Chazuke

Hot tea or dashi poured over cold rice at the table, assembled and never cooked.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

4 portions cooked rice
600 ml sencha or dashi
200 g salted grilled salmon, flaked
2 tablespoons umeboshi, torn
2 sheets nori, shredded
2 tablespoons arare rice crackers
2 teaspoons wasabi
2 spring onions, sliced
1 teaspoon light soy sauce

Method

POURED OVER AT THE TABLE AND NEVER COOKED. The zosui on this site is rice SIMMERED in broth until it thickens; this is assembly -- cold or room-temperature rice in a bowl with things on it, and hot liquid poured over at the moment of eating. Simmered, it becomes the other dish.
RICE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, not hot. Hot rice turns to porridge the moment liquid hits it, and this should stay as separate grains under the broth.
Leftover rice is ideal, which is largely what the dish is for.
TEA OR DASHI, AND THEY ARE DIFFERENT DISHES. Sencha gives something astringent and clean; dashi gives something savoury and rounder. Pick one deliberately.
If tea, brew it as on the sencha page -- 75C, 60 seconds -- and then reheat to just below a simmer for pouring. Brewed with boiling water it is bitter and that bitterness is all you taste.
Season the liquid very lightly with the soy and no more. It is diluting salted fish and umeboshi, both of which are strong.
Rice in the bowl, flaked salmon and umeboshi on top, then nori, arare and spring onion.
ARARE LAST AND KEPT DRY until the liquid goes in -- they are there to be briefly crisp and then to soften, and added early they are simply soggy.
A small dab of wasabi on the side of the rice, not stirred in.
Pour the hot liquid in at the table, around the edge rather than over the toppings, and eat at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes