home cooking: uni-ikura donburi (on soba-gohan)

home cooking: uni-ikura donburi on soba-gohan (うにいくら丼、そばごはん編)

This is a rendition of the ever popular Uni-Ikura Donburi, here we serve it on soba-gohan (rice with soba kernels).

Uni is the roe of sea urchin and ikura the roe of salmon. Combined and served on rice, this delectable combination makes Uni-Ikura Donburi. Our rendition here uses soba-gohan and makes this donburi dish decidedly nouveau. Soba is buckwheat, the same that is used to make soba noodles.

Main Ingredients: uni, ikura, rice (1 1/2 cups short grain white rice, 10 – 20% *soba kernels), *dried kombu or sake
(*optional)

Rice: If you can obtain soba kernels try making soba-gohan. Cook as usual for white rice. Add dried kombu or sake for additional flavor. (White rice is fine too, try to use Japanese-style short grain rice, ‘California rice’ is just fine.)

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl with generous portions of uni and ikura. A splash of high quality shoyu on the uni is recommended. Ikuradon is often served with chopped shiso leaves, add shiso leaves if you like.

The Ingredients

ikura, uni, rice, soba and sake

Tsukemono

nukazuke – before

Tsukemono

nukazuke – after (washed and cut)

Nakazuke is tsukemono pickled in rice bran and salt. We had scarlet turnip nukazuke and it was amazing. Nukazuke tsukemono retains the crispness of fresh vegetables and has the pungent qualities of something fermented.

Buri-daikon with Yuzu

buri (yellowtail) simmered with daikon

Soba Gohan

buckwheat (soba) kernels cooked with short grain white rice

Uni-ikura Donburi

Uni-ikura Donburi

Uni-ikura Donburi with Buri-daikon and Nukazuke Tsukemono

With champagne, this makes quite a New Year’s breakfast!