Bento Box for Hollywood Bowl

Every summer, I enjoy going to Hollywood Bowl so much. It's one of the things I love the most about living in LA.

This year, we've already been to a few shows at Hollywood Bowl and have one more this month. For those who live outside of LA and don't know Hollywood Bowl, it's a outdoor concert venue and you can bring your own picnic (including alcohol) to enjoy during the show.

Last Sunday was St. Vincent and Erykah Badu! Our friends invited us to box seats, so I made bento (picnic) dinner for 4 of us.

The menu was:
Crab spring rolls with peanut black vinegar dipping sauce
Octopus and okra in basil macadamia pesto
Fried summer vegetables in Hatcho miso tomato sauce
Tori karaage (fried chicken)
Dashi-maki tamago (rolled egg omelet)
...and wakame and multi-grain onigiri (rice balls) were, of course, made in my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san"!  When the rice is cooked in Kamado-san, it tastes really delicious and the texture stays very nice even after the rice is almost cold after many hours. That's donabe magic.

Happy donabe life.

This Year's First Hollywood Bowl Bento

Hollywood Bowl season is here. This year's first show for us was Janelle Monae. Our dear friends, Asami & Steve invited us to join them in their box seats.


So, I made obento (boxed meal) for us! I made total 8 dishes, including onigiri (rice balls). But, I forgot to take any photo of my donabe rice onigiri. It was mixed with seasoned bonito flakes, shiitake, and kombu. I love making obento in the summer season, as these seasonal ingredients are so colorful and gorgeous.


The top tear of the bento box included donabe ratatouille (the recipe will be introduced in the next posting). Roasted chicken tender, romanesco, and baby bell pepper in soy based marinade, dashimaki-tamago (rolled dashi filled omelet), and thinly-sliced burdock root, carrot, with hijiki in creamy sesame sauce.


The bottom tear was roasted Saikyo miso marinated salmon, haricot vert & walnuts in black sesame sauce, and hatcho-miso kabocha.

And, here's the recipe for my burdock root, carrot & hijiki salad in creamy sesame sauce.

Salad of Burdock Root, Carrot, & Hijiki in Creamy Sesame Sauce

Ingredients:

(for the creamy sesame sauce - enough amount to use for a few times)
1/3 cup (80 ml) white sesame paste or tahini
2 1/2 tablespoons raw brown sugar
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons usukuchi shoyu (light color soy sauce)
2 tablespoons or more kewpie mayonnaise
2 tablespoons grape seed oil

6 oz (180 g) burdock root
4 oz (120 g) carrot
1/2 oz (15 g) hijiki, rehydrated
scant 1/2 teaspoon kombucha (dry kelp powder), optional
shichimi togarashi


Procedure:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the sesame sauce. Set aside.
2. Thinly slice the burdock root and carrot by using a slicer. Further cut them into very thin juliennes by a knife.
3. Boil water in a pot, and add the burdock root. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the carrot and continue to cook for 1 more minute. Drain and rinse in cold water. Pat dry.
4. Boil water again and cook hijiki over medium heat for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Pat dry.
5. In a large bowl, combine the burdock, carrot, and hijiki. Toss in the kombucha (dry kelp powder). Add just enough amount of the sesame sauce and mix well. Transfer into a serving bowl and sprinkle some shichimi togarashi.

*The remaining sesame sauce can keep in refrigerator for several days. You can use it for different kinds of salads.




The show was so much fun! It was the final evening for Asami and Steve in LA before moving to Nagoya, Japan for a few years (because of Steve's job). So, I became sentimental at the end. Thank you so much, and good luck to you both, A&S!! I miss you already.

Final days of the summer...from Kara-age bento to outdoor donabe shabu shabu

Chicken "kara-age" and eggplant "dengaku"

The end of the summer season continued to be full of fun happenings...some memorable time of the last week of August this year...

Picnic meal with friends at Hollywood Bowl. We have enjoyed going to the bowl so much again this year. Last time, I made "tamago-yaki" (rolled omelet) with 9 kinds of seaweeds, green beans in black sesame sauce, hijiki and burdock root salad, chicken "kara-age" (Japanese friend chicken), and eggplant "dengaku" (w/ Saikyo miso sauce) to fit in bento box. And, I also made "onigiri" rice balls. We have only one more show to go (Earth, Wind & Fire) in September.


August 27 was the 5-year anniversary of toiro kitchen! My company was quietly incorporated on the day 5 years ago. Now, thanks to so many people's support, the business is becoming more and more exciting. Jason brought home a surprise gift of petit fours from Valerie Echo Park. So nice! I also opened Jacques Selosse, "Substance" Champagne Brut. Magical wine.


The very last day of August. It was such a hot day, and we had a low-key dinner in our patio. We made Kurobuta pork shabu shabu in our Kyoto-style shallow donabe, "Kyoto Ame-yu". A meal like this makes me feel so good.

HAPPY HAPPY DONABE LIFE!

Donabe Bento

I was invited to a pot luck brunch at a friend's house in Hollywood last Sunday.


We did a nice outdoor meal in the balcony with the nice urban view.


I made two donabe dishes and packed in my picnic bento 2-tier boxes.


With double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", I made green tea onigiri (rice balls). I mixed in coarse ground "tencha" (very delicate baby green tea leaves used for making matcha powder) and plum kombu tea powder. Combination of green tea and plum kombu tea flavors bring the nice aromatic character to it.


With donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin", I smoked salmon filets with Japanese apple wood smoke chips, and served with baby kale and kumquat salad in apple cider vinaigrette.

I'm glad everybody enjoyed my dishes.
Happy donabe life.

Making Bento for Hollywood Bowl Concert...4 weeks in a row!

A night after the bento class was a Hollywood Bowl concert, and this time I made picnic bento for 4 people.

Sake-steamed chicken salad with sesame sauce, japchae, shio-koji salmon, yuzu-kosho pesoto onigiri, and sake-kasu pound cake.

It was an annual reggae night and we had a blast!

Donabe Cooking Class Report…Summer Bento Class at TGS

A few days before I was leaving for Tokyo, we had another fun donabe cooking class at Tortoise General Store in Venice. 

The theme was “Summer Bento” with Donabe Dishes.  I was very excited to host this event for the enthusiastic 8 participants.

We prepared different donabe dishes one by one.

Everybody made his/her own “onigiri” rice balls and packed bento box with those donabe-made dishes.  Even though we were all having the same menu, the way each person made onigiri and packed/decorated bento box was original and different.  Everybody was having fun at it and being a “bento artist”!  Many of them have never made Japanese-style bento or made onigiri before, but they were all doing brilliant jobs.

Bento picnic lunch time…our bento didn’t travel very long distance, because the patio was just outside of the kitchen studio!

Real fun class.  Here’s the menu:

Menu

Satsuma Sweet Potato & Fuji Apple in Creamy Miso, Endive & Pistachio Paste

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Donabe-steamed Drunken Chicken and Vegetables Salad

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Donabe Steam-roasted Salmon, Rosemary “Yu-an” Flavor

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Donabe Steam-fry “Koya” Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms in Miso Sauce

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Yuzu-kosho Pesto “Onigiri” Rice Balls

Happy donabe life.

More bento!

Bento Catering Project Week...Crazy Busy but Fun

Last week, I was part of a summer trunk show titled, Handmade Market, at nanamina boutique with Japanese fashion creator friends in LA. In order to promote donabe & healthy Japanese cooking, I served Japanese Bento Boxes there. I made more than 50 bento servings in the 3-day event…yes, all by myself!


 The main “protein” of this bento box was Amazake Salmon. I had to wake up very early to pick up super-fresh salmon at Los Angeles Fish Market in Downtown. It was a beautiful 20-pound Scottish salmon, which I asked to be filleted in half. It was so large that a filet was more than 22-inch long! It was marinated in my home-fermented amazake (fermented koji paste) for overnight, then roasted in the oven. 


This dish was my whimsical creation and became a big hit. Caramelized endive, roasted pistachio and garlic were put in a food processor with Neufchâtel cheese (it’s lighter than light cream cheese), Greek yogurt, salt koji, lemon juice, and pepper. Then, this creamy paste was mixed with cooked Satsuma yam (Japanese sweet potato), Fuji apple, and dry cranberries.


 I also made Donabe steam-fry lotus root with “Jako” baby fish (calcium-rich!) in “amazu” (sweet vinegar) sauce, sautéed kale, haricot vert in sesame sauce, and lightly pickled radish in brown rice vinegar and honey. 


Rice dish was Yuzu-kosho pesto “onigiri” rice balls. This pesto sauce is much lighter than regular pesto sauce, because there is much less oil used in it, while the texture and flavor were enhanced with quality ingredients including both red and green yuzu-kosho! I cooked brown rice in the double-lid donabe rice cooker, “Kamado-san”, and tossed it with the pesto, some grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and roasted pine nuts.


Dessert was Amazake whole wheat Scones with wild blueberries.  There is NO sugar is used in this recipe, so the sweetness comes only from the home-fermented amazake and blueberries.  I love the mellow natural sweetness amazake and the lightly creamy texture.


Each day, I carefully packed each bento box (it's made of bamboo skin which is pressed to become a box shape - bamboo skin not only shows rustic beauty, but also has a anti-bacteria effect).  On Friday, I accepted more orders than the daily limit, so I made 21 servings.


It was so much work, but a lot of fun.  Here's the full menu of my bento box.

Menu

Yuzu-kosho Pesto “Onigiri” Rice Balls

-Green & Red Yuzu-kosho, Basil, and Pine Nuts, Tossed with Donabe-cooked Brown Rice-

•

“Amazake” Salmon with Sautéed Kale

-Marinated in Home-fermented “Amazake”, and Oven-roasted-

•

Lotus Root & “Jako” Dry Baby Fish in “Ama-zu” Sweet Vinegar Sauce

-with Yuzu Shichimi Pepper,Steam-fried in Tagine-style Donabe-

•

Haricot Vert “Goma-ae”

-Tossed with Roasted Walnuts in Ground Sesame Sauce-

•

Satsuma Sweet Potato & Fuji Apple in Creamy Endive & Pistachio

-Caramelized Endive, Roasted Pistachio, “Shio-koji”, and Neufchâtel Cheese-

•

Dessert

Home-fermented “Amazake” Whole Wheat Scones

-No sugar added, very natural sweetness from “Amazake” and Dried Blueberries-

*”Amazake” is a thick creamy beverage, which is rich in health-beneficial live enzymes.  It’s made from cooked sweet rice, which is incubated with rice koji culture (same starter for miso, soy sauce, sake, mirin, etc.).  It’s traditionally diluted with water and drunk warm in Japan.

The event itself drew a big crowd each day and it was a great success.  I had a lot of fun!

Happy donabe life.