How to learn to cook Bento

Bento - Japanese call meal, Packed in a special box that they take with them to the office, school, travel, to eat. The selection of proportions of products, packing Bento - it's a ritual. It has existed for several centuries. At the present time to experience Japanese culture and the art of making Bento is very easy.

Bento is a meal that will enchant you not only with its impeccable taste, but also the original. Ways of cooking and varieties of Bento, there are many. They depend on what products are used, how long you plan to keep them, at what time and in what place you plan to eat them: akiban, hinomaru, makano-Ooty, shizuma, Trabant.

Ingredients for Bento

Prepares the food in accordance with the proportion 4:3:2:1:

- 4 pieces of rice;
- 3 pieces of meat or fish;
- 2 portions of vegetables;
- 1 piece of marinated spices or plants.

For dessert, added a slice of fruit (Apple, pear, Mandarin, orange).

For classic Bento you will need:

rice — 1 Cup;
- water — 1 glass;
- salmon fillet — 100 g;
- potatoes — 1 PC.;
- a mixture of fresh salads (iceberg, Lollo Rosso) — 50 g;
- radish — 2 PCs.;
- cherry tomatoes — 50 g;
- lemon — 2 slices;
- vegetable oil — 1 tbsp;
- vinegar ( rice) — 1 tbsp. l;
- sugar — 1 tsp;
- salt — to taste.

Cooking classic Bento

You must first properly prepare the rice for Bento. Best suited special rice for making Japanese food, but not necessarily. You can use the regular rice (short-grain unsteamed and better).

Wash rice with water until until it is transparent. Then pour it with cold water and leave for 15 minutes. Cook the rice, remove from heat and let stand for 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a deep bowl and cool as quickly as possible, stirring constantly and blowing it. The rice will be slightly adhesive structure. Mix rice vinegar with salt and sugar until completely dissolved. Pour the mixture into the rice, mix thoroughly to a uniform distribution over all portions. The rice for the Bento ready.

Salmon fillet pepper, salt to taste and fry on the grill (or frying pan with a thick bottom) until crisp (about 10 minutes), then cut into pretty thin slices. Spread on paper towel to remove excess fat.

Boil potatoes, cut into thin slices. You can use the available tools to cut the figures out of the potatoes.

Fresh lettuce leaves, wash, dry, tear by hand into small pieces, put them in the bottom of the Bento box. To lettuce longer maintain its freshness, before serving, you need to put them in the freezer for a few minutes. As containers for Bento, you can use any food containers.

On top of the salad leaves lay heaped rice. If you want you can give it any form, for example, lay in the shape of individual balls or figurines. Slices of salmon on the side of the slides of Fig. Around to put the cherry tomatoes and radishes. Decorate Bento with slices of lemon.