Just Bento

Rice is the base carb for most Japanese style bento lunches, but the idea of cooking rice fresh every day may be rather daunting. If you have a rice cooker with a timer that can be set so that the rice is ready when you want to make your bento it is easier, but then you have to prepare the rice at night.

What I do is to to freeze pre-portioned packets of rice. Rice freezes very well if you make sure that it’s still warm when you wrap up the portions. This retains the necessary moisture inside the plastic. It’s also a good idea to use sturdy, microwaveable wrap such as Saran Wrap.

I pre-portion the brown rice that I cook 5 cups at a time in a pressure cooker into 1 cup and 1/2 cup portions, using scoop-style cup measures. (I usually do this during the weekend.) After wrapping in the plastic wrap (cling film), I leave them until they have cooled down, then then double-bag them in zip bags and put them in the freezer. (For the environmentally conscious, the zip bags can be reused several times provided you don’t puncture them.) This amount lasts the two of us 2 to 3 weeks. To prepare a bento box, I use a 1 cup portion for myself and 2 cups or 1 1/2 cups for the bigger guy, re-heated in the microwave before stuffing into the box. Pre-portioning rice like this really helps to control portion sizes; when you’re in a hurry in the morning and scooping hot rice out of a cooker, portioning into a cup becomes a hassle.

You may choose to bring the frozen packet as-is, especially if you have a microwave at work. I prefer to re-heat the rice in the morning because I often find that the frozen packet is ice cold at lunchtime, which isn’t very pleasant.

Pre-made onigiri (rice balls), without the nori wrapping, freezes very well this way too. If you use the cling film method of making onigiri, you can use that to wrap up the onigiri as soon as you make it. (Nori will get very soggy if you freeze it on the rice ball.) Incidentally, I’ve found that freezing rice works better than refrigerating it in my workflow.