Leftover Love Bento (#175) aka Awaiting Spring

My mind is set on spring so for Wednesday’s bento I pulled out the sweet sakura furoshiki that Nat from In Spring it is the Dawn got me. But my lunch consisted solely of winter veggies. Alas? Nooo, it was still good! :)

There are oven roasted root vegetables (beetroot, potato, carrot, celeriac, onion and yellow turnip), with agave and fresh thyme, accompanied by one of my all-time favourite dishes: nasi goreng — fried rice Indonesian style.

The upper container holds a gherkin on a bed of red Battavia lettuce, a sauce of oven roasted garlic as a condiment to the sweet roots, and the bean burgers Uniflame posted from Linda Doeser’s Vegetarian: 100 best recipes. Unfortunately these were rather a disappointment. I found them ‘mealy’ and the only flavour coming through was cumin. Although that is one of my favourite spices, I expect a burger to have a more complex taste. And of course they fell apart. O_o
My usual handicap — even though I chopped the mushrooms very fine, as Uniflame suggested. I probably should have added breadcrumbs, and maybe let them rest a while longer?

To be honest, I think last week’s beet burgers from PPK spoiled me, setting the bar high for every next patty I try!

Bento submitted to What’s for Lunch Wednesday on Bentolunch.net

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Indo Bento with Perkedel Djagoeng (#105)

Friday bentos are always best — they herald the weekend! Instead of eating it at work (as planned) I got to enjoy bento #105 during the bloggiesta. How convenient! No need to get up and make lunch; I could just dig in whenever I got hungry. And it wasn’t just any lunch… Today’s bento was completely Indonesian: my all-time fav food style!!! :)

(Yes, I’m pretty jealous at Novroz, who gets to eat it EVERY day ;)

Indo food is great for bento because it can be eaten at room temperature.

If the picture makes your eyes hurt — click on it to go to a more ‘restful’ view

Top tier

• pak choi with bundle garlic, red chili pepper and leek, stir-fried in sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger syrup; topped with sesame seeds
• perkedèl djagoeng (corn fritters or maïskoekjes in Dutch) with a spicy soy sauce dip (recipe below)
• icicle radish
• tempeh gurih (snack tempeh)

Bottom tier

• telor boemboe Bali (Balinese style egg)
• nasi goreng (fried rice)
• thinly sliced gherkin playing atjar
• yellow bell pepper, quickly fried in sesame oil

All on a bed of lettuce.

I had some leftover corn kernels so I was dying to try a new recipe for perkedèl djagoeng (which in contemporary spelling would probably be ‘jagung‘). I’ve been on a quest to find the perfect recipe, but hadn’t made any for a long time. This one’s great! I want to try some more recipes but I’ll share this one now (slightly adapted). It’s one of the best so far!

Perkedèl djagoeng (recipe)

Makes 8-6 corn fritters.

Ingredients

• 150 gr (= half a can) corn kernels
• 1 tbs chopped onion (I used shallot)
• 1 piece of garlic (I used bundle garlic), chopped
• 2 roasted kemirie nuts; chopped (can be substituted by macadamias but those are less tasty)
• salt ’n pepper
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tbs all-purpose flour (I used 2 and a half tbs)
• 1 tbs chopped leek
• 1 tbs chopped celery
• neutral-tasting oil (I used arachid = peanut oil)

Sauce

• sweet ketjap manis
• salty soy sauce (ketjap asin, shoyu)
• sambal variety you like (I used sambal badjak)
• optional: some more finely chopped celery

Preparation

1. Thoroughly drain the corn.
2. Mash onion, garlic, kemiries, salt and pepper together in a mortar to create a boemboe (pulp). If you don’t have a mortar you can also chop them up real fine or use a food processor.
3. Mash the corn in a food processor. The original recipe tells you to grate it, but I guess that’s something you’d do with a corn cob. I’m not sure about you but I want to keep my fingers ;)
4. Whisk the egg.
5. Mix everything together: boemboe mixture, mashed corn, egg, flour, leek and celery.
6. Heat the oil and bake the corn fritters; approx. a spoon of batter each.
7. Combine all sauce ingredients into a dip.

I’m afraid the source of this recipe is unknown: it’s a photocopy of a page in an old library book, but I’m guessing it originates from a Bep Vuyk Indonesian cookbook.

– – – – –
CSA & organic: pak choi, chili pepper, bundle garlic, leek, radishes, onions, lettuce
Organic: egg
About 12.5 ww propoints in bento #105
– – – – –

Why don’t you join Beth Fish’s weekend cooking with a food-related post?

Monday Madness (bento #78)

My Monday bento contained Sunday night’s leftovers: runner beans with coconut-peanut sauce & nasi goreng with smoked tofu, shiitake mushrooms, green paprika, spring onion, red pepper, etc.

Next to it some healthy greens: radish flowers, a gherkin, lettuce, parsley, cucumber and orange paprika foxes ;)

There was just a little rice in the nasi so on the side I brought a sunflower seed sandwich with houmous and tomato.

This lunch may seem decadent but at least it was completely vegan!

CSA & organic: beans, lettuce, tomato, parsley
Homegrown: red pepper
Organic: cucumber, tofu, houmous

To be a bento or nobento (#73)

This looks like a confused bento to me: am I a bento or am I nobento?

Friday morning I was in a major hurry to get to work so my bento got done only halfway. There was no time for a picture either — and I almost forgot to take a photo when I started lunch! Thankfully I remembered to do so after I only had eaten my rye bread with cheese that had been lying in the middle of the lower tier (hence the gap). I ate the sandwich with cherry tomatoes, parsley, basil, salt & pepper (almost all in the lower tier as well).

The upper tier WAS GREAT! Leftover nasi goreng, sambal goreng with beans & tofu and a gherkin, all on a bed of lettuce. If I had had more time I would have given this tier a ‘red touch’ on top, like a slice of red pepper or a tomato star.

Did you notice btw: now you can all see how a bento looks once it has travelled to the office by bike-train-bike. Not too bad, does it? ;)

On the side I also had a summer apple and kiwi fruit.

So… bento #73 might not look much, but you missed out on something anyway ;)

Now I need to go cook… We’re having lentil salad of Lentilles de Puy (that really came all the way from Puy en Valley in France) — I think I’ll save some for my bento #74! :)) To be continued…

Asian fusion bento (#63)

Today’s bento is a mix of several Asian dishes. Yes, Gnoe likes her Asian foodies :)

Upper tier

• Indian egg-tomato curry (one of our all-time favourites!)
• Japanese edamame
• Indonesian nasi goreng
• gherkin fox
• cucumber
• two types of parsley
• on a bed of lettuce

Lower tier

• Indonesian emping
• raspberries and red currants
• yoghurt coated apricot
• carrots
• basil
• and another fox

Selamat makan!