Today was very easy. Remember yesterday when I told you I made 3 cups of rice (3 cups dry) and several hard boiled eggs? Now I'm using what I made yesterday. While the rice was still hot yesterday I put some in a pikachu mold, and some in ball molds- and today all I had to do was use the rice from the molds.
Pikachu sits surrounded by edamame beans. Pikachu is made of solidly packed sushi rice (rice mixed with mirin, seasoned organic rice vinegar and a small amount of organic cane sugar). After the rice was unmolded, I coated pikachu with about 1 tsp of egg yolk mixed with about 3/4 tsp crème fraiche. I had some egg yolk left over from the eggs I cut this morning, and I threw it in a baggy, because I thought it might be the perfect color for pikachu.
Pikachu's eyes and ear tips are nori- hand cut, but a hole punch works great for the eyes (mine has disappeared!). The highlights in the eyes are made from small pieces of egg white. Pikachu's cheeks and mouth are carrot- but they could also have been made of pimento or roasted red pepper- or any other red or orange food. Some people use food coloring for this step, but I like to use natural ingredients we'd eat anyway- and the egg crème fraiche mixture is delicious!
I had a whole bowl of rice balls that I made yesterday (even though my kids ate some for breakfast). These are super easy and fast to make with a mold. It's a clam shell mold, and you just scoop and press, and you are done! So I colored one half of the ball with paprika- that makes the red side of the pokeball, and the black stripe is nori. I used nori strips, so I didn't even have to cut a large sheet down. I have both sheets (for sushi) and strips (for garnishing).
The pokeball is surrounded by romaine lettuce, and in the small cups are cous cous salad which I bought at Costco (it has super ingredients), and some German celery salad, which I buy in a jar at Whole Foods. The celery salad has a nice mild pickle flavor that goes very well with sushi rice. A few egg slices finish off the bento. Very quick to make- and if I'd had the hole punch in the kitchen it would have been even quicker.
I'll be sending a clementine in a baggy with this lunch. Tomorrow I'll be sending rose flavored black tea from Harney's (see link at bottom). Today I sent Harney's Hot Cinnamon Spice, with a little bit of cream top milk (I like the non-homogenized milk at Trader Joes). Hot Cinnamon Spice by Harney's is one of our favorite teas.
Sushi rice- some recipes (I just do it by eye):
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sushi-rice-recipe/index.html
I like to use mirin as in this recipe (I don't use salt and I've never tried kelp- but it looks interesting- so maybe I'll try this):
http://www.recipezaar.com/Minados-Perfect-Sushi-Rice-119373
Harney's teas (and make sure you look on the web for a coupon before you order. Sometimes they have coupons out there that you can find at places like Fatwallet):
http://www.harney.com/:
The pictures are just terrific! I am looking forward to this every day, so you HAVE to keep doing it :)
ReplyDeleteI WILL keep doing it. This is the best part of my day. I was just telling a colleague at school how energizing I find this. It's so much fun to plan the lunches, and eat them. But since food is so ephemeral, it's nice to have a record of the good food we eat- that way the enjoyment lingers on even after the last bite.
ReplyDeleteYou make the cutest lunches ever =] when I brought pikachu to school, my friends were like "OMG its pikachu!". They were envious of the super fancy lunch you made :)
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