Last night, as I was packing my suitcase ready to head to London, my mind started pondering what to bring on the bus for my lunch. I'd forgotten to buy anything 'easy' at the supermarket and since it was a miserable wet night, didn't fancy heading out and buying supplies. In the fridge was some tortellini, but I didn't think that would be particularly appetising cold, some leftover soup (but I don't have a thermos), and one perfectly ripe avocado. Naturally this was going to have to be the basis of my lunch - it would be criminal to waste a beautifully ripe avocado, surely?! If I had tortilla chips in the house then I probably would have made guacamole and munched on that all the way down the country, but tortilla chips seldom last long in my house, so that wasn't an option. And then I remembered the sushi rice I had lurking in the back of my pantry cupboard...of course, I'll make some vegetarian sushi, I cried! Looking forward to the prospect of lunch the next day, I put the rice on to cook and started fosicking for other bits to pop with the avocado. Some crunch - thinly sliced carrots and some shredded iceberg lettuce - and some sweetness through slices of yellow capsicum. I was out of pickled yellow Japanese daikon, but that would have been a wonderful addition (must get more of that as it really does make homemade sushi taste much more authentic) and then I remembered I had a can of 'teriyaki' tuna...dubious sounding perhaps, but I had a feeling it might just provide the perfect sweet, salty and meaty compliment to the avocado and vege.
My lunch thus made and stashed, I went to bed feeling relatively calm and organised - not a usual feeling for me on a Saturday night these days! I even had a tube of wasabi and some pickled ginger to pop in the box. Amazing what you can find when you start searching the fridge for long-forgotten ingredients.
Anyway, I'm waffling, but I just wanted to show you my own wee Bento box...eaten at the road-side services bus-stop just south of Sheffield (photo a wee bit blurred because I took it with my cellphone camera and was attempting to do so surreptiously...so as to avoid looking like too weird a food-geek, you understand!).
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Much tastier than Burger King or KFC which were the available options to buy, healthy and made from left-over bits lurking in the fridge and pantry...what more could you want from lunch?!
Nice work! I've never attempted sushi - despite the simplicity of the dish, it's always seemed too difficult to me. Any tips for the raw beginner?
ReplyDeleteReally? I'm surprised - you're such an adventurous cook! Sushi is easy...you cook rice, splash some sweetened/seasoned rice vinegar over it, then roll in the nori with your chosen filling - voila! You don't need to have one of those bamboo mats; cling film would suffice. Half a cup of sushi rice makes one good sized sushi roll which makes about 8 pieces. I personally think it makes a big difference to the 'proper' taste to add thinly sliced Japanese daikon pickle, but that's not a must. And make sure you let it sit for half an hour after making, otherwise the nori will have that gross, chewy quality which makes sushi decidedly unpleasant!
ReplyDeleteOn cleaning out the fridge.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess I'm relying on frozen and dried goods to supplement the dwindling fresh food supply. So, there was the fish pie last week to use up the extra piece of fish I had. I boiled some halved baby potatoes and steamed some roughly chopped carrot above it. Cooked onions and garlic before adding some white wine and wholegrain mustard and making a roux from milk and flour, with a bit of cheese for flavour and some salt and pepper. Added frozen peas and corn and the other vegies. Grilled and chopped the fish and added that too and then whacked the whole lot into a puff pastry case. It was delicious!
Sunday night was a risotto using some delicious dried porcini mushrooms my friend Nadia brought back from Italy for us and frozen peas.
Last night we were down to carrots, one spanish onion and spring onions so I whipped up a Japanese broth adding dried (and soaked) mushrooms, frozen corn and spinach, garlic, ginger, soy, sherry, mirin and sesame oil. Served over soba noodles and topped with a perfectly fried egg.
Down to frozen veg now so was thinking of making a tuna mornay tonight (I always use corn and peas) but think it needs onion. So perhaps a tart of some sort since I still have pastry and any number of delicious dairy products. Any ideas?
Alas, by now you have probably eaten your frozen peas and corn! My only suggestion would have been a quiche of some kind, or a frittata type thing, although it might have been a touch sparse with just the peas and corn! Maybe a tuna/sweet corn pasta dish - baked with cheese? What did you go with in the end? I have to say, your fridge-devouring efforts are seriously impressive! I always yield and go to the shops when really I have more than enough in the house to get us by (in fact, if I'm honest, we could probably cope for a couple of weeks if we were creative and had a functioning oven so I could make bread when we ran out! My mum, on the other hand, could quite happily live for months without needing to shop - her pantry extends beyond the kitchen to a very large additional cupboard in the garage, and between that, the giant chest freezer and the huge, well-stocked garden, come the armageddon I know where I'd want to be!)
ReplyDeleteI've obviously been seriously lax this month with the posts and cooking, and I'm feeling very bad about it. I was so full of determination to make posting a regular habit - like a food diary and a form of structure in an other-wise chaotic existence. The chaos has won, though, as you can see. However, the oven is being replaced and my lectures for the year finish very soon. I have wintery festive treats planned so I guess watch this space...!
Again, well done for being so committed to the fridge-emptying mantra and for coming up with such delicious results! You're an inspiration, as always!