Bento Day 3 - Pesto Torikatsu with Summer Cool Down Salad

This post is originally from my personal-anything-goes-blog, dated May 14, 2012
 
Day 3's bento was a bit bleak! I just pulled it together haphazardly. I had no idea what to match with my pesto torikatsu, and I didn't want to repeat any of my bento food items yet.

I was excited to make this bento for one thing, I bought my first set of rice molds! Well, it's actually just one shape - a triangle, but I'm pretty glad I now have a mold for my bento :)

Day 3's Menu, like I said, was put together haphazardly, but the blend of flavors were still considered. Actually taste-wise, my previous bentos were much more yummier. Only the salad in this bento had this oomph factor.



Day 3's Bento Menu:

• Plain Onigiri with Bell Pepper garnish
• Pesto Torikatsu
• Summer Cool Down Salad

My plain Onigiri was just freshly cooked rice, then I added about 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to give it a little flavor. I then molded it in my newly bought onigiri molds. I let the rice set for a few minutes and then seared it in a pan with very little oil. After cooking one side for a few minutes, I flipped it then coated the seared side with Lee Kum Kee Soy Sauce (The green one, best for seafood). After a few minutes, I flipped the onigiri again. The side with the soy sauce is now being seared again. I coated the top side with soy sauce too and flipped the onigiri one last time before removing from the heat. I garnished it with a triangular-shaped bell pepper.

My Pesto Torikatsu is again bought from SM Supermarket. I was surprised with the flavor of the torikatsu. I wasn't expecting it to have a distinct pesto flavor, but it did. I was really pleased with the flavor. It blended well with my summer cool down salad.

The Summer Cooldown salad was actually just something out of whim. I had no idea what to do for veggies. I also wanted the veggies to have a great color to liven up my dull looking bento. I looked at our veggie crisper and saw that I still have a few left veggies like carrots, baby corn, sweet peas and bell peppers. I wasn't in the mood to saute them, nor did I have the time, so I thought I'll just use carrots which can be used immediately. I checked our fruit crisper and saw that we have several bags of mangoes, so I thought, "Hey! This could be an interesting salad!". I could almost taste the different levels of sweetness that the carrots and the mangoes would give out! How refreshing! I also added a dash of apple cider vinegar to prevent them from browning, and to blend the flavor of the salad with the bento. I called it Summer Cool Down Salad because the colors were so festive and bright like the summer, and yet it's so refreshing! It's best served cold.

Ingredients:
2 small carrots or 1 medium carrot, cold
1 large mango, cold
1 tsp-1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Procedure:

1. Grate the carrots and mango
2. Slowly add the apple cider vinegar
3. Toss the salad
4. Refrigerate if you won't use it yet. Will probably keep for 2 days

Serves 4

My Bento Story
This so far isn't really good. Aside from the salad, everything else didn't give an oomph, nor looked very appetizing. I wasn't able to dress up my bento well, add the fact that I almost grated my thumb! It was a tough job to grate carrots and my finger won't stop bleeding!

In placing the food in my bento, I wasn't really paying attention on how to put the food items in. I was just careful to separate the salad since mangoes are juicy and might juice around the box. Lacking proper bento paraphernalia, I just folded a soft-drinks plastic bag and placed the salad inside.

The bento wasn't filling nor was it satisfying, but I guess it's better to have food than none at all