Rice Gratin Bento

I made this bento a while back but I've been saving it up for the time I'm ready for writing its recipe. Now it's time for it!! Gratin is heart/body-warming. It may be surprising but I think a gratin bento is perfect for lunch on a cold day if you can use a microwave at lunchtime. (It's now almost spring or summer here in the northern hemisphere though haha). Yeah it's okay, hot foods and roomheating are still needed here. Well my white sauce does not contain butter or cream so this gratin is light and tastes relatively good without reheating. So I put a mini gratin in my bento every now and then. Although general white sauce recipes need flour and a lot of butter, I use rice flour instead. Since rice flour is gluten-free, it's hard to get lumps. Besides another advantage is that it has no *flour taste* no matter if you don't stir-fry it with butter. So you could make a white sauce a lot more easily and quickly using it.


shrimp/ chicken gratin


potato/cheese gratin


potato/cheese gratin

babykins' quick gratin recipe
White sauce ingredients
5 cups (or 4 and 1/4 American cups) milk --- (about 1000ml)
6 level tablespoons rice flour
1 level teaspoon salt
Note: If you like your white sauce more light you can replace a part of milk with chicken soup stock. If you don't have rice flour on hand you can use plain flour instead. In that case, you need to mix well and dissolve flour completely before heating not to make lumps.

Other ingredients (whatever you like). For example...
Braised (or stir fried) chicken & onion, shrimp & onion, mushroom & bacon, and so on
Boiled potato, egg, pasta, spinach, and so on



1) Put all the white sauce ingredients in a heavy saucepan and mix well.
2) Cook it over medium heat stirring constantly until thick and smooth. Be careful not to make it burn in the pan.
3) Prepare other ingredients. Then mix it into the white sauce.
4) Add extra seasonings according to your taste. (Such as salt, pepper, cheese).
5) Pour it in a casserole or heat-resistant container. Sprinkle Parmesan or buttered panko (breadcrumbs) on top if you want.
6) Bake it in the oven until the surface is golden brown. Done!!

This time I made a rice gratin. I stir-fried chopped onion, cut chicken and mushrooms then mixed it into hot rice with a little salt and ketchup together. Then poured some white sauce over the mixed rice and put a little of sliced cheese on the top and baked. Why not try an effortless but nummy yummy gratin??