Today I’m very excited to introduce to you Jean from Bento Days! She’s a mother of 3 living in Singapore and her blog is all about bentos! Bento is a single-portion home-packed meal and very common in Japanese cuisine. It is an extremely well-balanced meal, with rice, vegetables and meat all packed in a small container. Jean doesn’t just blog about ordinary bentos, mind you, but kyaraben! Kyaraben is shortened form of character bento in Japanese, which is an arranged bento featuring food decorated to look like people, cartoon characters, animals, plants etc. Her bentos are so adorable, probably a tad too adorable to be eaten! I especially love her Totoro series bentos (as I’m a huge fan of Ghilbi production) and her recent Baymax dumplings is just too cute. Check out her favourite 14 bentos of 2014 – a lot of them are my favourite too!

When I have a kid of my own in the future, I hope I’ll have the motivation to make such cute bentos too! But for now, read on to see what Jean has in store for us today, and don’t forget to visit her at her blog and Instagram after this!

Hi! I am Jean of Bento Days, and I am so honoured to be invited by Jasline to guest post here today! Making bento has become my hobby and I usually blog about the bentos that I make. Bento is a style of Japanese boxed lunch, and I usually make kyaraben, or charaben, otherwise known as character bento. My bentos usually feature animals like bears or pandas, or some of my favourite characters such as Rilakkuma, Hello Kitty etc. Today I will be sharing a tutorial on how to put together a Winnie the Pooh bento.

The ingredients and tools used are easily available, and you are likely to have most of these items already!

Ingredients

• 1 cup short grain sushi rice
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled
• 2 slices of crabstick, boiled
• Small sheet of nori (seaweed)
• Side dishes – you may add any dish which suits your taste. In this case I used honey roasted chicken, steamed broccoli, hard boiled egg, grape slices and strawberries
• Small slice of cheese and the 1.25 inch of the end of a fried sausage – this is to create the honey (hunny) pot for Pooh

Tools needed

• Cling wrap
• Food tweezers**
• Food scissors **

** A word about the food tweezers and food scissors which are used, these are actually bought from the beauty section in Daiso. I use these tweezers and scissors only for handling food. These tools make it much easier to cut out delicate pieces of nori.

Method

STEP 1: Separate the egg yolk from the egg white, and mash with a fork.

STEP 2: Mix in 120g of cooked rice, and mix with the mashed yolks until combined.

STEP 3: Use cling wrap to shape the body parts to make Winnie the Pooh.

STEP 4: *I forgot to take a photo of the making of the honey (hunny) pot! But it’s really simple, just cut out a bit of cheese to resemble the honey drips and place over the sausage end while it is still warm. The cheese will easily adhere to the sausage, and there you have a honey pot!*

Step 5: Remove the red parts of the crabstick and wrap around the body to create the red shirt for Pooh. At this stage I like to assemble the bento first, putting in the Winnie the Pooh onigiri and the side ingredients, so I can see if everything fits.

STEP 6: Cut out the nori details for the face. I use a small pair of food scissors to cut out the nori as it is easier to cut out smaller details, and the tweezers for easy handling.

(Foodie Baker side note: Jean cut it all freehand with the small scissors, super amazing!)

STEP 7: Use the food tweezers to place the nori cut-outs onto Pooh’s face. The nori will easily adhere due to the moisture in the rice. And that’s it, the bento is done!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Winnie the Pooh Bento

Serves 1

By Jean (Bento Days)

0.511.523

INGREDIENTS

 

• ▢ 1 cup short grain sushi rice
• ▢ 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled
• ▢ 2 slices of crabstick, boiled
• ▢ Small sheet of nori, seaweed
• ▢ Side dishes – you may add any dish which suits your taste. In this case I used honey roasted chicken, steamed broccoli, hard boiled egg, grape slices and strawberries
• ▢ Small slice of cheese and the 1.25 inch of the end of a fried sausage – this is to create the honey, hunny pot for Pooh
  
  

Tools needed

• ▢ Cling wrap
• ▢ Food tweezers**
• ▢ Food scissors **

INSTRUCTIONS

• Separate the egg yolk from the egg white, and mash with a fork.
• Mix in 120g of cooked rice, and mix with the mashed yolks until combined.
• Use cling wrap to shape the body parts to make Winnie the Pooh.
• Cut out a bit of cheese to resemble the honey drips and place over the sausage end while it is still warm. The cheese will easily adhere to the sausage, and there you have a honey pot!
• Remove the red parts of the crabstick and wrap around the body to create the red shirt for Pooh. At this stage I like to assemble the bento first, putting in the Winnie the Pooh onigiri and the side ingredients, so I can see if everything fits.
• Cut out the nori details for the face. I use a small pair of food scissors to cut out the nori as it is easier to cut out smaller details, and the tweezers for easy handling.
• Use the food tweezers to place the nori cut-outs onto Pooh’s face. The nori will easily adhere due to the moisture in the rice. And that’s it, the bento is done!

NOTES

**A word about the food tweezers and food scissors which are used, these are actually bought from the beauty section in Daiso. I use these tweezers and scissors only for handling food. These tools make it much easier to cut out delicate pieces of nori.

Tried this recipe?Mention @foodiebaker or tag #foodiebaker!