Ugly Bento

There's no structure to today's lunch...so it is the Ugly Bento.

Lunch is halibut fillets, coated in a spicy rub, then crusted with a little Parmesan cheese.

Underneath is a mushroom and Swiss chard risotto. I started with this recipe, but changed it fairly significantly.

First, I used omitted the scallops, so I skipped the first paragraph of the recipe. Then I used about a teaspoon of olive oil to saute the onions and garlic. After the mushrooms were cooked, as directed, I added a bunch of Swiss chard, cut into a fine chiffonade, and cooked it until it lost most of its moisture. Finally, I omitted the butter to keep the reicpe a little lighter; I also omitted adding the cheese, instead sprinkling a little on the top instead. I used chicken stock, but if you wanted to, vegetarian stock would substitute easily.

Guess What?

Halibut!

Sorry, I know I'm not 8 years old, but that still cracks me up:)

My lunch for tomorrow is a Halibut fillet, quick seared in a pan, then simmered with broccoli and cauliflower in a yellow thai curry sauce, served over brown rice, and garnished with green onions and peanuts.

Three gyoza and some more veggies are in the bottom box. I wish I had some cute little sauce bottles to pack some soy sauce for the dumplings. Maybe I'll be able to get a couple packets of sauce from the dining facility at school.

I have a draft of a 30 page paper due on Friday on the legality of including international aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (yes, it's about as interesting as it sounds :p), the obvious reason why I am blogging...the paper is almost done. Almost.

Ok, not quite. But it's getting there;)

Flying Fish

So, after flying to Virginia last Monday, and back to California Friday, Mr. Toro is back on a plane to Virgina today for another conference. Crazy! So, today's Bento is another airline special--a good lunch for the cross-country trip.

Inside the bento is an assortment of home-made sushi, accompanied by some edamame, chicken and veggie potstickers, and seaweed salad.

The sushi selection includes tamago-yaki, California rolls, salmon, black cod in eel sauce, and albacore.

This is my first time making sushi attempting to buy only sustainable fish. Admittedly, it was hard passing up my favorites (tuna and yellowtail) but the store only had those from ecologically unsound sources. The end result was still mighty tasty, and I'm happy with myself.

OT: Hallowieners

C'mon Mav! Do some of that pilot stuff!

Here's my doxies in their Halloween costumes. Pebbles has the faux-leather flight jacket, and Polly is in Nomex green.

Mr. Toro is wearing one of my old flight suits tomorrow, so the puppies are going to be his sidekicks;)

Jumbo Jet Bento

Mr. Toro is off to Virginia today, so I packed him a jumbo bento to eat on the plane--hopefully it'll be better than airline food;)

In the bento: chicken seared in brown butter with heirloom tomatoes; swiss chard and beet greens tart; salad of spinach, roasted beets, and more; asparagus with olive oil and lemon juice; and roasted garlic bread.

As you might have guessed, I made a trip to the West Los Angeles Farmers' Market on Sunday, so dinner (and lunch leftovers) were chock-full-of fresh veggies.

Once again, I used this recipe for a delicious swiss chard tart. This time, I used 2/3 chard (beautiful golden stemmed swiss chard at the market this sunday) and 1/3 fresh beet greens, trimmed from the roasted beet roots in the salad. Also, I substituted Gouda cheese, just because.

The salad was amazing! I had a bunch of fresh spinach from the market which I tore into bite-sized pieces. Into the spinach, I tossed pomegranate seeds, walnuts, avocado, beets (roasted about 40 minutes with a sprinkle of salt and pepper), and cheese. The cheese was a find at the grocery store--a 'white Stilton,' meaning it wasn't made to mold into bleu cheese, with blueberries mixed in. It was creamy and sweet, and went perfectly with the pomegranate and other ingredients.

The chicken was cooked especially for this bento--for dinner we had orange roughy from the market, but I didn't think it would keep quite as well as chicken while Mr. Toro was traveling today--but it was cooked with the fish and the same way. I put about a tablespoon of butter in a hot pan and let it turn a nice caramel shade of brown. In went the fish and chicken, for a couple minutes each side. Into the middle of the pan I tossed an heirloom tomato, diced pretty small. The whole pan then went into a 350 degree oven for around 15 minutes or so. To serve, the buttery roasted tomatoes got spooned over top the protein.

Dessert last night was poached persimmon poured over vanilla bean ice cream. A dish of the poached persimmon is this bento's dessert.

The Invisible Bento

For today's lunch, for a Halloween theme, is an Invisible Bento!








Okay, okay, I inadvertently deleted the photo before posting :)

Today's lunch is a fillet of pistachio-crusted Halibut on mashed sweet potatoes with a side of roasted asparagus.

I tossed a half-ounce of pistachios per 6 oz. fillet into a food processor. The fish then got a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper before a quick dip into a beaten egg (you could just press the fish in the nuts if you want to avoid eggs...the crust probably won't stick as thickly, but same idea), then a roll in the nuts. These got seared 3 minutes a side on the stovetop, then tossed into the oven at 400 F for another 10 minutes.

I tossed the asparagus on the side of the pan when I put the fish in the oven--the spears were nice and thin, so a 10 minute roast was perfect.

I made the sweet potatoes completely without fat--I 'baked' them in the microwave, then mashed them with a masher and a little water to loosen them up. Just a touch of cinnamon brought out their natural sweetness.

It was beautiful...I swear ;)

Spinach Pie in the Sky

Today's lunch is a spinach pie made from the same recipe I used once before, but with some modifications. Instead of swiss chard, I used a 16 oz. bag of frozen chopped spinach I had on hand, as well as Gruyere cheese, and once again used cooking spray vice olive oil.

The result was a tasty tarte, although one with a more pungent flavor than the original recipe using chard. Both Mr. Toro and I agreed we preferred the dish with chard, however, this was still pretty tasty.

On the side is some sliced turkey breast and a half of a baked potato cut into slices. The potatoes we had for dinner were incredibly sweet--is that because there is a fresh crop right now? Regardless, they were very tasty.

Garnishes include sliced tomato, bleu-cheese stuffed olives, sun-dried tomato and olive tapenade, and some flat leaf parsley.