Scattered sushi is a nice summer dish for the bento as the vinegared rice helps it to stay fresher for longer. But, you can eat it any time of the year! Here the rice is covered with chopped, deseeded cherry tomatoes from the vine, chopped, blanched mange tout, and toasted sesame seeds. In the top part of the bento is teriyaki chicken, salted edamame beans and soy sauce eggs (with some vinegar and sugar added to the mixture to preserve and to cut through the strong soy sauce taste).

There are some great scattered sushi recipes (including this one) in the book Sushi: Taste and Technique by Kimiko Barber.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of raw Japanese rice
• Konbu
• Splash of sake
• 4-6 tbsp sushi seasoning or rice vinegar
• Packet mange tout
• Packet cherry tomatoes
• 1 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted

METHOD

• Place the raw rice in your rice cooker as usual, and add the konbu and sake, along with the required amount of water. This should make enough rice for two bento boxes.
• When the rice is done, allow it to steam for 10 minutes, then remove and place it in a dampened, flat container. Sprinkle over the sushi vinegar, then fold and fan the rice (using a wet spatula) until no more steam rises from it. Cover with a damp towel and leave to sit until cool.
• Blanch the mange tout and slice thinly on the diagonal. Deseed the cherry tomatoes and chop them into wedges.
• Spread a mixture of the mange tout and tomatoes over the top of the rice, then sprinkle on the sesame seeds.