Protein Packed Bento! (The Hard-working Employee Bento)

Hi Everyone !

As I mentioned in my first blog post, I'm a bento affictionado.

I have so much fun creating yummy foods to take to work with me.

This is great practice for pic-nicks as well. You can be creative

and let your imagination run wild with all types of ingredients.

Today I'll be making a Korean inspired bento. Which will be composed of:

• Rice
• Gamjachae bokkeum (Potato side dish)
• Gogi Wan-ja Jun (Korean meatballs)
• GyeRan Mali (Rolled fried egg)
• Kimchi (ready-made)

So if you're like me, you probably own a rice cooker which does all the cooking for you in 20 minutes or less!
Wash the rice 3 times, toss it in the rice cooker and forget it until we're done with everything!

As you've surely noticed by now, I always add my own touch to the dishes in order to make this more personal.
First things first!
Let's chop and prepare our ingredients for each dish.

 

Gamjachae bokkeum (Potato side dish)

2-3 Large potatoes (or 6 small ones)

4-5 Fresh Oyster mushrooms or Shiitake

1 Yellow onion

2 tbs Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Water

1 tbs Brown Sugar

Sesame Oil

Sesame Seeds

Salt

Pepper

The most important things to remember for this side dish:

• Your potatoes have to remain a bit firm while being fully cooked. It is important not to over-cook them.
• Your glaze has to be sticky and not liquid, make sure you don't add too much water and also let the sugar/soy/water mixture reduce to a minimum.

Julienne all three ingredients (Potato, mushroom and onion)  finely, about a match-stick size. Put a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and turn on your stove to medium-high heat.

Once your oil is hot, place your julienne potatoes in the skillet first. Let them cook for about 2 minutes while stirring with a spatula.

Prepare in a small bowl 1/2 cup of water, 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs brown sugar. Mix well until the sugar dissolves and reserve. Lower your heat to medium.

Now add in your julienne onion to the skillet and mix well. Cover the skillet and let the ingredients cook for about 1 1/2 minutes. Add your water/soy/sugar mixture to the skillet, mix well and cover. Let cook for about 2 minutes and remove the lid, add in your mushrooms and mix well. Add salt & pepper to taste and feel free to add more soy or sugar if you like it more on the sweeter side. Coat with a drizzle of sesame oil, mix well and top with some roasted or natural sesame seeds.
 

 Voilà! Go to my next blog post to follow-up on the next dish in our bento!

This is what yours could look like!


Bon Appétit!