Pseudo Spam Musubi

Let’s continue our “bento-stash” series with  seitan or as some folks call it “wheat meat”.   However, for today’s bento… I’m calling it “pseudo spam”!

I’ve documented my first “near disaster” attempt at making my own seitan here   but with each try I’m getting better and better at it!   That’s good news for Saba Man! 

Storage:

Anyway with regards to storing seitan as  bento-stash… I recommend cutting it into smaller chunks that you can quickly defrost in the microwave. 

That’s what I did for this bento… I defrosted,  sliced, then reheated in a shoyu sauce. 

Preparation:

There’s are  many options for using seitan in your bento box recipes for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.  Sliced thin for a sandwich, chopped up for stir-fry, ground-up for making meatballs or simmered for an adobo or nimono.   Since the seitan was already cooked before storing ( it keeps for many months in the freezer) you don’t have to fuss to make  it yummy as long as it was seasoned at the time of creation.  I  have a batch made with konbu dashi to give it  an ocean taste and another chunk  seasoned with garlic!   

Today’s Version:

For today’s recipe  I added f BaconSalt, a commercial brand of salt that tastes like bacon!  Really.  And it does this without the use of real bacon so it’s vegan safe! 

For the speudo spam  I cooked the slices in a shoyu  sauce just like I would for the real stuff.  Some people skip this step as it’s a matter of taste. 

 You’ll notice that my very rustic looking musubi are made “old school” style…that means I didn’t use a  “spam musubi mold” (yes, there is such a thing!) and carefully shaped the hot rice by hand!  “Itai!” 

Not that I’m opposed to a spam musubi mold… I just couldn’t find mine!   

Assembly:

Top Left:Slices cooking  in shoyu, mirin and a little bit of ginger.

Top Right:Shaped rice with furikake. (brown rice for extra nutrition)

Bottom:Left:Add the sliced seitan. Next time I’ll shape into a rectangle to resemble a spam slice!

Bottom Right: Wrap it up in nori. 

That’s it and super easy to do.   The other items in today’s bento box are steamed edamame, baked sweet potato, a skewer of stir-fried seitan (sesame and garlic) and fresh strawberries!

For those who  are not into seitan… you  could  keep a few cans of the real Spam in your pantry as bento-stash instead!

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