Red Snapper, Fudge, Tea Eggs

Wednesday Bento

I had kind of a bad day, so I'll just go straight to the recipes.

Poached Red Snapper

1 shallot, minced

1 tablespoon of butter

3 cups of Pinot Grigio or other white wine

2 small fillets of red snapper or other fish

salt to taste

Melt butter in large, shallow sauce pan.  Sautee shallots until clear.  Stir in pinot grigio.  Add salt and bring to a simmer.  Let it do its thing for a few minutes before adding the fish in.  Meanwhile, put the kettle on.  When the wine has started to lose some of its alcoholic flavor, add in the fish and pour boiling water into the pan until the fish is completely submerged.  Cover the pan and let the fish cook in the water/wine mixture for about 6-7 minutes, until fish is flaky but not tough.  When fish is fully cooked, remove from pan.  Discard poaching liquid and add a tbs of olive oil to pan.  Put the fish back in the pan over med-high heat for a minute or two to let the skins crisp up.  Let cool before putting it in your bento.

Tea Eggs

2-4 hardboiled eggs

1/4 c soy sauce

1 tbs of mirin

1 tsp of ponzu

4 earl grey tea bags

2-3 pieces of whole star anise, more if you're using broken pieces

1 cinnamon stick

black pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

combine all ingredients in a heat-proof (i use glass) tupperware, and then fill all the way up with boiling water, ensuring that eggs are completely submerged.  Put the lid on the tupperware and give it a bit of a shake to ensure ingredients are all mixed up with the water and not settled on the bottom.  Let cool on counter then move to refrigerator.  Let steep for at least a couple hours.  The longer you let them steep, the stronger the flavor will be.

Probably Vegan Fudge

10 oz bag of dark chocolate chunks

14 fl oz can of coconut cream

First check the ingredients of the dark chocolate chunks to make sure they don't contain dairy, if you are particular about that kind of thing.  If you're not then whatever just dump it in a bowl.  Pour in the coconut cream and give it a bit of a stir, then pop the bowl in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes.  Take the bowl out and give it a really good stir with a whisk until it appears to be a thick, homogeneous mixture.  Grease up an 8x8 baking pan and pour in the chocolate/coconut mixture.  Cover with plastic and place in the freezer for like an hour, then demote to the refrigerator until fully set and you're ready to serve.  Keep cold.

extra touches:

i put the fish on a bed of sticky rice (short grain white rice mixed up with some seasoned rice vinegar) and included some little containers of soy sauce. i also sprinkled some honey-roasted almonds over the fudge and added some cherry tomatoes in the section with the tea eggs to act as an edible filler.