Cute Garnishes With Bento Cutters

Garnishes are something that lend a professional touch to any homecooked meal. If you want to impress your guests and amaze your family with the high level of your cooking, often a few simple garnishes can make all the difference.

Most people know about the parsley sprig or the squiggle of salsa verde on the plate, but if you haven`t used bento cutters then you are missing out on a whole other world of garnishing!

What is a Bento Cutter?

Quite simply, it's a small cookie cutter, but designed for fruit and vegetables. Japanese mothers use them to create cute food cutouts with which to decorate their children's lunches or bentos. But there's no need to relegate them to Japan, bento supplies are appearing all over the world these days and you can make use of them to turn ordinary meals into something truly special.

Bento cutters come in all kinds of cute shapes, from regular ones such as circles and stars or hearts, to more complex shapes like puppies, teddy bears and cars. They are usually about an inch or less in length, though some are larger. This makes bento cutters perfect for garnishes!

How to Create Your Garnishes

There are so many ways to turn out cute garnishes. One way is to slice carrots thinly and then stack them up and stamp out stars or hearts. Toss these into a regular salad to make it an extra special one.

Heart shaped cheese and ham make lovely adornments atop sandwiches or pizza or even your lasagna. Basically, anything remotely soft can be turned into a garnish with a bento cutter. Think about breakfast plates . . . rather than adorn the plate with a plain old slice of lemon, cut a heart out of the middle. Use the lemon hearts to float in the lemonade or orange stars in fresh squeezed orange juice.

You can also stamp out a shape, such as a teddy out of the corner of a piece of bread and use it as the top piece in a sandwich, letting the filling show through. Bento cutters can be used to create truly unique pie crusts, too. Just stamp out the shapes you want from the top crust and use them to adorn the edges.

These are just a few ways to use bento cutters to create fun garnishes that will turn your food into something special. Check out the shapes available and use your imagination to spice up ordinary food.

Want to learn more awesome tips to spice up your cooking? Impress your family and friends with the tips you pick up at The Gourmet Mama

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