8 Ingredients Bento for Bento&Co 2014 Contest

I participated in Bento&Co's 2014 Contest for fun and submitted my bento photo a few days ago, actually on the last minutes - I thought I wouldn't be able to take part in the contest as I was rather short on time, but Bento&Co extended the contest period, so I decided to participate.

This year's theme is: OUR INGREDIENTS + YOUR BENTO. We were expected to create a bento meal using only the following ingredients plus 1 ingredient of our choice:

• Potato
• Tomato
• Carrot
• Broccoli 
• Rice 
• Eggs
• Chicken (or tofu for vegetarians)
• The extra ingredient I chose: lettuce 

We also had to include a short description of the bento photo we submitted and here is mine:

Even though I love charaben, this year I decided to submit a more traditional-looking bento. I think it's something that is less intimidating to make and certainly more applicable for everyday bento. I played around with the natural vibrance of the pre-determined ingredients to create a practical, nutritious and delicious bento which can be whipped up by everyone who wants to spend just a few extra minutes in the kitchen. 

CONTENTS

Oval Bento Box:

steamed white rice, steamed purple rice (mixture of black+white rice), scrambled egg, teriyaki chicken dumplings, blanched broccoli, cherry tomatoes (red & yellow), carrot flowers (orange & purple- decorated with egg white and broccoli stems), mini carrot coins, mini broccoli stem coins and lettuce. 

Rectangular Bento Box:

chicken yakitori skewers (with carrot slices and broccoli stems), potato salad, cherry tomatoes, carrot tamagoyaki, blanched broccoli, carrot flower and lettuce.

The results were out yesterday and here are the bentos of the two grand winners, aren't they lovely :)? I love the Japan Grand Winner's bento, it's simple but it's got beautiful colour scheme, pretty arrangement and it looks yummy too. The international grand winner seemed to have spent SO MUCH time preparing the bento, and I can imagine why she won this contest. Congrats to both of them :)!

My bento managed to be in the top 10 and I am happy with the result, since I didn't partipate to win. I just wanted to motivate myself to make more bentos, since I've not been very active in bentoing lately.

The following are the bentos of the 10 finalists. I really like the first bento - another simple bento but it looks so delicious! I hope Bento&Co will also show the entries from the other contestants. I am sure there are so many good ones, especially because I read there are more than 200 participants!

Which bento do you like best? You don't have to be partial to mine because you're visiting my blog ;)! I think my one is not so bad, but I really like the two bentos I mentioned before, the one from the Japanese grand winner and the first photo of the top 10 finalist.

Anyway, hopefully I can blog a bit more in the near future. It's Friday tomorrow, so hang in there :)!

Cute Robot Taco Rice Bento

A theme which I had never done before - robots! This edible robot is also pretty simple to make and you don't need any special cutters to make it - I used a small kitchen knife to make the little shapes before assembling them together, and a pair of micro tip scissors to cut out the nori eyes and smile.

Below you will find the ingredients I used to make this friendly robot - pretty simple, right? This bento is also healthy as it contains plenty of fresh produce. Here are the contents:

1. Steamed Brown Rice
2. Edible Robot (made from vegetables, nori and Colby cheese)
3. Taco Meat (made from organic ground beef)
4. Chopped Cherry Tomatoes
5. Chopped Avocado
6. Corn
7. Radish Slices and Stars
8. Carrot Flowers
9. Lettuce

Do you know that Taco Rice is originated from Okinawa, Japan? Due to the large presence of the American military in the 1980s, Matsuzo Gibo created this dish and introduced it in his cafe's menu to appeal to the US military personnels that were stationed just minutes away from his cafe. Nowadays Taco Rice is one of the most popular Okinawan dishes

Usually you top taco rice with salsa and a dollop of sour cream, but I'd mixed the sour cream and salsa in the taco meat, so it's not necessary to include both items in the bento box (which I think is better for transport purposes too). 

Hope you enjoyed this post and I wish you all a lovely weekend :). 

Despicable Me Bento

To be honest, I'd never heard of Despicable Me until a few weeks ago when I started seeing lots of Minions (the little, yellow creatures) bentos almost everywhere. I was just wondering what the big fuss was about ;). I have to admit that the characters are pretty cute though, that's the reason why I decided to join in the hype and make a Despicable Me themed bento too :).

The minions are made of tamagoyaki (Japanese-style rolled omelette) and the details are nori and cheese cut-outs. I also included Agnes Gru in the bento box. She is made of soy-sauce flavoured steamed rice, nori and imitation crab. The other side dishes are pan-fried chicken nuggets, a piece of babybell cheese, two pieces of mochi cakes, a small portion of fruit (kiwi & mandarin), two halved grape tomatoes and a few pieces of blanched broccoli florets.

Chicken Katsu Bento

I made this bento last week. It contains rice topped with umeboshi (pickled plum) and cucumber, chicken katsu (Japanese style chicken schnitzel), yakisoba (fried noodles), korokke (potato croquette), tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), shibazuke (pickled cucumber), cherry tomatoes, mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce (they're inside the blue and pink mini containers).

Chicken Katsu - serves 2 

2 chicken breast/thigh fillets

1 egg

1 tbs oyster sauce

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbs all purpose flour 

Panko bread crumbs

Oil for frying

1. Mix egg, salt, pepper and oyster sauce together.
2. Coat the chicken breasts with flour.
3. Dip the coated chicken breasts in the egg mixture.
4. Coat the chicken breasts with panko bread crumbs.
5. Repeat steps 3 - 4.
6. Fry the chicken breasts until golden brown.
7. Drizzle with tonkatsu sauce and mayonnaise. Serve with rice.

Crispy Duck Breast with Peanut Sauce Bento

Fried crispy duck breast with peanut sauce is one of my husband's favourite Asian dishes. He likes to order this from our local Asian eatery. Asian food is generally fairly inexpensive in Germany, unfortunately this means most Asian foods here taste pretty much the same from one restaurant to another. This is one reason why I love to cook Asian foods myself at home.

Crispy Duck Breast

• 1 duck breast filet
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon flour

Instructions

• Rub the duck breast with salt, pepper and soy sauce.
• Marinade for 10 - 15 minutes.
• Coat the duck breast with flour. Fry duck breast until golden brown.

Peanut Sauce

• 4 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon sambal oelek (minced chili)
• 100 ml water
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 - 2tablespoons sweet soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 sweet bell pepper, sliced - *optional

Instructions

• Heat the wok and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil.
• Add onion and pan-fry for 1 minute.
• Add the rest of the ingredients, except bell peppers and lime juice. Cook for around 2 minutes.
• Toss in the bell peppers and cook for another 1 minute.
• Add lemon juice before serving. Mix well.

Do you see the pretty, round yellow ball on top of the rice? Guess what? It's a hard-boiled egg yolk! Don't ask me how to do it. When I peeled the egg, the egg yolk fell out by itself ;). I wish it happened all the time, because I don't really like egg-white that much.