Here's a recipe from my good friend, Yumiko Nikaido who resides in Tokyo. This is her sanshokudon which in Japanese (literally means Three Colour Donburi. This one really takes me back to my childhood (a long time ago!) when it was a super popular home recipe. I think the popularity of this dish coincided with processed meats becoming more available in Japan - this dish features ham, minced beef and egg. In the days when the Japanese were still in thrall to those big, blond Americans they were seeing on their new TVs and occasionally on the streets of the big cities, this dish provided a big hit of body building protein on top of a bed of rice for those who dreamt of being six feet tall. As I said, this was a long time ago when a lot of people thought the Japanese diet was destined for the scrapheap - how wrong they were! The founder of MacDonalds in Japan even promised (wait for this one) that people who ate his hamburgers would find their hair turning blond!
Anyway, back to the Three Colours Donburi. The reason I loved it was the taste, especially the minced beef which is cooked in a sweet soy sauce. I know times change, but this dish has stood the test of time and is still a favourite with Japanese both young and old despite the fact that people long ago gave up on the idea of being blond and six feet tall!
If you want to try this recipe out, the written recipe is just below. For the youtube tutorial click Three Colours Donburi or scroll to the bottom of the page.
Thanks again for the recipe, Yumiko-chan!
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX
Three Colour Donburi
ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)
200g minced beef
3 eggs
3 slices cooked ham
2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp japanese cooking sake
3 tbsp mirin
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp grated ginger
3 mangetout for garnishing
400g cooked Japanese rice
(if you don't have a rice cooker - you can still cook Japanese rice in a saucepan over a hob. see my "how to" recipe in the Sushi and Sashimi section of the site.)
how to:
blanch the mangetoute in boiling water for 30 seconds, then finely slice
put the minced beef, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of cooking sake, 2 tbsp of mirin, 2 tbsp of sugar & ginger in a small pan and mix together well
stir over a medium heat, making sure you break up any lumps of mince using a spatula
simmer until the mince is cooked and any liquid has evaporated, then set aside
put the eggs, 2 tbsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of mirin & 1/2 tsp of soy sauce in a pan and stir over a medium heat (like making scramble eggs) and mix well, using a spatula break the egg into small pieces (like the minced beef)
halve & slice the ham into shreds
to assemble the dish, lay 1/2 the rice in each bowl, then add 1/2 of minced meat, 1/2 of egg, and 1/2 of ham on the rice in a 3 colour pattern
your Three Colour Donburi is now ready to serve. just garnish with the chopped mangetoute
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