Ingredients
100g white cabbage
100g Chinese leaf
3 spring onions
300g minced pork
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp grated ginger
2 cloves garlic
2 packets gyoza/dumpling skins
Vegetable oil
Soy sauce and Chinese rice wine vinegar, to serve
Chop the cabbage, Chinese leaf and spring onions - I use a food processor to cut everything down. Then you have to squeeze hard to remove the excess liquid - this is a really important step. Once you've done that, stick the veggies in a large bowl. Then chop up the garlic and put that on top, together with the minced pork, mirin, sesame seed oil, soy sauce and grated ginger. Mix well - use your hands!
To make my dumplings you can use a gyoza press or do it by hand. I prefer to use a gyoza press because it's much easier. You simply place the circular gyoza wrappers in the press, wet the edges, place a spoonful of stuffing in the middle, then press together to seal. If you thought that was fiddly, try cooking them! At this point, while the dumpling is still raw, you can freeze them. Then, when you want to cook a couple for a bento, just follow the bottom steps, using the dumpling from frozen and cooking them for slightly longer to ensure they are cooked all the way through.
Place your gyozas in a frying pan with some oil, and fry on high to slightly crisp the bottoms. Then, add water to a third of the way up the dumpling, cover, and steam. Once the water has evaporated, remove the lid and fry for a bit longer to dry out and crisp up the bottoms. Continue to do this in batches.
Eat with a dip made of equal quantities of Chinese rice wine vinegar and light soy sauce, mixed with a pinch of sugar. You can make this more elaborate by adding chopped garlic, ginger, spring onion, chillies and sesame oil.
Ingredients
1 clove garlic
1/2 shallot
Small piece ginger
Small handful basil, mint and coriander leaves
300 g pork mince
2 tbsp fish sauce (you can reduce this for a milder taste - I like it strong!)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seed oil
Juice 1 lime
4 shredded lime leaves
100g / 5 medium-sized mild chillies
1 small chilles, sliced
Place the garlic, peeled shallot, ginger and herbs in a food processor and mince them finely. Then add the pork mince and process until smooth and mixed well. Then, add the liquids and lime leaves and mix again.
Cut the chillies in half and deseed them, the stuff with the pork mince. Leftovers can be formed into burgers as well. Bake on a baking tray in a preheated oven at 190c for 20 minutes.
Niku soboro basically means 'ground meat' - there are different styles of soboro used in bento boxes, and they can be made of fish, meat or eggs.
Ingredients
500g turkey, pork or chicken mince
6 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
Simply add all the ingredients to the pan together and simmer until cooked, stirring well to break up the mince and mix all the ingredients together. Ensure all of the liquid has evaporated.
Ingredients
Cooking oil
½ inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 red chillies, deseeded and julienned
500g turkey mince
1 tsp light brown sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 fresh, shredded lime leaves
Iceberg lettuce
Little Gem lettuce
2 shallots, finely sliced
1 extra lime for cutting into decorative slices
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
Heat a little cooking oil in your pan and fry the ginger, garlic and half the chillies for one minute, or until they become fragrant. Add the mince and break it up as you cook, continuing to stir until it is slightly golden.
Sprinkle over the sugar, and add the fish sauce, lime juice, the shredded lime leaves and the rest of the chilli, saving some for a garnish. Cook for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved and has made a sticky sauce. The mince should be dry when finished.
To serve, pour the mince into a bowl or bento lined with lettuce leaves, topped with the shallots, coriander, lime slice and some reserved chillies.
Note
Like many of my recipes, you can use this to make around four adult bentos, or cook half for dinner and save the rest for your lunch. The mince is equally delicious hot or cold.