Festive Sushi Bento

The last few weeks I have been very much into sushi. After work I quite regularly visited Maruyasu, a chain-sushi restaurant, located in Frankfurt Hauptwache. I really like the rice there, very well-cooked and seasoned. I wrote a bit about the bento boxes that they sell here.

Maybe some of you still remember my older post about a current bento contest which is held by two Italian blogs, Kitty's Kitchen and Semplicimente Pepe Rosa and that it is going to be over quite soon - Thursday, 2nd June...!

I've thought about participating, so here's the bento box meal which I want to enter to the contest: sushi bento. Overall, I quite like the festive mood of this bento box, but I find the piggy temari sushi (ball-shaped sushi) too red - I guess, I used too much beet juice :(.

I made some temari sushi (ball-shaped sushi) and maki sushi (rolled sushi). The piggy shaped temari sushi is filled with prawn tempura and mayonnaise and the three temari sushi behind some maki sushi are sushi rice and prawn tempura wrapped in kimchi leaves and fastened with a string of green onion. The two little piggies sitting on top of the kimchi temari sushi are made out of quail eggs which are tinted with red beet juice. The ears and snouts are made out of deli meat and the eyes and nose holes of nori. The rosy cheeks are chili sauce.

I made three different types of maki sushi: prawn tempura maki sushi (of course, because I simply ADORE prawn tempura...!), chasu maki sushi and chicken teriyaki maki sushi.

Basic Sushi Rice

• 3 cups short grain rice
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• a pinch of salt

Instructions

• Wash the rice until the water almost runs clear.
• Cook the rice/water mixture in a rice cooker.
• Make the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture in a separate bowl.
• When the rice is cooked, pour in the vinegar mixture and gently mix the rice.

Prawn Tempura

• Prawns,
• 1/2 cup cold (non-dark) beer /cold soda water
• 1/2 rice flour
• 1/2 tbs oyster sauce

(You can also use Tempura instant mix instead of making your own tempura batter)

Instructions

• Whisk cold beer, oyster sauce and rice flour in a bowl.
• Coat the prawns with flour before dipping them in the tempura batter mixture.
• Deep fry for 12 seconds.

Simple Chicken Teriyaki

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 100-150 ml of soy sauce
• 2 tbs sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)
• 2 tbs sake
• 4 tbs mirin
• A slice of ginger

Instructions

• Oil your skillet, add chicken breasts.
• When the chicken breasts are slightly brown on both sides, add all the other ingredients.
• When the sauce thickens, you can turn off the heat.
• Slice before serving.

Kimchi

• 2 Napa cabbages
• App. 1 cup salt
• 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (if you don't have this, change with tapioca flour or normal all purpose-flour)
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4-6 cups hot pepper flakes
• 1 cup fish sauce
• 1 cup minced garlic
• 1 tbs minced ginger
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 tbs sambal oelek (optional)
• 1 cup green onions, cut into 7 cm pieces
• 1 cup carrots, julienned

Instructions

• Soak the cabbage pieces in water, drain and transfer them to a big bowl.
• Sprinkle the cabbage with salt. Make sure all sides are salted.
• Turn over the cabbage pieces every 30 minutes. This process takes 1.5 hours.
• After 1.5 hours, rinse the cabbage in water - make sure you get rid of the salt covering the cabbage. Drain and set aside.
• Kimchi paste: combine the glutinous rice flour and water together and mix it well. Cook this mixture under medium heat. You have to keep stirring (very important) until it gets thick and somehow sticky and translucent like glue.
• Transfer this mixture into a bowl.
• Add sugar and mix well.
• Add fish sauce, hot pepper flakes, minced garlic, ginger and onion.
• Add sambal oelek, green onions and carrots. Mix everything well. Keep tasting the paste, and adjust to your liking.
• The last thing to do is to add the cabbage pieces into the kimchi paste.
• Mix, mix, mix...and your kimchi is ready! Keep it in an airtight container and save it in the fridge until you want to savour it another time...:)!

Chasu (Japanese BBQ pork)
You can find the original recipe in Nami's wonderful website - Just One Cookbook

• 250 - 300 grams pork belly
• 1 tablespoon dashi powder
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sake
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1-2 inches ginger, sliced
• 1 stalk spring onion, sliced

Instructions

• Cut the pork belly into 6 cm pieces and rub with dashi powder.
• Brown the pork belly pieces in a non-stick pan.
• While browning the pork belly, pour water, soy sauce, sake, sugar, ginger and spring onions to a saucepan.
• Transfer the browned pork belly pieces to the saucepan. Cook the meat over medium heat and when it starts to simmer, lower the heat and continue cooking (and occasionally turning the meat) until the liquid is almost gone.
• When bubbles start to appear, you'll notice that the liquid starts to caramelise and gets slightly sticky. You can turn off the heat now.
• Cut the meat into thin slices and serve.

Besides sushi, there are also two cheese daisies, deli meat sakura flowers, two pieces of radish, four baby carrots, two pieces of strawberries and a piece of grape.

Now, last but not least, I'd like to say thank you to LynTrinix for bestowing me with these two awards below....:D). She has been most kind and one of the most supportive bento friends I have. Thank you, Lyn, I am deeply honoured to get these awards from you :)!