The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches To Go: Makiko Itoh, Makiko Doi: 9781568363936: Amazon.com: Books

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Product Description
Bento fever has recently swept across the West, fueled not just by an interest in cute, decorative food, but by the desire for an economical, healthy approach to eating in these times of recession. A leading light in the popularization of bento has been Makiko Itoh, whose blog, Just Bento, boasts hundreds of thousands of subscribers, all of whom love her delicious recipes and practical bento-making tips.

Now, for the first time, Itoh's expertise has been packaged in book form. The Just Bento Cookbook contains twenty-five attractive bento menus and more than 150 recipes, all of which have been especially created for this book and are divided into two main sections, Japanese and Not-so-Japanese. The Japanese section includes classic bento menus such as Salted Salmon Bento and Chicken Karaage Bento, while the Not-so-Japanese section shows how Western food can be adapted to the bento concept, with delicious menus such as Summer Vegetable Gratin Bento and Everyone-Loves-a-Pie Bento.

In addition to the recipes, Itoh includes sections on bento-making equipment, bento staples to make and stock, basic cooking techniques, and a glossary. A planning-chart section is included, showing readers how they might organize their weekly bento making.

In a market full of bento books that emphasize the cute and the decorative, this book stands out for its emphasis on the health and economic benefits of the bento, and for the very practical guidelines on how to ensure that a daily bento lunch is something that can easily be incorporated into anyone's lifestyle. This is the perfect book for the bento beginner, but will also provide a wealth of new bento recipe ideas and tips for bento aficionados.

From Just Bento: Deconstructed Salade Niçoise Bento

Salade Niçoise is a classic composed salad that originates from the sunny town of Nice in the south of France. It’s perfect for a summer bento lunch.

Makes 1 serving.

Ingredients

1 medium potato
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6–8 quail eggs, or 1 chicken egg
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon-style mustard

Directions

Make ready three bento boxes: a large one to hold the lettuce and greens; a medium one for the potato, eggs, and tomatoes; and a small one for the tuna, olives, and dressing that fits inside the large one if possible. Wash, peel, and cut up the potato into ½ inch (1cm) cubes. Put the potato pieces in a small pan and add enough cold salted water to cover. Boil until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well. Coat lightly with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil. Carefully pierce the rounded end of each quail egg with a thin needle before boiling; this will make them easier to peel. Quail eggs only need to be boiled for 4 minutes to achieve the hard-boiled state. Peel the eggs. Make a simple vinaigrette by combining the rest of the olive oil, the vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in the small bento box. Mix well.

To Assemble This Bento

Put the potato and eggs in the medium bento box. Decorate with the cherry tomatoes. Put the well-drained tuna, the capers, and the olives in the small bento box with the vinaigrette. Fill the largest bento box with the salad greens and lettuce. Nestle the small bento box in the greens, and put on the lid. You may want to pack everything together with an ice pack in hot weather. When ready to eat, simply put all the salad components into the large bento box: the potato and eggs first, and the tuna mixture on top. Mix well and enjoy!

Timeline

Prepare the potato, eggs, and tuna the night before and store in the refrigerator. Wash and dry the salad greens beforehand also. Pack the greens into the bento box in the morning for optimum freshness. If you eat a lot of salads, you could make vinaigrette in quantity and stock it in the refrigerator. I like to use a screw-top jar for this, and give it a good shake before using.

From Just Bento: Chicken and Three-Color Pepper Stir-fry Bento

This beginner bento is made with everyday ingredients that you may already have in your pantry. It can be assembled in twenty minutes or less without any advance preparation. It’s a good one to start your bento-making adventures with.

Makes 1 serving.

Contents

Chicken and Three-Color Pepper Stir-fry
Instant Cabbage and Cucumber Pickles
Blanched Broccoli
Basic White Rice
Cherry Tomatoes

Chicken and Three-Color Pepper Stir-fry

You can spice up this versatile and colorful stir-fry by adding some hot pepper sauce such as sriracha to taste. To ensure fast and even cooking, cut the peppers into small, regular cubes.

1/2 Tbsp olive or other vegetable oil
3 Tbsp roughly chopped green onion
2 tsp peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
1/3 each medium-sized red, green, and yellow sweet peppers, de-seeded and cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) chunks
salt, for sprinkling
2 oz (60g) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) chunks
black pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp soy sauce
lettuce or shiso leaves used as dividers, optional

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the green onion and ginger and stir-fry for 1–2 minutes until the oil is fragrant. Turn the heat up to the highest setting and add the peppers to the pan. Stir-fry with a spatula or long chopsticks. Sprinkle in some salt—this draws out moisture from the vegetables and cooks them a bit faster. Continue stir-frying for 4–5 minutes, until the peppers are cooked. Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan, and add the chicken to the exposed bottom. Leave for a couple of minutes, then turn over to cook the other side. Stir everything together, and add black pepper and soy sauce. Turn the stir-fry from the pan onto a cold plate so that it cools rapidly. When cooled, pack into the bento box, using the lettuce or shiso leaves as a divider. Ahead-of-time note: Cut up the vegetables and chicken the night before, so everything is ready to just cook. Be sure to keep the raw chicken stored separately from the vegetables for safety.

Instant Cabbage and Cucumber Pickles

Instant or overnight pickled vegetables are very popular in Japan. They are like dressing-less salads, and the salty, slightly sour crunch provides a nice contrast to other foods. They can be eaten immediately or kept stored in the refrigerator for 3–4 days.

1 large green cabbage leaf
2-inch-long (5 cm) English cucumber, sliced into thin rounds
1/2 tsp sea salt
squeeze of lemon juice

Cut out the tough vein of the cabbage leaf, and slice the rest into strips. Sprinkle the cabbage and cucumber with the salt, and massage well with your hands until the vegetables go limp. Let rest for at least 5 minutes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Squeeze out any excess moisture before packing into a bento box. I like to put the pickles in a bento divider cup or cupcake liner to prevent the flavors from mingling with other flavors in the box.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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“ This is a GREAT intro to bento box lunches. ” Smed | 68 reviewers made a similar statement

“ The recipes themselves are delicious and easy to make. ” Shannon | 42 reviewers made a similar statement

“ There are great pictures and easy to follow recipes. ” Mirriah | 30 reviewers made a similar statement

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 125 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bento for grown ups November 26, 2010

By Justin Cozart

Format:Paperback

This is the best and most accessible bento box I've ever seen.

Its for grown ups. Chucking out most of the cute bits and hard-to-find ingredients, this book is perfect for someone who wants to have a fun lunch but not make a scene in the breakroom because of a smiley face on a sandwich (not that there is anything wrong with that!).

Most ingredients in the book are easy to find (cherry tomatoes, egg, chicken, etc), and some of the more specialized ingredients (mirin, dashi stock, etc) are available any almost any asian grocery store or online. There are tons of recipes, with pages followed by variations on those recipes, cooking time charts and timelines, and even a glossary of Japanese food terms. Fantastic.

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71 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical bento recipes December 11, 2010

By J. BARTLETT

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is not a showcase of selected posts from Makiko Itoh's excellent blog; it contains 150 especially created recipes, and instructive and attractive photos and diagrams and tips you won't find there. The recipes are practical enough for everyday use, with ingredients that won't leave you lost at the supermarket, and much effort has gone into explaining and illustrating the preparation of sushi rolls, onigiri, tamago, and so on; even explaining how to properly lay ingredients into single or two-tier boxes. Makiko has succeeded in distilling her experience making bentos in countries where staple Japanese ingredients are obscure and exotic, into a volume that's readably succinct yet shows impeccable attention to the needs of her audience. She even groups recipes into complete bento meals, with timelines showing how to prepare multiple parts of a meal simultaneously. It's clear that a great deal of effort has gone into producing a bento recipe book intended for everyday use rather than mere novelty.

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136 of 142 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Makiko Itoh does a wonderful job in making an easy-to-follow bento book for the Western audience in mind. December 6, 2010

By Dennis A. Amith (kndy) TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

For many non-Japanese who enjoy Japanese culture, especially the pop culture and have watched many anime series or drama series, or even read the manga, it is no surprise if you are curious about bento. The way they are put together and how creative they are (as well as economical), it's no surprise that more people outside of Japan are catching bento fever and wanting to make bento at home.

So, what is bento? Think Japanese version of the school lunch but instead of a big thick lunchbox, there is creativity on the portions of what one eats and are typically set in a special container in which food is split. There is no big bulky apples or bananas or a big sandwich, for the Japanese, you have your steam rice, egg, vegetables, meats, etc. and it all fits into a container.

And it's no surprise that bento boxes have become popular outside of Japan. People wanting to create economically cool bento boxes and who best to write about it than food blogger Makiko Itoh, owner of justhungry.com and justbento.com.

Makiko has written "The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches to Go" featuring 25 attractive bento menus and features more than 150 recipes which include the Sushi Roll Bento, the Chicken Karaage Bento but as it does feature Japanese style bentos, she also has a not-so-Japanese section which has a Summer Vegetable Casserole Beto and Every Loves a Pie Bento.

And what is important is that Makiko doesn't focus on cuteness or for the sake of having cute bento, she writes with care about nutrition and has easy-to-read, concise instructions that go along with photos.

For example, using the cover image (featured above), the photo is for "Chicken and Three-color Pepper Stir-fry Bento". She shows you how to create the stir-fry with a recipe, plus how to make instant cabbage and cucumber pickles and blanched broccoli. Also, information on how to prepare basic white rice.

She also has a time line of how long it takes to create the dish as well.

After you make the dish, she then features how to prepare the food and place it into a single-tier and two-tier box.

So, these are easy-to-follow instructions.

So, what about the rolled up egg? How do they roll it up? No problem, she has pictures on how she does it.

What about the zig zagged vegetables? No problem, she explains how to do it as well.

And it's important to note that the ingredients featured on the Japanese recipes are ingredients you can find at your local grocery store. Especially if you have an Asian grocery store nearby. Granted, sesame salt or kabocha squash may not be at your local grocery store, but the goal is to improvise if you don't find some of these ingredients.

Now, by using Makiko Itoh's "Just Bento Cookbook", you may be thinking...great, we got the recipe down, ingredients for the Japanese and non-Japanese dishes can be found but what about the actual bento box and equipment that Makiko uses. Now, this is the cool part of the book where she actually showcases bento boxes and accessories and where you can purchase them.

Itoh also goes into foods that can be refrigerated or frozen and for those who are not familiar with the Japanese ingredients, she also has a glossary at the end of the book. So, for those who read and are not sure what "bonito flakes", "miso" or what "edamame" are... no problem, she explains what they are.

Overall, this is a fantastic book for those wanting to prepare bento dishes. Sometimes blogs on how to prepare bento are hard to follow and Itoh recognizes the weaknesses of what others have tried to do and focuses on making the experience as easy as possible for those creating bento for the first time.

So, if you are interested in making bento, I can easily say that "The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches to Go" is perhaps the best book I have reviewed on bento thus far.

Highly recommended!

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