Have you ever heard of a Japanese dish called Oyakodon 親子丼?

It is a quick and easy dish to prepare. One Monday evening, I left work quite late and was hungry, but wanted to eat at home to relax. On my way home I thought about some leftover noodle soup (mixture of bonito broth, soy sauce, sake & mirin) in my fridge as well as frozen chicken and rice in the freezer. I always have eggs in the fridge, so decided to spend 15 minutes in front of the kitchen counter to fix up Oyakodon.

All you need for two servings are:

– 200g chicken thigh (chopped into bite size pieces. better to have some skin for extra flavour)
– Half an onion (thinly sliced)
– 100ml fish broth (freshly made broth from bonito flakes, or you can use the broth powder and melt it into boiled water)
– Soy sauce (approx. 2 tbsp)
– Sake (approx. 1 tbsp)
– Mirin (approx. 3 tbsp) + sprinkle of sugar if preferred
– 3 eggs
– Rice and some Mitsuba leaves (trefoil) or Nori seaweed

Directions:

1) In a frying pan, fry the onion slices (with some cooking oil if you have) until it starts sweating and translucent
2) Add the chicken and cook for a few minutes until lightly brown
3) Add the sake, stir, and then the broth, soy sauce and mirin into the pan (the liquid mixture should just cover the surface of all the ingredients in the pan)
4) Bring it to boil, add sugar, cook for another minute or so
5) Taste the sauce – if it is too salty, add a bit more sake/mirin/sugar. If it’s too blunt, add a little more soy sauce and a bit more sugar. Adjust according to the consistency of your sauce
6) In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, and sprinkle the egg mixture onto the boiling ingredients in the pan (make some circles)
7) Put the lid on the pan, turn the flame off, and let it rest for a few minutes
8) In two medium serving bowls put freshly cooked (or freshly defrosted in my case) rice, gently place the oyakodon mixture along with the sauce
9) Sprinkle the chopped mitsuba leaves or nori seaweed on top of the mixture to add an extra colour and a kick to the taste

All the process above takes only 15 minutes or so.

The name “oyakodon（親子丼）” comes from oya (meaning parent, in this case “chicken”) and ko (child, and here referring “egg”), and don (bowl)…. oya-ko-don. Chicken & egg on a bowl of rice.

There you go!

many people abroad seem to think that we japanese eat sushi at home. the kind of sushi with a thin slice of fish flesh and a small rice ball underneath. in fact though, we don’t really eat those at home. it requires a high level of skill to which we usually depend on professionals.

an alternative solution for sushi-esque dish for home is this type of 丼 “don” dish with raw fish on top. “don” dish is usually a ball of rice with main course & side dish altogether on top as topping. topping can be anything, doesn’t necessarily have to be raw fish only. it can be tenpura, chicken & egg, beef stew, etc. it is a very practical & efficient dish.

anyway, today’s topping is negi-toro, fatty tuna tartar mixed with leek (negi) chops, along with a few slices of flounder sashimi, decorated on japanese “shiso” basil leaves. as its sauce, i used soy sauce, mixed with grated wasabi & a tiny bit of grated ginger.

for my portion of negi-toro don, one more ingredient was added – my favorite food called “natto”, fermented soy beans, which makes a perfect resonance with other ingredients (so i believe). after living more than 10 years in Japan, my Dutch husband still refuses to eat it, claiming it’s because of the smell. but to be honest i think the smell of cheese is much stronger and unbearable.

with tofu salad as an extra dish.

one evening, my husband brought a surprise guest from Holland, a very good friend of ours who used to live in tokyo. i was in the middle of cooking when they arrived home, and had absolutely no idea that he would bring someone along. he had tried to call, but my phone was in the other room. typical – a moment of panic, but hey, the more, the merrier!

that evening, i was simmering sword fish filet in soy base sauce (soy sauce 2: sake 0.5: mirin sauce 4 and a couple of slices of ginger), and making “hiyayakko”, fresh tofu with some herb garnish on top. ok, now that we had 1 more person at our dinner table, i quickly made vegetable stir fries with bean sprouts, carrots and cabbage, and cooked an egg roll with “shirasu”, whitebait fish inside. as is always the case, there were a bowl of rice and a cup of miso soup (with clams for the night) for each person.

luckily our friend loves japanese food (and luckily i didn’t use any meat that night, as she doesn’t eat any meat) – she seemed to have enjoyed every single dish i offered. thanks to her, our ordinary evening turned out to become a evening of japanese feast. i love a surprise like that…