soy-cured eggs and rice (tamago kake gohan / tamago no shoyu-zuke)

Today, I am sharing one of the breakfasts I eat regularly. It’s one of the fastest and most satisfying breakfasts I know. Pure comfort.

ingredients

fresh or leftover rice
raw egg yolk, or soy-cured egg (see below for recipe)
splash of soy sauce
seaweed flakes, or roasted seaweed (optional)
splash of leftover miso soup (optional)
sesame seeds or Japanese rice seasoning blend (optional)

process

Heat rice. Add rice to bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients on top of the rice and mix til fluffy. Eat.

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soy-cured egg

Soft-boil eggs. Peel. Sit them in a water/soy sauce/sugar for some number of hours. If you want them sooner, heat the marinade before curing eggs. These look beautiful when finished, like a tea egg or other pickled egg.

from rasa malaysia

soy-cured egg yolks

Rest egg yolks in soy sauce/tamari, mirin/sake, and a pinch of sugar for some number of hours. (8? 12? Does it matter? Just depends how strong of a tamari flavor you want.)

from wild greens and sardines

ham dan / salt-cured egg yolks for grating (!)

Rest whole eggs in a blend of salt and sugar. You can add dried onion or garlic for flavor. Ensure yolks are completely covered in the mixture. Chill in fridge for four days, turning often. Brush off excess seasoning and gently dunk into water. Finish curing on your oven’s lowest setting for an hour or two, or in a dehydrator. This method of preserving egg yolks allows them to be kept unrefrigerated for up to a month.

from bon appetit; more info at taste cooking

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tagged “rotation” because I eat this absolutely all the time. Haven’t tried the salt-cured yolks, but the tamari-cured yolks and tamari-cured whole eggs are delicious. A nice way to mix up your savory breakfast routine!

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miso-glazed fish

here’s the original recipe:

3 tablespoons white miso paste
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 (7 ounce) black cod fillets

simmer all but fish together for 3 min, pour over fish on baking sheet, and broil 5 min on each side.

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recipe by chef Nobu Matsuhisa

 

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UPDATE:

Got it! This is one of my favorite fish recipes. Usually I just throw fish on a hot cast-iron, squeeze a little lemon juice on there, and call it good – that’s my typical “fish recipe”.

This is my new go-to fish recipe!

heat the cast iron on medium-high with a thin layer of sesame oil and veg oil

separately, in a small saucepan or frying pan, combine over low heat
(this is more than enough for one small 4oz fish fillet, and would be enough for 2, but any more than that and you should double or triple this.)
1T water
1 t sesame oil
1 t fermented black bean paste or chili-bean paste (sub. miso if you don’t have this)
1 T sake and 1 T mirin, or 2 T of one if you only have one
1/2 t or so of the crumbly onion and chili bits from la jiao jiang (opt.)
1/2 T miso
a few dashes of liquid ginger or a little minced fresh ginger
1/2 t black sesame paste (opt., if you like it sweet, or a pinch of brown sugar)

stir often and cook down for about 3 minutes, until thickened.

throw (defrosted) fish into cast iron. let cook for a minute or so, then pour a little sauce over the top. cook til done on one side (just 2 or 3 min for a thin fillet) and flip, pouring the rest of the sauce over the top.

serve hot, with rice, or veggies, or basically anything.

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i had this with roasted squash (it’s february!) and it was great. i picture sichuan blistered green beans or a big green salad with this once it warms up out there.

nasu dengaku (japanese miso eggplant)

NASU DENGAKU

EDIT 2018: I absolutely love this. I make it regularly. Here’s basically what I do:

cut an eggplant in half
brush the top with oil
cut two large X’s into it.

roast at 325 until soft – could be 40 mins or more for giant purple eggplant, much less for the thin varieties of eggplant

in lieu of dashi, i put a half-cup of stock or broth (veg, chicken, fish, whatever) into a saucepan with some seaweed and simmer until visibly reduced. strain out the seaweed. add to the saucepan:

1 T of mirin or dry vermouth
1 T of sake
dash of sesame oil

 

simmer and reduce until it smells a boozy, like the alcohol has cooked off, maybe five mins.

pour this over the top of the eggplant.
broil for a few minutes.

can top with sliced green onions, white and/or black sesame seeds, or a drizzle of hot chili oil

it’s a great side dish to have with anything at all – but i especially love it for breakfast with a bowl of white rice and a poached egg, with some seaweed flakes and sesame seeds sprinkled on top!

(still adapted from otaku food; below you can find my original post)

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original post:

here is a recipe from otaku food!

Ingredients

• 1 small eggplant, or 2 Japanese eggplants
• 1/4 cup dashi
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon miso
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Chopped green onion and sesame seed for garnish

Quick Directions

1. Slice eggplant in half, then cut the surface in a criss cross pattern.
2. Brush the surface with oil, then bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes until the eggplant is tender.
3. Bring dashi, mirin, sake and sugar and bring to a gentle boil. Add miso and whisk to blend. Remove from heat.
4. Remove eggplant from oven, then turn the broiler on. Brush eggplant with sauce, and sprinkle with sesame.
5. Broil for a few minutes until the sauce has caramelized. Remove from oven and garnish with green onion.

check out the whole site at otaku food for great info about how it’s usually “grilled and roasted over the fire” in the summer at barbecues!

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don’t have dashi on hand? here’s a recipe i modified from fat-free vegan. sounds very sweet but very amazing!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sake (may substitute stock with dry vermouth or white wine)
• 4 tablespoons mellow white miso
• 1 tablespoon sugar or agave nectar
• 4 Japanese eggplants, stem end trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
• toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
• sliced green onions, for garnish

Instructions

1. Place the mirin and sake in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for about 2 minutes to allow some of the alcohol to cook off. Then add the miso and stir until smooth. Stir in the agave nectar, reduce the heat to very low, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, while you broil the eggplants:
2. Brush the cut sides of the eggplants with the sesame oil, if desired. Put the eggplants cut-side down on a baking sheet and place under the broiler of your oven for about 3 minutes, checking often to make sure that they do not burn. Turn them over, and cook for another 3 minutes or until the tops are a light to medium brown. Do not burn! (If your eggplant still isn’t tender all the way through, try baking it–no broiler–a few more minutes; then proceed with the recipe.)
3. When the eggplants are tender, top each one with the miso sauce and put them back under the broiler until the sauce bubbles up–this should take less than a minute, so watch them closely. Serve hot, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and green onions.+from fat-free vegan and adapted by friedsig

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update 1/31/16… here’s what ended up happening:
1 medium eggplant
1/2 c homemade chicken stock simmered for a few minutes with seaweed & strained
2 T white wine
1 t sesame oil
1/2 t. la jiao jiang (I know it isn’t Japanese, but I love this stuff!)
2 t sugar
1 T miso

cut eggplant in half, score tops and brush with olive oil, and bake at 350 til soft.

simmer all ingredients together for a few minutes except miso. turn off heat. add miso.

if your miso and stock and la are salty, you shouldn’t need to add salt at all.

pour over eggplants & broil for about 5 minutes.

I added too much stock, as you can see from the photo. A half-cup is too much for the sauce to caramelize. It’s not very photogenic, but it tastes amazing. I will try this again with actual mirin and sake. Next time, I will cut down on the sugar and the stock. Highly recommended!

modanyaki (modern okonomiyaki)

let me get this straight –

a beautiful rava-dosai-type pancake
filled with
cabbage
ginger
fermented fish powder
buckwheat-egg noodles
raw shrimp
raw scallops
raw squid
two eggs
seaweed
bacon
with batter drizzled on top and fried on both sides?

i found the recipe here and a link is posted to a video of their creation.

after watching the video of modanyaki being made, i couldn’t resist posting the recipe.

not sure what i’d put in mine – but wow, what a cool video!

to try: eel sauce

 

 

eel sauce (minus eels)