for a couple of minutes. Then chicken breast is added to them, and the whole composition is poured with water mixed with soy sauce.

You will need lettuce leaves to put your cooked food in the bento box. Since rice is always served with the chicken, it is necessary to cook it and cool it a little until the time of laying. With the help of lettuce leaves, we fence off two zones: rice and chicken. The Japanese will never make a hodgepodge of food. They will lay everything out neatly so that each dish has its place.

Japanese bento. Reviews

Bento is a great alternative to boring thermoses and bulkylunch containers. A bento box holds exactly as much food as a person can eat for lunch. Food does not mix there due to the convenient design of the box and partitions. The lids of the boxes also fit snugly against the walls, so you can safely take even liquid soups and okroshka for lunch without fear.

Bentos are very compact meals. It would seem that it is impossible to get enough of such food. However, it is not. The main secret of making bento is the combination of a small amount and a very satisfying meal. You can take a small rice ball, a piece of oily fish and a few boiled vegetables. Nutritious, he althy, low calorie and very satisfying.