Different but Very Tasty!

Very "Unorthodox" Unagi Donburi It was a Saturday morning cooking show that introduced this unique unagi donburi (broiled eel on a bowl of rice). Well, there IS such a thing as “una-tama don.” When you order a unagi donburi, usually what you see on top of rice is a few slices of broiled eel. But when it comes to una(eel)-tama(egg) don, the eel slices are briefly cooked in a small amount of sauce, and beaten eggs are added at the end to be cooked until half-done. This donburi is a variation of “una-tama don” with more ingredients added. In the TV cooking show, it was introduced as a great idea to make donburi dishes enough for several people when you couldn’t buy enough unagi for everyone. Yes, onions, komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach?) and tofu -- things that are not usually used for unagi donburi -- are used for the topping for this unique donburi dish. Believe me. The crispy komatsuna was such a great accent in this dish. Another good idea was pre-mixing sansho pepper with cooked rice instead of sprinkling it on unagi like people usually do. It made the sansho flavor milder and longer-lasting (because it will remain with the rice even after the topping is gone). They also introduced an interesting idea for making Japanese traditional pickles in a quicker and easier way. It is adding leftover beer and a little amount of sugar after rubbing vegetables with salt! They said it makes the pickles taste like real nukazuke, vegetables pickled in rice bran mixture. Well, it did not taste exactly like nukazuke, I would say. But they tasted pretty good after I added a tiny piece of konbu (kelp) and marinated them overnight. --------- I’m going to spend a couple of days with my parents, my younger sister and her kids at my parents’ house. See you guys when I come back on the 16th. :) Categories: Japanese