Introducing the 'Faux Unagi Donburi,' made with hanpen and tofu for just 100 yen. Nori seaweed mimics the skin, and grilling it with a sweet and savory sauce recreates the authentic flavor and texture of real eel. It's a surprisingly cost-effective recipe perfect for everyday enjoyment.
Ingredients
Main Ingredients (2 servings)
- Firm Tofu 150g
- Hanpen (fish cake) 1 sheet (110g)
- Onigiri Nori (seaweed sheets for rice balls) 3 sheets
- Potato Starch to taste
- Cooked Rice 400g
Seasonings
- Hondashi (Japanese dashi powder) 1/3 tsp
- Lard 2 tsp
- [A] Soy Sauce 2.5 tbsp
- [A] Sugar 1 tbsp
- [A] Sake 1.5 tsp
- [A] Mirin (Sweet Rice Wine) 1.5 tsp
- [A] MSG(Ajinomoto) (MSG) 4 dashes
- Sansho Pepper
Steps
- Place 150g firm tofu in a bowl and firmly squeeze out the water by hand. Pro Tip: While draining water with a microwave is possible, squeezing by hand ensures thorough removal of moisture. Remaining moisture can cause a soggy texture, so be careful.
- To the drained firm tofu, add 1 sheet (110g) hanpen, 1/3 tsp Hondashi, and 2 tsp lard. Mix well until the entire mixture becomes a smooth paste.
- If it's too much trouble to make it smooth, a whisk will mix it faster. Pro Tip: If you have a food processor or a manual chopper, using them will make it even faster and more evenly mixed.
- Cut 3 sheets of onigiri nori in half.
- Lightly dust one side of the cut nori with a thin layer of potato starch to taste.
- Spread the prepared tofu and hanpen mixture thinly onto the potato starch-dusted nori, making it the thickness of eel flesh.
- Lightly make an eel-like pattern on the surface of the mixture with the back of a knife. Pro Tip: The pattern is a trick to enhance the visual resemblance to eel. You can omit it if you prefer, but using the back of a knife will create a clearer pattern.
- In a separate dish, mix all the ingredients for the eel sauce: [A] 2.5 tbsp soy sauce, [A] 1 tbsp sugar, [A] 1.5 tsp sake, [A] 1.5 tsp Mirin (Sweet Rice Wine), and [A] 4 dashes MSG(Ajinomoto).
- Lightly oil a frying pan and heat it over medium heat.
- Place the nori-covered mixture in the frying pan, patterned side (flesh side) down, and cook.
- Once browned, flip it over and cook the nori side until it's also charred. Pro Tip: Grilling the nori adds a roasted skin aroma and a hint of the sea, enhancing the fishy essence and making it more eel-like in flavor.
- Turn off the heat of the frying pan and add all the sauce, stirring it again to prevent the ingredients from settling at the bottom.
- Simmer the sauce, spooning it over the grilled eel-like pieces to coat them. Reduce the sauce until it thickens.
- Serve 400g cooked rice in a bowl, then place the sauce-coated eel-like pieces on top.
- Drizzle plenty of the remaining sauce over the entire dish.
- Finally, sprinkle with sansho pepper and serve.
🚨 レシピの修正をリクエストする
レシピの誤りがありましたらお知らせください。ご協力をお願いします。