Mama and Baby Easter Chicks Bento

Mama and Baby Easter Chicks Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

TinySprite asked for a Mama and Baby chicks bento, so here they are! I'm not expert with the egg white zigzag cut, especially when the yolk is so close. I'm told if you want the yolk to be perfectly centered, you must constantly roll the egg during boiling. Um, okay; that's why mine will have to be off-centered. The trick is to use a small blade and work with a light touch, but you can see that I punctured the yolk a few times. No matter, TS was still thrilled to see this duo! I'm so happy I've been able to use my supercute wings picks so much this past week. Here, the mama is flapping her wings in happiness over her hatchling chick's appearance. Aww! There's also miso butterfish (method and recipe here), roasted kabocha (tossed with parmesan) and brussels sprouts. Yes, I've taken to tossing all kinds of vegetables with parmesan, and you know what? It suddenly makes them a lot more desirable to the kiddos. The rest of the bento contains ripe strawberries, blueberries and grapes. That's it for the Easter bento at our house for this year. Hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend. Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Candy Corn Quail Egg Bento

Candy Corn Quail Egg Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya♥.

I strayed from the jack-a-day series today because I wanted to make a little candy corn quail egg, and it took so long that I didn't feel like trying to find another food to carve into a jack-o-lantern. First of all, I didn't shape it triangularly enough, and then I didn't have time to soak it long enough to keep the colors dark. But then, if you've dyed eggs before, you know that the color tends to fade pretty quickly anyway. To dye this egg I used golden beet and regular beet juice. I first let the egg sit halfway in a cup of golden beet juice, then placed it 1/3 of the way into a cup of red beet juice. I had nice sharp lines of color demarcation at first, but then they bled out and faded. I had made these cuties before (in the two bentos here) and I think they looked better then. Oh well! This bento contains butterfish misoyaki (see my method here), homemade oven roasted "potato chips", steamed Okinawan sweet potato, corn, tomatoes, carrots, and a fruit assortment (pluots, honeydew melon balls and grapes) -- all packed up in my favorite Lunchbots Trio. Have a sweet day!

Butterfish Kabocha Bento

Butterfish Kabocha Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

The kids get butterfish misoyaki, one of my favorites (recipe here), pan-fried kabocha, and oven-roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts. It was so hot today, and yet here I was roasting a bunch of stuff. What? This is the kind of bento I like to pack in the Fall; it's full of comfort food and warm flavors. There's also some carrots, juicy pluots (this one had dark red flesh and was pretty sweet, actually), and grapes. And a couple of Okinawan sweet potato fish shapes to round out the color spectrum. This is one bento that I might really love for myself. ^_^

Purple Goldfish Bento

Purple Goldfish Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

The theme of today's bento is ... fish! To go with the miso butterfish that I made (method and recipe here), I cut some big-eyed goldfish from Okinawan sweet potato using my very cool goldfish vegetable cutter. I've cut carrots (in this bento) and regular sweet potato (in this bento) before, but this is a first for purple goldfish. I think they look rather vibrant, if not very realistic; do you agree? The mottled color looks kind of cool. It's a bit tricky to get the fish out without damage, and there were a few casualties. A stiffer vegetable would cut more easily. The rest of my LunchBots Trio contains: grape tomatoes, corn on the cob, green cauliflower, carrots, plum, cherries and raspberry.

Misobutterfish Bento and Bento4Japan

Misobutterfish Bento a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I used a nice butterfish filet for the kids' lunches today. Misoyaki is my favorite preparation of this fish (recipe here). I like it with a bowl of hot rice, but my boy will prefer it as is in his bento. I've packed it in lettuce leaf, and it almost looks like a misobutterfish salad here, topped with steamed satsumaimo flower cutouts. It looks like a small piece of fish but don't worry; there's more underneath. After the fish was done I pan-roasted some sliced kabocha and halved brussels sprouts and tossed those in here too. The fruit section contains cara cara oranges, grapes, raspberries and blueberries.

If you've had a chance to check out our Bento4Japan charity auction going on right now on eBay, thanks a lot! If you haven't, there's still time. There are currently 15 items up for grabs, and remember - 100% of sales goes to disaster relief in Japan. So you can shop in good conscience, knowing your money is going to a good cause. The worldwide bento community has banded together in this endeavor, and you'll see branches of this fundraising drive in the UK as well. If you'd like to join us, you can read about the mission here at the Bento4Japan HQ blog. You may not think you can do much as an individual, but our collective efforts can make a difference. In the first day of auction, $345.12 has been committed already. Thank you to everyone who has contributed! Let's hope recovery comes quickly for Japan.

Mamegoma & Butterfish Misoyaki Bento

Mamegoma & Butterfish Misoyaki Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento contains butterfish misoyaki, which granted is best enjoyed fresh, but I love this fish so much I would even eat it at room temp, with a musubi. Well, this bento is for my boy, so we'll just omit the musubi. Instead, he gets a piece of corn, steamed broccoli, carrots and two quail eggs with nori faces that I am calling Mamegoma. The white one is Shirogoma and the pink one is Sakuragoma. If you make them, perhaps you might want to add a tail and flippers, so you don't have to explain yourself. There's also a half apricot, kiwi flowers, and cherries in a cup.

I prepared the butterfish (black cod) fillet using a recipe from Roy's Restaurant, but slightly adapted. Make sure you get the butterfish also known as black cod or sablefish. There are apparently lots of different kinds of butterfish, as I found out. This fish has a velvety, delicate texture and a high oil content, which is what makes it taste well, like butter. Or, buttah.

Per half pound butterfish (black cod/sablefish) fillet:
1/3 cup sake
1/3 cup mirin
3T white miso
3T granulated sugar

Bring the sake and mirin to a boil in a small pot. Boil for 5 minutes, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
Whisk in the miso and sugar until well-incorporated.
Simmer on low heat. Do not boil miso. Recipe says for an hour, but I turned it off after a half hour and I think it came out fine.
Allow to cool, then marinate fillet in a ziploc bag for 24 hours. Make sure you coat the whole fish, and push out the air bubble.
Before cooking, wipe off excess marinade with your fingers. If you have too much miso it will burn.
Sear fish over medium heat in a fry pan, about 3 minutes per side.
Serve with hot fresh rice.
Soooooo good!