Oyakodon

(serves 1)

Oyakodon (親子丼), means “parent-and-child rice bowl”. Weird.

For the dashi stock: you can make your own or buy some.

For the mitsuba parsley: this seems quite difficult to get hold of in the UK. You can buy some seeds and grow or your own, or try out your local Asian shop. If you can’t get hold of any then you could use the following substitutes:

• Watercress (when substituting watercress for Japanese parsley, use about half as much)
• Celery leaves
• Angelica
• A blend of watercress and celery leaves or angelica

Ingredients

• 50ml dashi stock
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tbsp sake
• ½ tbsp brown sugar
• ½ tbsp mirin
• ½ small onion, sliced
• 75g boneless chicken thigh, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 eggs
• 10 stems of mitsuba parsley
• 200g fresh steamed rice

Method

1. Break the eggs into a bowl and lightly beat them. You don’t want the yolk and egg white to be fully mixed together, you should be able to differentiate between the two.
2. Put a small frying pan or wok om medium-high heat. Dissolve the dashi stock in water. Add this to a pan along with the sake, mirin, sugar and soy sauce. Then add the onion. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the chicken to the pan. Cover and cook until the chicken is almost cooked, then turn over the chicken pieces to cook the other side.
4. Once chicken is fully cooked, pour two thirds of the beaten eggs into the pan, distributing them evenly. Cover and cook for about 10 seconds.
5. Uncover and add the remaining egg. Sprinkle over the mitsuba parsley, turn off the heat, cover the and and allow to sit for about 15 seconds.
6. Place the hot rice into a bowl and sit the egg and chicken mixture on top. Serve immediately.