Bento: Totoro

Today's Bento was a pleasure to make and eat (^.^). Woke up at 5.30 in the morning yet still in the end I was late for work :D
But  hey! I enjoyed every single step of it! This one definitely made my day better :).
Here's my new and best attempt at making a Totoro themed Bento. I got so carried away that this time I made two Totoro boxes. Usually only my Senpai gets an O'Bento, while I eat it plain old :). Well not today :) This one was so easy to make that you might have a problem stopping making Makurokurosuke :D. Besides you get to see the results so soon that you assemble the rest with a big smile :)!


So here are some pictures with details ;). Thank you Anna for the inspiration!!

Total time: 2,5h
Serves: 2
Difficulty: Moderate, Time demanding

Ingredients:

- 6 quail eggs
- 2 cups of sushi rice
- 2 tbs of black sesame seeds, grounded
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 200gr Shitake Mushrooms
- 2 nori sheets
- some feta cheese, for eyes decoration
- fresh salad
- 3 handfuls of baby spinach

Shitake sauce
- 2 tbs of rice vinegar
- 4 tbs of soy sauce
- 1 tbs of sake
- 1 ts of sugar

Rice Seasoning
- 8 tbs of rice vinegar
- pinch of salt and sugar


This is what I did...

1. Boiled the rice in a rice cooker/steamer.
2. When the rice was done I steamed the spinach on the top part of the steamer.
3. Pan fried the chopped shitake mushrooms with the sauce on low heat, until the sauce was gone.
4. Boiled the eggs and prepared all the eyes decorations out of nori and feta cheese.
5. Seasoned the rice with the seasoning. Separated some and mixed it with the sesame.
6. Assembled everything together :).




Makuro Kurosuke Onigiri


Using a plastic wrap mold a small rice ball and cover it with 1/4 of a nori sheet.
I filled in my onigiri with shitake. :) Yummy....

7. For the eyes I used my new nori punch :) Wuuuhuuuu. Look how the eyeballs came out now \(^.^)/. The white was done with a thin slice of feta cheese. Not the best ingredient to stick on a nori sheet thou...




Quail Egg's mini Totoro


Here's an easy task :)
Boil the egg, cut a V on the top, and place your eyes... Easy, is it not? :)

8. I didn't have such a small punch for the eyeballs here, instead I used a very sharp U knife - also part of my new Bento accessories collection ;).




Rice Totoro


The body was done by mixing in some black sesame seeds.
The tummy is made of plain rice and all the rest is Nori decoration.

9. Once Totoro was finished, the rest Just came along. Some tomatoes here, a whole shitake there, add some more Feta Cheese decorations and there you go! Itadakimasu!!!

His and hers :)

Both Bento ready, now ruuuunnn....we are late for work :D

TIPS:
• Don't follow my lead and make this one in the morning :D try making some in advance, or else you might be late for work :D
• Try to fix all the pieces in place, so they don't get separated in the transport ;)