How to make Bento (Japanese lunch box) 〜弁当〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

[Music] welcome to Taja's Kitchen Today I'm going to show you how to make bento or Japanese style lunchbox So I think nowadays the word bento has gotten quite common What it is is box lunch If you go to Japan you can find it pretty much anywhere even in conveni and supermarkets There are many variations of bento and there are also even many YouTube channel who shows different kinds of [Music] bento There are some kaban with character bento but I personally am not a big fan of that because then you put more focus on the character not the recipe itself In Japan elementary schools we have school lunch but above high school many schools don't serve lunch and instead they have to bring their bento from home In my case my mother made it every day At that time I took it for granted Now as a grown person I'm making bento myself every now and then Know those how much effort my mother put in So I'm so thankful for that Today I'm showing a very typical very standard uh bento And to my opinion the best bento ever which is with ka aag Karaga is just fried chicken and I think it's just the best ingredient to put in bento But for bento you can actually pretty much put in anything you want I also have a playlist what you can put inside for bento Most my side dishes or main dishes you can put in bento as long as not too watery Today I'm going to show you how to make this karaga bento Maybe get you inspired to make these yourself Then let's get started [Music] Here are the ingredients I'm going to use today for making the bento For the main ingredients I have the chicken thigh for the karag And for the side dish I'm going to be using broccoli carrots and cherry tomato for the color and ume bushi These are salted dried plums It's very sour So I've heard that many foreigners don't like these but many people put this in for the bento box because they say that has a quality to prevent food to be rotten due to the citric acid And for the seasoning I have sugar soy sauce any kind of starch for the karag bonito flakes sesame seeds of course Japanese short grain sticky rice Then let's get into it So the first thing I'm going to prepare the rice And if you're making bento in the morning for the day you definitely want to do this the night before because it takes at least half an hour to soak the rice in water If you have rice cooker then definitely use that But today I'm going to show you how to cook the rice using a [Music] pot And then we're going to let it sit like this for at least half an hour So I'm going to turn the heat to high and bring this to boil So once this come to a boil I'm going to very quickly stir it up Then I'm going to turn heat to simmer Then cook like this and simmer for 10 minutes So then the cooking part is finished Going to turn it off Then I'm going to let this sit and let it steam on its own heat for another 10 minutes So as we're waiting for the rice let's prepare all the ingredients So for the carrot I'm going to make thin slices Take top and bottom off Then put in diagonal like this I'm going to make in thin slices Once you get the slice I'm going to and lay flat like this and cut them off from the [Applause] end So just like that And for the broccoli I'm going to cut the bottom off a little bit so that it'll fit in the bento better And then I'm going to cut the broccoli not from the top like this I'm going to cut the broccoli from the bottom like this so that you don't have small bits and pieces And for the bento you want a much smaller pieces than usual So you're a little bit more flexible on packing in the bento box So just like that And for the cherry tomatoes you want to make sure you take off the top like this The reason why you want to take the top off is that it may contain a lot of bacteria on the top that might not be good for the bento And you definitely want to wash this very thoroughly because this goes in the bento box without getting cooked And you want to make sure that it's not contaminated We're going to prepare the ginger for the karag Peel off the dry parts and then peel off the skin Then you want to grate this using a grater Just like that And as the last thing I'm going to cut up the chicken And when you're going to cut a chicken using a wooden cutting board like this make sure you wet it Then I'm going to cut this in bite-sized pieces but I want to cut it a bit smaller than usual because one you want to make sure it gets cooked through and two you want to minimize the time of cooking and three you're a bit more flexible packing when you have smaller pieces So just like that Then with that all the ingredients finish prepared So as the next I'm going to marinate the chicken So in a bowl I'm going to put the ginger I'm going to put 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and just about/ teaspoon of sugar Then in this marinate I'm going to put the chicken and mix it with the marinade sauce And then I'm going to leave it like this for at least 5 minutes or so and let it soak the marinade sauce And during that time I'm going to cook all the rest of the vegetables So as the next thing let's boil the broccololis So when boiling broccoli many westerners make the mistake of cooking way too long You definitely don't want to cook this over a minute And I think that's why many kids don't like broccoli because when broccoli is cooked just right it has a really good flavor a small sweetness to it So once it comes to boil again this is finished and then take it out of the water And I'm going to leave this aside and cool off So once this is cooled down I'm going to mix it with bonito flakes and soy sauce So I'm going to have some little bonito flakes and just kind of make it small pieces and put it over it like this Then in this just about one teaspoon of soy sauce So just like that this is finished So as the next thing let's cook the carrots I'm going to turn the heat to medium I'm going to put a bit of frying oil So once it gets heated I'm going to put the carrot in Then I'm going to stir fry this very lightly After stir frying like this for about a minute or two I'm going to put in here half teaspoon of sugar Directly a teaspoon of soy sauce At the very end I'm going to put a little bit of sesame seeds Then that's done For that I'm going to spread out a little bit and let it cool down So as the last thing let's cook the chicken This marinated chicken I'm going to put in the starch Just about a tablespoon Then mix this up So then this is good Let's fry this So for the frying I like to use a small pot like this and put in the frying oil Now I'm going to turn the heat to high and heat up the oil to about 180° or so to tell if the oil is heated enough You can put in the chopstick that has batter on them And when these small bubbles come out these are good I'm going to put in the half of [Music] this and cook like this for about 3 minutes or so So after about 3 minutes these look finished And take it out Then we're going to put in the second batch So after another 3 minutes these are also finished Take them out Then this is also done for that I'm going to leave it to the side and let it cool down So with that all three of these are finished Let's put it all together in a bento box So to put everything in the bento box I need everything cooled down And that includes also this cooked rice So I'm going to put this on a plate and lay it flat so that it gets cool So for the bento it's very important that when you put the ingredients they all cool down So I'm going to leave it for 5 minutes or so and let it cool down So 5 minutes has passed This cooled down So I'm going to pack this in a bento box So there's no really rule but we usually put the rice on the left side And then right in the middle of rice we usually put the bushi just like this as a divider I'm going to put a little bit lettuce here Then I'm going to put the kaga in here and then the broccoli next to it Then the rest I want to put in the carrots but it's going to kind of mix up the flavor I'm going to use a cup like this So these cups you can buy quite easily in Japan or if you can't find it you can also use just a regular cupcake cups or you can also use a perin paper And the very end I'm going to put in the cherry tomato So just like that the kagago is finished Let's [Music] eat O it looks so good I love this moment of opening the bento box because has a little element of the anxiousness Oh what's inside Of course I know it because I made it But still that moment is I think is really precious Let's eat Of course I got to start with the karagas Oh so delicious Of course the crunchy warm karag is also good But this kind of bento karagas even though it's cold it's still bento has something special to it Karaga with rice is just so amazing So the mushi has a pit in the middle So you want to make sure you don't eat that All the sourness is really matches with the rice So good This combination of bentos just reminds me of nostalgic memory of my childhood My mother used to make these combination of bento quite often Hits me really home Kalaga with also really good And let's skimp it on Oh that was so delicious Stop Oh that was so delicious So fulfilling not just for my stomach but also for my heart So I hope through this video you kind of got the grasp of how to make bento box And hope it gave you an idea that it's actually not that complicated It's actually not that difficult to make the Japanese bento box Of course it's not very easy to make And at first it might take a little bit long time but after doing over and over you can minimize the time and kind of get efficient with it So I really do hope you give it a try If you did enjoy this video I love you if you hit the like button for me Or if you're interested in seeing more different bento box ideas please write that in the comments below And if you want to see more of these cooking videos please subscribe Otherwise I look forward to see you in the next video Bye [Music]