Sticky Rice Froggy Bento

When afterschool activities run from 4:00 until 5:30 or 6:00, I'm thinking of dinner making itself. Sticky rice is a great self-cooking meal. Just toss everything into the rice cooker, press the button and go! If you have a fancy Zojirushi, you can even set the timer. Today I made a half brown half white batch with shiitake, lup cheong, baby bok choy, and char siu. In the past I've also added chopped kabocha and roast duck. You can use whatever you like, and pack it into the lower part of the cutest Kotobuki Froggy Two-Tier Bento ever. In the top tier, toss in some elephant heart pluots, grapes, and carrots. So easy; my favorite kind of dinner-to-bento meal. Done!

Sticky Rice Panda Bento

I made sticky rice today, which I love to do on extra busy days because all I do is throw everything into the Zojirushi and walk away. This batch is made with half white half brown glutinous (sticky rice) which I presoaked overnight to make sure it got nice and soft. About midway through cooking I tossed in finely chopped baby bok choy, sliced shiitake mushrooms, sliced lup cheong, and cubed kabocha. Yes, the kabocha goes really well in this dish! You won't hear any complaints about it. I guarantee it. After cooking, sprinkle some green onions on top for a fresh look. The top tier of the cute panda box holds strawberries, grapes, and persimmon from a neighbor's tree. I know you are excited to hear about the winner of the ECOlunchboxes Tri Bento -- the winner has been chosen! I'm waiting to hear back from her, and if I don't get response (or if she is located outside the U.S.), I'll have to pick another. Check your email! Maybe it's YOU! Stay tuned!

Sticky Rice Ono Bento Bowl

Sticky Rice Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I love the sticky rice bento. Well, I love sticky rice (see my method and recipe here) for dinner first of all, because it's super quick and easy. Chop everything up and toss it into the rice cooker about 15 minutes before the rice is done. This batch has half brown and half white sweet mochi rice, and I added lup cheong, char siu, shiitake mushroom, baby bok choy, onions, and then sprinkled chopped scallion on top after. I have also added fried garlic or cubed kabocha squash before as well. I packed MisterMan's bento in the cute apple bowl, with the top tier holding an artful (to me) arrangement of plums, grapes, and pickled cucumbers, onions, carrots and daikon. Our bento these days often look like this, with no special touches other than the colorful naturalness of the variety of ingredients. MisterMan has been making his (and his sister's) bento recently, and I think his work is starting to look just like mine. So proud \(^__^)/

Sticky Rice Lup Cheong Bento

Sticky Rice Lup Cheong Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Too spent from the activities of the weekend to think about cooking? Sticky rice is one of those one-pot meals that can be thrown together without much planning, which is why I like it so much. See my method and recipe here. I make mine in my rice cooker, tossing the chopped lup cheong, char siu, bok choy, shiitake (and sometimes even kabocha) at the last 15 minutes or so of cooking. I leave the heat on past cook time, just to get the rice on the bottom to burn just a little bit, getting a little crunchy. So good like that. This meal is perfect for bento because it's just as delicious at room temp as it is fresh out of the rice cooker. Sometimes I pack it in a thermal jar, but it's tasty in a regular bento box, like here, too. I topped it with a heart-shaped Okinawan sweet potato, and added plum wedges, a sprig of broccoli, a sun sugar tomato (from the backyard vine -- still growing!), and a grape-grapefruit salad which I hoped would go over well. It didn't. She brought all the grapefruit home. Ah well. Can't win 'em all. ^_^

Pickled Sticky Rice LunchBot Bento

Pickled Sticky Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I made one of my favorite one-pot meals for today: sticky rice! See my method here. Since TinySprite is allergic to soy, I omitted the lup cheong (Chinese sausage) and replaced the meat with regular ham. I've also used Canadian bacon before (in this bento) and it went over just fine. This batch got shiitake mushrooms and a new kind of green: broccoli stalks. I thought it would give a little bite to the rice. And another new kind of green as well: pickled mustard greens. I know it sounds crazy, but my kids love pickled vegetables. Even mustard greens. Weird, right? It has a very strong flavor and totally changed the way I usually think of this dish, but in a good way. They liked it! Go figure. I put my girl's portion in the LunchBot Trio alongside: fresh pear slices, blueberries, strawberries, Okinawan sweet potatoes and carrots.

Sticky Rice and Canadian Bacon Bento Bowl

Sticky Rice and Canadian Bacon Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Twitterfoodparty showed up this month in the form of bacon. You can check out this month's submissions on twitter by searching the hashtag #twitterbaconparty. I rarely cook bacon at home but happened to need a gluten-free alternative to lup cheong for the sticky rice (method here) I was planning to make. Most Chinese sausages and deli meats are marinated in shoyu, making them no-nos in a gluten-free diet. I steamed some sliced lup cheong separately to be mixed in everyone else's servings, but TinySprite was satisfied with diced and pan-fried Canadian bacon in hers. The overall flavor just wasn't traditionally the same, but it'll have to do, since I don't plan on learning how to make my own Chinese sausage! It was still tasty enough, though. I packed some in her favorite panda bento bowl, along with a selection of fruit in the top tier: cherries, lychee, blackberries, peach, and sweet potato. Next month's theme will be strawberries!

Sticky Rice Panda Bowl Bento

Sticky Rice Panda Bowl Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

More panda and more! I found this ultra cute panda bento bowl set recently, and yes, even though I have several panda bento boxes already, I had to get this one because it's a bowl set, which makes it perfect for things like donburi (rice bowl meals) or... sticky rice. I don't usually pack donburi because my kids aren't big rice eaters, but they do like sticky rice. Go figure. This batch (see my basic recipe and method here) contains regular white sweet rice mixed with koshihikari short grain brown rice. I added char siu, lup cheong (Chinese sausage), shiitake, baby bok choy and small chunks of kabocha. I made sure to add the choy and the kabocha at the very end of the cooking cycle; maybe 5 minutes before the end. You want the squash to be firm and not mushy. I topped this rice bowl with chopped green onions - doesn't it look nice? The top tier has a nice stylized divider, making it perfect for the berries, oranges, Okinawan sweet potato butterflies and a tiny sprig of broccoli. And look at the cute panda face on the lid! It clips securely, and even came with the little fork and spoon, which have tiny heart-shaped cutouts in the handles. Naturally I couldn't resist. ^_^
Added to Allergy Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento is one of my (and my kids') favorites. Sticky rice is fun to make because you don't have to stick to traditional ingredients -- well anyway, I don't. Here is my basic recipe. Today I mixed brown and white glutinous rice along with brown and white regular rice. I cooked it in pure chicken broth, and towards the end of the cooking cycle I tossed in sliced lup cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced shiitake mushrooms, chopped squash and baby bok choy. All the flavors meshed together very well in this batch. I presoaked the rice for a few hours, which is essential if you are using brown glutinous rice. Super tasty, and nice colors too. The other side turned out to be an all-red fruit section, with strawberry, grapes, blood oranges and radish. Oh, and there's a yellow carrot in there for contrast.
My fellow bento enthusiasts have come together to establish a Bento4Japan eBay auction theme. There are books, bento boxes, goodie packages and more listed there, and all the proceeds will go towards the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. So you can satisfy your bento shopping while helping a good cause at the same time. Please take a look: simply use the search term "Bento4Japan" here!

Sticky Rice Bento

Sticky Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made sticky rice today and it just begged to be used for bento. It's a nice way to put together a one-dish meal. I make mine in my trusty rice cooker, which happens to have a "sweet rice" setting; but you could probably use any old rice cooker. This batch contains Chinese sausage (lup cheong), shiitake mushrooms, and shredded baby bok choy. You could also add char siu or other vegetables if you like; I don't think it's necessary to stick to traditional ingredients. The rice itself is a mixture of one part regular Japanese white rice to two parts sweet (glutinous) rice. I found brown glutinous rice in my market and used some of it to replace the regular glutinous rice, but I think the brown takes longer to cook. Or I could have possibly soaked it longer. Anyway, I ran through another cycle and it was okay. I also replaced the water with chicken broth, which imparts a nice aromatic flavor. I put the sticky rice in a thermal frog bento, and sent along another box with steamed broccoli, romanesco and yellow cauliflower, plus carrots and blood oranges. And a frog fork to complete the set. I have two new thermal food sets to test and review, so stay tuned for that. Hope you all enjoyed your Chinese New Year!

Sticky Rice Method
2 cups glutinous (sweet) rice
1 cup medium grain (Japanese) white rice
3 cups chicken broth
Start rice cooker. About halfway through the cooking cycle, add ingredients of your choice, such as sliced lup cheong, shiitake, char siu. I used baby bok choy, which I added even later, to avoid too much wilting. You can also use green onion. Stir and serve! Delish!

*Note added 4/2/11: If you're in the market for a thermal bento jar like this one, there's a blue version up for auction right now on Bento4Japan! Just click here to see it!

Ume Somen Salad Bento

Ume Somen Salad Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's still mighty hot here, but gradually getting cooler. Today's high was only 87F, so pretty nice actually. I had boiled some ume somen yesterday so it was nice and cold today for lunch. It's a pretty pink color and I've never had it before so I was interested to see how it tastes. Straight out of the package it smells sweet to me, kind of like strawberry. Maybe that's just psychological due to the color; I don't know. After cooking, it still had a sweet taste to me -- not salty or sour at all. Anyone else have this experience? Anyway, it does retain its nice pink color after cooking, so that's cool! I lay some inside a lettuce leaf, then added shiitake, julienned cucumbers and carrots, green onions, and sesame seeds. I added some ocean salad in the corner, and in the other corner I slipped in a strawberry bottle filled with somen tsuyu. I finished with a maple cut radish for red color. The top tier contains the rest of the bright color: dapple dandy pluot, red grapes, purple cauliflower and yellow carrot stars. I think I got all the rainbow colors in this one! I hope it serves its purpose and cools down my boy at school tomorrow.

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?

Chasoba and Fruit Bento

Chasoba and Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

More hot weather means we need another cold (and non-cook) lunch for relief. I love eating out of an icy stainless tiffin, so that's what I used to pack today's bento. He gets chasoba on a bed of crispy lettuce, accompanied by shiitake, krab sticks, ocean salad and green onion. I packed the soba tsuyu in a separate squeeze bottle which I lay in the top tier. The top tier also contained a clementine and a variety of fresh summer berries. I used an ice pack so it all stays super cold for him in this heat. No cute details in this bento, but the variety of fresh colors and flavors should serve to bring out his appetite :)

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...