Bento decorato (Decoben)

Preparazione

1. First, let’s make the onigiri. To colour your onigiri, add the amounts of either the curry powder or spice cod roe and mix it into the cooked rice. You can use half of the rice for each to add more colour to your bento. Mix until evenly distributed and then you have a rice that is both coloured and more flavourful. Carefully dampen your onigiri moulds before scooping up some rice and pressing closed with the lid. Pop off the lid and carefully tip out your onigiri.
2. To decorate the onigiri, use a nori seaweed punch to create some fun faces with nori seaweed. If your rice is still quite warm, you may want to hold off before putting your nori faces on the onigiri, just to stop them getting chewy.
3. You can also use bento cutters to cut out cute decorations for your onigiri with ham or cheese. Alternatively you can use bento cutters to help create themes for your bento creations, by cutting shapes from fruit or lightly steamed vegetables, so all your ingredients have matching shapes. You can also use bento cutters instead of stencils to create shapes on your rice with furikake. Place your bento cutter on top of the rice and using a teaspoon, spoon furikake into the cutter until you get a nice outline of your cutter's shape.
4. Next, make any of the meat dishes you want to put into your bento. These can include Japanese fried chicken, ankake meatballs, or small sausages scored with a criss-cross pattern to add a decorative finish.
5. Cut and prepare any vegetables or fruits that you want to include in your bento.
6. Now let’s assemble the bento. First, put in your onigiri. Place or adjust any decorations on them. Then, add any meat dishes to your bento. You can use fresh salad leaves as dividers to help keep your meats and any sauces from seeping into the rice balls. Finish off with any fruits and vegetables. Now you can enjoy a cute and decorative bento for lunch.