The quadrapartite ratio
The ratio changes, the ratio always stays the same. Dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sake. You can read this and get the gist, but you’re also reading text, so there will be text.
You can sub tamari for a gluten free option, simmer seaweed & dried shiitake for an hour to make vegan dashi, or do both. But mirin is not optional, nor is sake.
- Mirin requires you to go to an H Mart, Mitsuwa, or equivalent to do it.
- Cooking sake exists, but really you want to get a blongus of the cheapest sake you can find and use that until it’s gone. It will be the largest bottle in your fridge door.
- As for dashi, you can make it at home, or you can buy concentrate or granules. Both will need to be refrigerated after opening.
Soy sauce does not need to be refrigerated.
If you want zero atoms of alcohol in your sauce for whatever reason, simmer the whole thing for 5 minutes, then chill again before using. The alcohol will boil off and you’ll be fine.
Change the ratios according to the aforelinked post and you’ve got the base for most Japanese street food. You can even mix this ahead of time and just use it in bulk when you’re throwing together marinades, grain bowls, or rice bowls.
What to get for the thing
Japanese street food is so easy to quickly make at home that most of you are screwing up life by avoiding it. You need the following pantry staples:
- Bonito flakes, which are dried, microplaned skipjack tuna. The way they are made is pretty wild.
- Togarashi, which is a blend of seven ingredients to throw on top of e.g. ramen. Recipe here.
- Seaweed.
- Furikake, which is a seaweed- & sesame-based seasoning for rice bowls.
- Dried shiitake.
- Rice, duh.
- Dried soba.
- Dried udon.
- Soy sauce.
- Mirin.
- Dashi.
- Sake.
And for your fridge & freezer: chicken, scallions, ginger, garlic, pork, frozen udon, pickled ginger, and eggs. You can add more, of course, but you don’t really need to, and if you’re using this text to get started it would probably be too much anyway.
How to make the thing
Your bowl will involve meat, rice, an egg, and some scallions, and done right it will end up better than most things you eat that week.
First, marinate the meat. Make your 1:1:1:1 sauce, chop up the meat, and throw it in your fridge for at least half an hour, but ideally all day.
Then, get your rice going. Any short-grained Japanese rice should do.
Next, sauté whatever you want. I like frying the white ends of scallions alongside garlic, ginger, my meat, and some oyster mushrooms.
Finally, make your egg. Fried eggs are great on here, and you can also stir your eggs into your sauté at the end, but I also like poaching. If you’re gonna poach, get a deep pot, throw a tiny glug of white vinegar in to keep the egg from sticking to any surface, get your water to a boil, crack it right above the surface to keep it from sinking too violently, and simmer it at low for 3 minutes.
Combine everything together, top with shaved green scallion tops & togarashi, and you’re good to go.
There is a more complicated recipe here, if you’re down to learn an upgrade.