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As the weather cools, try out an eel dish seasoned with a homemade sauce that is perfect for autumn. Kanako Wakimoto, who runs a traditional Japanese restaurant in Tokyo’s Kamiyacho area, recommends okowa steamed glutinous rice cooked with eel.
From summer to autumn, eel is served as a snack that goes with alcohol at Wakimoto’s restaurant. “Eel is rich in vitamins and minerals, which helps alleviate fatigue. It’s the kind of fish you want to eat when your energy is low,” Wakimoto said.
Since the price of eel is on the rise year by year, Wakimoto cooks it with okowa, that way the dish is filling even with a small amount of eel.
We start the recipe by making the sauce. First, fully dissolve sugar in warmed mirin, then add thick tamari soy sauce and regular soy sauce. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.
Next, cook the glutinous rice after seasoning it with the sauce. “It’s like cooking the rice for unaju [grilled eel on rice]. If you prefer a lighter texture, you can replace 10%-20% of the glutinous rice with regular rice,” Wakimoto said.
For the eel, use kabayaki grilled eel sold in stores. Since it sometimes comes strongly seasoned, wash the eel lightly to remove excess seasonings and oil.
Next, place maitake and shimeji mushrooms — wild ones that are in season, if available — in a frying pan, and put the eel on top of them. There is no need to add oil. The heat will allow the moisture from the mushrooms to steam the eel.
Once everything is steamed, remove the eel and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Then, put the eel pieces into the pan and add the sauce so the mushrooms can fully absorb it. Take out the mushrooms and eel when most of the liquid is gone and mix them into the rice.
Wakimoto said you also can make a bento lunch box by wrapping the okowa in a slice of bamboo bark and folding it into a triangular shape. You can enjoy the sticky texture of okowa even after it goes cold by steaming it without removing the bark.
The mixture of soft eel with glutinous rice creates a delightful taste. The mushrooms serve as a perfect autumn ingredient for the dish, giving it a pleasant texture.
The dish is perfect for serving guests thanks to its appetizing appearance.
Kombu kelp tsukudani
You can also use the homemade sauce to make kombu kelp tsukudani, which is food simmered in soy sauce and other seasonings.
Put 100 grams of kombu kelp that has been used to make dashi into water and simmer for about 2 hours. When the kelp softens, add 40 milliliters of the sauce. Then add the desired amount of sansho peppercorns — pickled in soy sauce — and simmer until the water evaporates.
“It goes well perfectly with rice,” Wakimoto said.
Okowa cooked with eel
Ingredients (serves 2-3):
1 cup glutinous rice (1 cup = 180 milliliters)
½ large kabayaki grilled eel (130 grams)
1 pack maitake mushrooms (100 grams)
1 pack shimeji mushrooms (100 grams)
31/3 tbsp mirin
At least ½ tbsp of tamari soy sauce
Mitsuba wild parsley leaves, as desired
Directions:
1. Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in water for 1 hour.
2. Warm the mirin in a heat-resistant bowl in the microwave. Add 10 grams of sugar and mix well. Add in a little more than ½ tablespoon of soy sauce and tamari soy sauce and mix.
3. Drain the water from the rice. After placing the rice in a rice cooker, add 30 milliliters of the sauce and 120 milliliters of water. Cook on glutinous rice mode.
4. Lightly rinse the eel to remove excess seasonings and oil. Pat it dry.
5. Remove the stalks from the maitake and shimeji mushrooms and place the caps in a frying pan. Add the eel on top and heat the pan. Cover the pan completely with a sheet of aluminum foil.
6. Remove the eel from the frying pan after it is sufficiently steamed. Cut into bite-sized pieces and put the pieces back in the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of the sauce. Mix everything together gently with a pair of chopsticks to allow the ingredients to absorb the sauce.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Place the eel, maitake and shimeji mushrooms in a frying pan. Cover with aluminum foil and steam.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Place the bite-sized pieces of eel back into the frying pan.
7. When the rice is cooked, add the eel and mix gently. Sprinkle with mitsuba wild parsley leaves.
8. Place the okowa and eel on a slice of bamboo bark and fold into a triangular shape, if desired, when serving.
