Korrigan Bento (287)

As you guys can probably see, I’ve done some work on the site! I finally got my new banner to work in both Firefox and the disgusting thing that is Internet Explorer. I added links to several pages which I will be expanding over the next month as well. My new poll has several votes for more bento photos, so I’ll be taking more pictures of the bento in process to give people a better idea of how I make them.

One of my fellow Garuda players, Tummie, saw my Fan Festival bento and requested that I do a Korrigan, which is similar to a mandragora but is all black instead. They reside in The Boyahda Tree and on Purgonurgo Isle. He also brings back “crap in my pants” memories because back in the day when Pokko and Mariachi and all my other RL friends still played Final Fantasy XI, we used to do the Steamed Sprouts BCNM battle in Balgas’ Dais all the time to try to get Erase scrolls. The Dvorovoi always used to stand in the middle of his little mandragora underlings, waiting for you… taunting you… then kicking your ass if your mages couldn’t silence him or your melees didn’t stun him in time.

Anyway, since Tummie is such a great guy on the Allakhazam forums, I said I’d make a korrigan bento. I finally did it this morning.

Unfortunately, I had no enoki mushrooms to make the strings in his leather mask. Since this is a much smaller version than my Mandy Bento, I had to do without it. I have to admit, I was pretty surprised at myself for being able to do this in only 45 minutes. Here are a few pictures I took of the making of him.

The korrigan is made out of rice, nori, inari skin (fried tofu skin in sauce), and white cheese. I started off by making the onigiri parts. I formed them by hand, wetting my hands first so that the rice wouldn’t stick to my fingers. Next I made the body, arms, and an extra in case something went wrong. It didn’t matter though since I ended up not even using the arm pieces. If you look at the picture of the Korrigan, you can see that the leather covers in arms and upper body, so I just used extra pieces of inari for the arms. The inari skin I buy already made into handy pocket shapes. I simply cut it up according to how I need.

Next, I covered the onigiri in nori, making sure I had a bowl of water to wet my fingers and the nori. To cover the head, I took a large square shape and cut slits into each corner so that I could fold the flaps down, wet the nori, and then fold the remaining flaps down. This makes covering the whole ball much easier with minimal folds. I tapped it down with water to make it smoother. To add the inari, I cut it to have a slightly rounded shape at the top and then secured it to the onigiri with toothpicks cut in half. This holds the skin down.

I then added him into the bento box I’d lined with lettuce leaves and worked on his body. I used a leftover piece of inari to make it look like he’s wearing a little leather shirt, although it’s flapping up in the picture. His arms are tucked into the sides, but you can’t really see it because it’s covered with the edamame sticks. Sadly, I did not have time to do his little pink flower at the top. For his eyes, I simply cut out two circles of cheese using one of my food cutters.

Next, I added the chicken karaage (ready cooked, frozen) after a quick nuke in the microwave to get rid of the ice on it. I use the Ajinomoto brand of chicken karaage.

I get a ton of questions about how I “dye” my potatoes so purple. I don’t!!

This is an Okinawan sweet potato and it is naturally purple once cooked. I simply wrap them in foil and cook them in a toaster oven on Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. After that, I simply cut it up and use veggie cutters. I don’t do a single thing to the coloring! I made them into hearts today. Last of all, I put in some baby carrots with the tops sliced off so that they didn’t look so stumpy.

I hope you like it Tummie!

Yesterday we took the kids to the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s New Year’s Ohana Festival. It was really fun. They had lots of different activities but my favorite as always as the Taiko drumming. I even took a video of the Okinawan group who danced. I’ve loved Taiko drums ever since I saw the Kodo group from Sado Island when they came to Hilo long, long ago. Buddy got to try goldfish scooping, which he really, really liked. I only let him do it once though, cause we had to stand in line again to try again and he was already really grouchy.

It was pretty hilarious to me that I’d done this in FFXI before in real life. The nets in game are exactly like the ones at the fair. Before I saw them in real life, I really didn’t understand why the FFXI nets were flat and broke so often. Now I know! It was a really cute activity!

I think I’ve mentioned the Lion Maki at Ninja Sushi before, but if I didn’t, it’s SOME ONO (very delicious). It’s basically a California roll topped with salmon, a spicy sauce, little potato flakes, and green onions. Just talking about it makes me want to eat one.

Oh my goodness… *drool* The flakes are crunchy, the sauce tasty but not too spicy, and I don’t need shoyu because of the sauce. It’s definitely the king of the sushi jungle in my book. Ever since I first ate one, I’ve never eaten anything else from Ninja Sushi.