How to Make Super-Easy Japanese Bento Lunches

For the past few weeks I've been showing you all these bento boxes and my favorite kitchen tools...but wait a sec, this blog is meant to be about cooking!  And I haven't shown any actual bento lunches yet!

Truth be told, I'm still working on my "bento-queen" side.  My mother never made Japanese bento for me. (I'm serious, never.  I think one reason she married an Australian was to escape bento-making!)  So I always assumed that bento-making was a tedious waste of time, best to be avoided. 

And then I married a Japanese fella.  Time to bite the bullet, and do bento...

To my surprise, there's nothing tedious about basic Japanese bento!  In fact, it usually takes me less than five minutes!!  I couldn't make sandwiches faster than that.  The key is to have everything ready-made, and just put them together in the box.
Typically, I pack the rice into the box the night before while it's still hot, and leave the box out on the bench overnight (so it's still soft the next day), and if using leftovers I put those separately in the fridge.  Then in the morning, I get the leftovers (okazu) from the fridge and pop them in the box.

If using something (like karaage) from the freezer, just re-heat it thoroughly in the morning and pop it in the box.  Same goes for frozen rice.   (Even though it will cool down by lunchtime, re-heating frozen foods thoroughly makes sure they're soft and yummy.)

Japanese-style bento is roughly 1/2 to 3/5 rice, with the remaining portion okazu.  (Okazu means things to eat with rice, eg chicken, fish, pickled vegetables, fish cake, stir-fry, salad etc)

I came up with a way to make a really easy bento every morning:

BASIC JAPANESE BENTO FORMULA:

Rice (usually with sesame seeds, nori or furikake)
+
Choose 1 of these:
Okazu Mains:

• Karaage (marinated deep fried chicken pieces.  Freeze well)
• Mini-hamburg (mini meat patties which are soft and delicious even when cooled. Freeze well)
• Salted Salmon (pan-fried the same morning, or kept from the night before in the fridge)
• Deep-fried Crumbed Calamari Rings (Freeze well) 
• Leftovers from dinner (keep in the fridge overnight) 
• eg: Nikujaga, Sweet and sour pork, Yakitori sticks.

+ 1 or more of these:
Okazu Sides, Vegetable:

• Cherry Tomatoes
• Lettuce, watercress or other salad leaves
• Sliced cucumber sprinkled with a little salt
• Otsukemono (Japanese vegetable pickles or mildly pickled vegetables)
• Edamame (we always have some in the freezer, and not just for bento!)
• Steamed Broccoli (from last night's dinner)
• Japanese Potato Salad or Pumpkin Salad  (if you happen to have leftovers)
• Kinpira Gobo, Carrot or other fridge-storable vegetable sides

+/- 1 of these, if you feel like it:
Okazu Sides, Protein:

• Tamagoyaki (basic Japanese rolled egg)
• Wieners (miniature frankfurt sausage, microwaved)
• Kamaboko (Japanese rice cake, from the fridge)
• anything else in "Okazu Mains" section, in an even smaller portion.

=     A delicious and super-easy Japanese bento, in less than five minutes!

Rice 

Make sure you use short to medium grain or Sushi rice, that is still soft at room temperature.

The items listed in the Basic Japanese Bento Formula are not exclusive.  Of course, there are numberless things you can put in your bento box, however if you want to do Japanese-style bento, I have a few simple rules for Obento Okazu:

• Small portions.  When hot food is eaten at room-temperature, it tastes good for only a few mouthfuls.  Another benefit is that one large batch of mini-hamburg or karaage will make a dozen bento-portions for the freezer.  (And that's after we've eaten 1/3 of it for dinner!)
• At least 2-4 types of okazu.  Since we're doing small portions, we need a few different items to fill out the bento box (and your stomach) and make it interesting.  You can do more, but I'm lazy and 2-3 is my standard. Generally at least one type of protein okazu (main) and at least one type of vegetable okazu (side).
• Okazu must be bento-able.  It must taste good even when it has cooled down, it must be safe for a few hours at room temperature(eg fish must be salted), and it can't be soupy (we don't want leaks!).

In this post I have a few pictures of basic bentos, all made in the morning rush:

  (All the links below are to my recipes or shop items.)

Top:  Chicken Karaage (just microwave re-heated from frozen), daikon namasu, lettuce and cherry tomatoes.  Ume-gomashio with Kamaboko flowers Furikake on the rice.                           

Mini-hamburg with cheese (I put some cheese on each before microwave re-heating them from frozen)

Wieners, watercress, cherry tomato. Heart Onigiri with Shiso furikake, 

Salted Salmon (pan-fried), Spinach ohitashi, Watercress, daikon and cherry tomato salad (all dinner leftovers, packed last night and kept in the fridge).  Rice with gomashio furikake.  Silicone Flower Cups.

Mini Hamburg, Chicken Karaage, Fried Rice (leftover), daikon namasu and cherry tomatoes in a Silicone Flower Cup, ume-gomashio furikake on the rice.  

Salted Salmon (in the frypan 5min), tamagoyaki and cherry tomatoes.  Shirasu furikake mixed into the rice (rice I took from the freezer this morning and re-heated in the microwave)

Sweet and Sour Pork (leftovers which I froze in silicon cups, and re-heated this morning), Wieners (microwaved), Watercress from the garden: Prep time: 4 min

Mini-hamburg (Japanese-style soft pork patties) from last night's dinner, daikon and carrot namasu (I made a large batch a few days earlier), cherry tomatoes.  Rice has some barley cooked in with it. Prep time: 3 min