I keep trying how to make Japanese dishes, but I’m still rather timid and stick to the basics. Besides, I neither have time nor patience to stand in the kitchen for hours on end like many Japanese women do, so that’s another reason to keep it simple.
Donburi fits the bill perfectly, it’s nothing but a simple bowl of rice with different toppings. I have just learned how to make soboro don, a very simple dish with rice, meat, and eggs, with a cooking time of maybe 10 minutes or so (not including boiling the rice).
Actually, I thought this particular dish was called oyako don – mother and child donburi – because it is chicken meat and eggs; but oyako don is a bit more elaborate, boiling the meat in dashi. However, this also sounds nice, so I promise to try it soon.
Recipe for Soboro Donburi
(2 people)
– 2 bowls of boiled rice, preferably white
– 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons cooking sake, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon mirin.
Mix all together in a small bowl.
– 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 125 g minced chicken
Heat the oil in a pan, and fry the meat until it is just cooked. Add the soy sauce mixture from above and cook until all the liquid is gone. Set aside.
– 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons mirin, 1 teaspoon (sesame) oil
Heat the oil in a pan. Mix the eggs and the mirin, and fry it in the pan until the eggs are done. The result should look like scrambled eggs, but the smaller the pieces are, the better.
– 1 spring onion, sliced into thin strips
Put the rice into a bowl. On top of the rice, spread the chicken on one side of the bowl, the eggs on the other. Garnish with the spring onions.