A Tree Grows In Jook Bento

A Tree Grows In Jook Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Super duper easy bento again; woo! Today I made brown rice jook, which entails all of cooking some rice in a bunch of water for a really long time. I actually tried using the "porridge" setting on my Zojirushi, but it wasn't nearly long enough. Maybe because I used brown rice instead of white. I was afraid the brown rice just wouldn't get mushy at all, but after transferring the half-cooked jook to the stovetop and cooking for another hour or so, it really did get nice and creamy. I added Chinese sausage (lup cheong) and shiitake to mine, which added lots of flavor. You can also add fish, chicken, turkey, duck, or pretty much whatever you desire; and instead of water you could also use chicken or other stock. After ladling it into the green thermal container which I am really liking a lot these days, it looked pretty blah. So I added some shiitake mushrooms and chopped green onions in a tree design. The top tier bowl contains the fruits and veggies: grapes, strawberry, raspberries, tomatoes, broccoli and pink carrot flower. The bowl sits just under the lid, which screws on to secure both sections tightly. You don't even need a lunch tote since the lid has a built-in handle. How great is that?

Making Sticky Rice

I made a batch of sticky rice today, and this time I used a mix of brown sweet rice, white sweet rice, brown short grain and white short grain rice, in a ratio of 2 cups sweet rice to 1 cup short grain rice. I also used more than the usual amount of liquid because I noticed in the past that brown rice needs more water to attain the same level of stickiness. If you have time, you should also soak the rice a few hours before cooking. I've soaked sweet rice overnight with good results. I like to take a picture of the rice before cooking because I think it looks pretty cool.

I soaked some dry shiitake mushrooms, and sliced them before putting them to cook with the rice. I used the mushroom broth to make the rice.

It's not traditional to use fresh bok choy, but I do because I like the addition of dark greens. I think it looks nice, and it's another way for the kids to get a serving of leafy greens. I chopped the leaves and stems and put them in the pot with the rice. I also added lup cheong (Chinese sausage) and green onion. You can also use char siu if you like. Everything cooks together and you have a quick and easy one-pot meal! I should have taken a picture of the finished product, but my camera battery died and I forgot to upload it later. I did make a bento with it, though, and you can see it here. Oh, sticky rice does make a good bento :)

*ETA: Here's the finished sticky rice, all ready to eat...

Hokusai Rice

I guess this will be a zen batch.