Butterfish Misoyaki Trio Bento

Butterfish Misoyaki Trio Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Butterfish misoyaki; woo! See the recipe and method I used here. In Hawaii you can find frozen butterfish everywhere, but here I buy it fresh. So good over hot rice. This Lunchbot Trio is perfect to keep the fish (and Okinawan sweet potato stars) separate from the roasted parmesan kabocha and pencil asparagus spears, with the final section going to the grapes, strawberry and cutie mandarin. I put the little piggie dango pick in because otherwise there's nothing very cute about this bento. But on the upside, it only took a few minutes (most of it going to the mandarin carving) to throw together. Yay!

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. ^_^

Misobutterfish Bento

Misobutterfish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today I went back to the usual type of bento, in a single-layer bento box. The results of the thermal bento day were pretty good; the food stayed hot and the kids ate everything. I'm still going to do more testing before I write my review, since there are lots of aspects to consider. Stay tuned! Today I packed some misoyaki butterfish (recipe here) for each of the kids, along with a nice variety of vegetables (kabocha, broccoli, carrot, yellow cauliflower, romanesco and Okinawan sweet potato). We have strawberries now, and so I packed some of those along with blueberries, a mini mandarin for TinySprite and some blood oranges for MisterMan. I've learned -- and recommend to you -- not to give blood oranges to a toddler wearing school clothes, unless they happen to be in the precise same shade of dark red. You're welcome. To add a little kawaii to her bento, I made a bunny from two hard-boiled quail eggs. I rolled one into a long oval shape before slicing it in half to form the ears. The yolk just happened to be teardrop-shaped. So happy to see some color: out in the garden, in the markets, and in our bento! How about you?

Added to What's For Lunch. Go ahead and add yours!

Rudolph and Misobutterfish Bento

Rudolph and Misobutterfish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

My favorite fish, butterfish misoyaki. So easy and so yummy! I added some red rice mini-musubi with cherry picks, carved carrots, steamed shoyu Brussels sprouts and a shoyu quail egg decorated as Rudolph with nori eyes, radish nose and ears, and the very versatile and useful bone picks for antlers. There's also a plum. I have no idea where it came from, but it's really not sweet at all. Luckily there are black grapes and satsuma mandarin to make up for it. Here's a closeup of Rudolph. Aww...

Mummy Musubi and Ghosties Bento

Mummy Musubi Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

We're coming up on the last couple days of Halloween bento, so bear with me and we'll soon be back to normal. But I really wanted to use this mummy idea since string cheese really does look like gauzy mummy wrapping, doesn't it? And since my boy has recently informed me he likes "raw" cheese now, I get to try it! I made a rice ball with black rice and criss-crossed some thin string cheese strips on top. Since the rice was warm, it melted on a little bit and needed no other fastening. Have you ever had rice and cheese? I haven't, but he said he liked it. I made some eyes with pink and purple carrot discs -- nothing could be easier. Voila: mummy.

This was accompanied by a piece of luscious misoyaki butterfish leftover from dinner the night before. I really love this fish; I think it's another one of my top ten foods of all time. I used the recipe here but this time I marinated for over 48 hours, only possible if you can procure a very fresh piece of fish. I got mine from my local farmer's market, and it was delicious. I used to think it was called butterfish due to its buttery texture; it melts in your mouth and has a very silky quality.

TinySprite is a fan of the fish too, but I decided to give her something a little more user-friendly. While her brother can neatly and deftly handle all kinds of food types, she's a little more, um, hands-on -- so the easier the food is to manipulate, the more she can end up actually eating. I made cutout ghost sandwiches with ham and cheese, and stuck some mini chocolate chips as facial features. There's also a persimmon jack-o-lantern along with carrots, broccoli, purple cauliflower, tomatoes, grapes and apples -- just as in her brother's bento. Double bento --> done!

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!