Final Box of the year

With the holiday season upon us, my wife prevailed upon me to take a break and take sometime off bentoing to actually enjoy the holidays. So this is my final box for the year. We've got a italian inspired lunch today. I tried to stay with a lighter theme the only hearty fare today is the stew. I had a pretty big hole since I decided to move the stew into an outside container. Fortuneatly the big plump strawberries were ready to take the spot.

We start with a nice italian lamb stew, I didn't use the crockpot this time, I was actually afraid to make the meat too soft. Lots of great hearty ingredients to keep my eaters warm (it's getting cold down here). Carrots, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers potatoes, and of course lamb put that together with a hearty blend of herbs and you get some pretty tasty stuff.


This side was a bit of a struggle for me. There were plenty of sides, but part of my new mandate was that the menu had to be doable very quickly. All the other sides I originally had in mind required a great deal more effort. Fortunately my foodie magazines were able to dig me out of my predicament. I found a recipe for a great minute risotto, it looked promising with nice flavor, the reheat will melt the Parmesan and make it creamy.

I saw this awesome stand of basil sprigs that had the largest leaves I've seen in some time. Naturally had to find an application for them. Underneath that behemoth basil leaf is a standard caprese salad, which is nothing more than fresh mozzerella and tomato slices sprinkled with fresh chopped basil, dusted with a bit of kosher salt, and finished off with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.


Last but not least is the desert. I had some limoncello (italian lemon liqeur) and thought it would make a wonderful glaze "dressing" for the wonderful giant perfect strawberrries I had. For those that have never had limoncello, it's sweet and lemony without being sour. I think this is partly due to the process of making limoncello is using lemon rind rather than whole lemon. Anyway I digress I lobbed in the last of the blueberries from the day before and voila we finish my last bento.

I've really enjoyed making my bentos for my wife and coworkers this year. I plan on continuing next year when we start up again and recover from the holiday season. I've also had a fun time with the photography and blogging (a first for me). Fear not I'll continue posting, but this is the last "food" post until the new year. The coming posts will be some more on the tools I use in the kitchen and probably more "yammering" and reflection on how to improve my delivery process. Thanks everyone for coming and reading, I'm so excited with my ramp up of traffic. I hope you all have enjoyed reading as I have putting it all together. Cheers!

Box contents:
  • Italian Lamb stew
  • Minute Tomato Risotto
  • Caprese Salad
  • Berries with a Limoncello glaze

Comments

Lunch Buckets said…
Those berries look great - can almost taste them - did you use the limoncello as is? Or mix with something else to make the glaze?
Ironjack said…
I took the limoncello and mixed it with powdered sugar to produce the glaze. Very simple trick I learned in college when we had fruits and the dining hall(except we used a lime instead limoncello. Thanks for dropping by!

Popular posts from this blog

Da Chang Mian Xian 大腸麵線: streetfood challenge

TRIP: London 2013 Pt1

Holiday Bird ala the Orion Cooker "la torre del diablo"