Savory Egg Custard Bento

You'd be all set for a day in your hippie van following The Dead with this flower-power lunch box! 

What's that? Jer-bear's gone? Bummer man! But thanks to a baked protein dish and my trusty rice cooker putting this bento together was no freak-out.  

Top tier of bento: Rice, rice mixed with a little carrot juice and wrapped with nori,  Savory Egg Custard with Crab, Asparagus and Peas. Garnish: flower made of radish and carrot, sliced asparagus stem and tip, boiled carrot slices.

Bottom tier of bento: Spinach with Sunflower Seed Dressing, seasoned boiled carrots, left-over radish and red onion salad with cilantro. Garnish: sunflower seeds flowers with sliced asparagus.

Notes: You know how the fat end of a carrot is perfect for cutting cute shapes? Well, what about the skinny half? It's good for juicing, slicing for salads or pickles, and also for boiling and dressing up as a side!

Here I boiled the carrot bits in stock and then seasoned 'em with EVOO, S&P. A minute before they were cooked I threw in carrot slices to use on the sides of the bento. I used a slotted spoon to remove all the carrots and then added the frozen spinach to the hot stock to defrost it.

My Bento Recipes:

Spinach with Sunflower Seed Dressing (2 portions)

Using frozen spinach is easier and cheaper than using fresh so half the time I do. A flavorful sauce or dressing is all it needs. This dressing is based on the traditional Japanese dressing made from toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients:

1 lb bag frozen spinach, defrosted
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons tamari
2 drops stevia extract

Directions:

* Toast the sunflower seeds in a large pan until lightly browned and fragrant. 
* Roughly grind them in a mortar-pestle or food processor. There should still be some bigger pieces, you don't want seed-butter.
* Squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach. I used a cloth bag sold for making nut-milks and it worked great.
* Add the tamari and stevia (or sweetener or your choice) to the ground seeds. 
* Mix the dressing into the spinach. 
* Garnish with sunflower seed flowers.

Savory Custard with Crab, Asparagus and Peas (2 servings)

This recipe is modified from one by Nancy Singleton Hachisu in her super-dreamy book Japanese Farm Food. Her's is a very traditional Japanese dish made with stuff I just didn't have on hand. It also featured spinach with crab instead of peas and asparagus. But to quote Sinead O'conner (who was surely quoting someone else): "I do not want what I have not got!"

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/3 cup stock
1/4 cup frozen peas
2 asparagus stalks, tender part sliced on the diagonal
1/4 cup canned crab
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 drops stevia

Directions:

* Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
* Line a Pyrex glass container or small bread pan of your choice with tin foil and set it in another oven-proof container that is slightly larger.
* Put the frozen peas and asparagus slices in the stock in a small pot and bring to a boil. 
* Boil for 30 seconds.

* Strain the vegetables and reserve the hot stock. Add the salt and stevia to the stock.

* Put the vegetables and crab in the tin foil lined container.
* In a kettle or an other pan start heating some water until nearly boiling.
* Beat the eggs. 
* Now that the stock has cooled a bit add in the eggs and mix.
* Strain this through a fine sieve over the crab and vegetables (push comes to shove the strainer from a teapot works well!)
* Pour the nearly boiling water around the foiled dish until it comes up 2/3 of the way. 
* Cover everything with another piece of foil and put in the oven.

* Bake for 1 hour.
* Remove the foil and broil on low for 5 minutes or until fully set and starting to brown a little.
* Let cool for before removing from the foil and cutting. 

Ta-da! The great thing about this is that after the initial prep it's in the oven, doing it's own thang, for an hour. Also great: I chose a container to cook the custard in that I knew would make it just the right size for the bento box I was using. You can do the same!