Hi, I'm Francis,
the host of this show, Cooking with Dog.
Let's prepare the ingredients for bento:
Cut the cucumber vertically in half.
Slice the cucumber into half moons.
Put the cucumber in a bowl,
add a pinch of salt
and toss to coat evenly.
Scrape off the skin of the potato with a knife.
Slice the potato into quarter moons.
Make a cross-shaped cut on the carrot.
Be careful not to cut your hands.
Thinly slice the carrot into quarter moons.
Cut the spinach in half, separating the leaf part from the stem part.
Cut the pumpkin slice into four pieces.
Let's make the apple into a rabbit shape:
Remove the core of the apple,
cut a shallow v shape into the skin of the apple.
Peel the rabbit ears but leave the bases attached.
Remove the skin in between the rabbit ears.
Cut up both ends of the apple so it fits the Bento Box.
Prepare a bowl of salted water and let the apple soak in it.
Let's make the sausage into an octopus shape:
Make four even cuts halfway through the sausage to create eight tentacles.
Be careful not to cut your hands.
Next, cut the chicken in half.
Put the chicken in a bowl and add kimchi base.
Toss until coated.
Let's cook the vegetables:
Prepare a pot of water with added salt.
Put in the potato and carrot,
cover and turn on the burner.
When the water boils, cook the stem part of the spinach first.
Add the leaf part next.
Let the water boil again,
remove the spinach and let it cool in ice water.
Drain the spinach and place it on a plate.
Pour soy sauce over the spinach,
and lightly squeeze.
Cook for about ten minutes more.
When the potato and the carrot become soft,
remove and drain well with a wire sieve.
Put the vegetables in a bowl.
Mash the potato about half way through when it's still hot.
Add a little vinegar,
and sugar.
Sprinkle some black pepper,
and stir evenly.
Drain the cucumber of its liquid with paper towel.
Add the cucumber,
sweet corn,
and mayonnaise to the mixture.
Stir to mix.
Let's make spinach tamagoyaki:
Coat the frying pan with vegetable oil.
Crack the egg into a bowl, and beat it well.
Check if the surface is hot enough, and pour the egg in the pan.
Swirl the pan to spread the egg evenly,
cook the egg until half done, and place the spinach on the surface.
Roll up the fried egg sheet with chopsticks,
and place it on the cutting board.
Re-oil the pan,
and fry the Vienna sausage.
When the tentacles spread outward,
remove the sausage.
Finally, cut the spinach tamagoyaki to fit the height of the bento box.
Let's fry the pumpkin and chicken:
Place the pumpkin in oiled deep pan and turn on the burner.
Add the potato starch to the chicken,
and toast to coat
When the pumpkin starts to sizzle,
gently place the chicken in the oil.
Rotate the pumpkin and the chicken in the oil to fry evenly.
When the pumpkin and chicken become golden brown,
remove,
and place them on a wire rack.
Dip the pumpkin into honey,
and place it into a cup divider.
Sprinkle some toasted black sesame seeds.
Let's make onigiri:
Wrap a bowl of lukewarm steamed rice with plastic wrap.
Gently shape it into a triangle.
Coat the onigiri with Noritama Furikake.
Wrap the onigiri with a sheet of toasted nori.
Place it on the bento box divider.
Like before,
coat another onigiri with Yukari Furikake,
wrap it with a sheet of toasted nori.
Place the Yukari onigiri,
rabbit shaped apple,
and octopus shaped sausage on the divider.
Add sesame seed eyes to the octopus sausages.
Let's pack the bento box with all the ingredients:
Spinach tamagoyaki,
honey glazed pumpkin,
potato salad,
cherry tomato,
and the karaage fried chicken.
Put the divider on the bento box.
Cover the bento box
and hold the lid with a rubber band.
The trick to making nutritionally balanced bento is using five colored ingredients;
red, yellow, green, black and white.
Don't pack your bento box until the ingredients become cool,
otherwise the bento can easily go bad because of moisture from the steam.
Good luck in the kitchen!