PARENTS tearing their hair out in frustration trying to find packed lunches that fussy children will eat can take inspiration from Asia.
Mums and dads seeking healthy, tasty lunches that kids will love can try bento boxes, a home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine and across the Far East.
A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. In China the equivalent is called biantan, while the Philippines, Korea and India all have their own regional variations.
Although bento is often purchased from shops, like sandwiches in the UK, it is still common for Japanese parents to make their families a carefully-prepared lunch box.
Part of the appeal of bento is that it can be very elaborately arranged in a style called character bento – ‘kyaraben’.
‘Kyaraben’ is typically decorated to look like popular characters from comic books, animation or video games. Similarly, there is ‘oekakiben’, or picture bento, which is decorated to look like anything the chef chooses, from insects to whole planets. There are even competitions for the most artistic and painstaking bento boxes.
Chicken Teriyaki Serve with rice and steamed pak choi.
Ingredients
2 tsp Yeo’s Hot Chilli Sauce
4 tbsp clear honey
4 tbsp Wing Yip Pure Sesame Oil
4 tbsp Wing Yip Dark Soy Sauce
4 chicken thighs, bone removed, sliced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
knob of butter
Preparation
Place the Hot Chilli sauce, honey, sesame oil and soy sauce into a bowl and mix well. Place the chicken slices into the bowl, stir well to coat and leave to marinate for five minutes.
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok. Remove the chicken slices from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until completely cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and cover to keep warm.
Pour the marinade into the pan and boil rapidly for a few minutes until slightly reduced. Add the butter and whisk until the sauce becomes glossy.
To serve, place the chicken slices onto a plate and pour over the sauce from the pan.
Leave to cool before putting in the bento box or plastic container.
Beef with Broccoli - Serve with rice or noodles.
Ingredients
1 lb beef sirloin, sliced thinly across the grain
2 cups broccoli, chopped
3 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp garlic, finely minced
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tsp water
3 cups water (for blanching) Sauce
2 tsp Oyster Sauce
1 tsp Rice Wine
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
½ beef cube dissolved in ½ cup water
Marinade
2 tsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp rice wine
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Preparation
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl then marinate the beef for at least 20 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients for the sauce and stir well.
Set aside Pour the water in a cooking pot and let boil.
Blanch the broccoli for a minute.
Remove the broccoli from the cooking pot and soak in ice water for 10 to 20 seconds then drain excess water.
Set aside Apply high heat on a wok or a frying pan then pour-in cooking oil when the pan is really hot.
Put-in the beef and arrange so that all the slices directly touches the pan.
Allow to cook for a minute.
Flip the beef and allow the other side to cook then put-in the garlic and cook for a minute. Pour-in the sauce and bring to a boil.
Add the broccoli and cook for a minute.
Stir-in the cornstarch (diluted in water) and cook until the sauce thickens.
Leave to cool before putting in the bento box or plastic container.
