← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 2 ready-grilled eel (unagi kabayaki) fillets, about 160 g each
• 1 tbsp sake, for warming the eel
• 3 tbsp Soy sauce
• 3 tbsp Mirin
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Sake
• 400 g hot cooked Japanese rice
• 400 ml hot dashi stock
• ½ tsp soy sauce, for the dashi
• 2 Spring onion, finely sliced
• ½ sheet Nori, cut into thin strips
• 1 tsp Wasabi paste
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• sansho pepper, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Simmer the tare ingredients in a small pan over medium heat for 3–4 min until slightly syrupy.
2. Heat the oven grill to high. Lay the eel skin side down on a foil-lined tray, sprinkle with sake and grill for 3–4 min. Brush with tare and grill for 1 minute more until bubbling. Cut into 2 cm strips.
3. Season the hot dashi with the soy sauce and keep it warm. Set out the spring onion, nori, wasabi and sesame in little dishes.
4. Put the rice in bowls, drizzle with 1 tbsp tare each and cover with the eel. Drizzle over a little more tare.
5. Eat it in thirds: the first part as it is; the second with spring onion, nori and wasabi; the last with hot dashi poured over like ochazuke. Finish with your favourite way.

Tips

• Frozen pre-grilled eel is sold in Asian supermarkets; thaw it in the fridge before warming.
• Contains fish and wheat (soy sauce).

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

RecipeTin Japan Just One Cookbook Japanese Cooking 101