March 24th Bentos

Today was my first attempt at single tiered bentos. I got about halfway through, and then realized I had only planned the first half! After that I just started throwing things in at random.

So today we have beef rolls in ricepaper. BF really liked them. They had a really unique flavour and were super fun to make. I made them last night, the recipe is below. I included a pork onigiri, but then that seemed like a lot of rice so for a little more carbs I made boiled sweet potato flowers with brown sugar and butter. Veggies were boiled edamame with salt, asparagus with butter, cucumber flowers and snow peas. For fruit, star shaped kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, a gooseberry and a couple of orange slices. There are a couple of pieces of cheese in there, and a home made green tea truffle (the recipe is here, but they didn't turn out very delicious, so I don't really recommend it).

I was amazed at how much these bento boxes held, especially considering that volume-wise they're a little smaller than the two tiered boxes we usually use.

Recipe: Beef Rolls

150g Extra Lean Ground Beef
1/6 cup Lime Juice
1/6 cup soy sauce with 1tsp brown sugar mixed in
smidge of chili sauce
1/2Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Stem of Lemongrass (white part only)
1 1/2Tbsp finely chopped mint
1 tsp Hoisin Sauce
7 sheets of rice paper (I used 12 inch rounds)
green onion for garnish

Mix together the first five ingredients and let sit for about twenty minutes. Fry up the mixture until the ground beef is cooked. Remove from heat and drain well. Mix in the lemongrass, chopped mint, hoisin sauce.

One at a time, dip a sheet of rice paper in warm water. Place 1 Tbsp of the meat mixture in the center of the rice paper and roll it up, folding in the sides along the way. Slice green onions in half lengthwise and tie around the center of each roll.

In the morning when preparing bento, fry in a little canola oil, about a minute and a half on each side.