Donburi

[OnigiriFB]

I finally tried beni shoga because of Hiroyuki and YUM!!!! I'm in love! What do you eat it with other than gyudon? I ate it with unagi and it was yummy.

[Hiroyuki]

I finally tried beni shoga because of Hiroyuki and YUM!!!! I'm in love! What do you eat it with other than gyudon? I ate it with unagi and it was yummy.

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Because of me? Am I a merchant or something?

Beni shoga is good with:

Okonomiyaki

Takoyaki

Yakisoba

Yakiudon

Hiyashi chuka (cold Chinese noodles)

Chahan

Oyako don

etc., etc.!!

[OnigiriFB]

Hahah Hiroyuki You talked it up so much that the next time I was in the Japanese grocery store I saw it and picked it up.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

There's a running joke in my family about beni-shoga... when we go to Yoshinoya, Mom pretty much blankets her meal with it, so we call it beni shoga don, as in "Mom, would you like some meat with that rice and beni shoga?"

Now I'm feeling homesick.

[GlorifiedRice]

Hahah Hiroyuki You talked it up so much that the next time I was in the Japanese grocery store I saw it and picked it up.

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I had two jars in my fridge for a long time but over the summer my electricity went out for 3 days and I had to toss out everything in my whole fridge...

That was a sad day as I had just recently discovered all the local Big Box Asian mkts and was nicely stocked up!

[Hiroyuki]

What's your gyudon recipe, everyone?

Today, I made gyudon for supper. I no longer make it with a meticulous recipe.

Today's recipe:

600 ml dashi (600 ml water plus 1 tbsp instant dashi powder)

50 ml soy sauce

50 ml mirin

50 ml sake

(Dashi/soy sauce/mirin ratio = 12:1:1)

Grated ginger

Garlic slices

2 big onions, sliced (I like onions in gyudon )

300 g beef

Just simmer onions for 5 min., add beef, and simmer for another 5 min.

Results: YUM!

Of course, I topped it with beni shoga.

So, what's yours?

[GlorifiedRice]

Hiroyuki?

I just have bought the Ajinomoto frozen Gyodon...

I havent made it home made yet.

(The Ajinomoto Chicken Teriyaki had very little meat and was too greasy)

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki?

I just have bought the Ajinomoto frozen Gyodon...

I havent made it home made yet.

(The Ajinomoto Chicken Teriyaki had very little meat and was too greasy)

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Then, make it!

I submitted a recipe here on RecipeGullet.

[ChryZ]

I submitted a recipe here on RecipeGullet.

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Thanks for the recipe. I'm wondering though, that is a lot of liquid and very little simmering time. Some moistness/juiciness is great, but isn't your rice drowning?

Do you got any insights, directions or recipes regarding butadon / 豚丼? I've already did some research, but there are so many variations: some recipes are gyudon with pork instead of beef, other recipes are pretty much BBQ'd or pan-fried pork slices on a bed of rice. You're input would be most welcome!

[Hiroyuki]

I submitted a recipe here on RecipeGullet.

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Thanks for the recipe. I'm wondering though, that is a lot of liquid and very little simmering time. Some moistness/juiciness is great, but isn't your rice drowning?

Do you got any insights, directions or recipes regarding butadon / 豚丼? I've already did some research, but there are so many variations: some recipes are gyudon with pork instead of beef, other recipes are pretty much BBQ'd or pan-fried pork slices on a bed of rice. You're input would be most welcome!

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Sorry, I should have been more specific. 8 + 2 = 10 minutes is a minimum required amount of simmering time. I usually simmer it for around 15 minutes.

Drowning? I prefer more broth than usual. Do you know the word "tsuyudaku", which is used at Yoshinoya and other donburi restaurants? It roughly means "extra sauce". I did some googling and found that "tsuyudaku" is called "dip" in English. (I wonder if that's true.)

http://shinoken.tea-nifty.com/xxx/2004/01/post_4.html

As for buta/ton don:

Quite frankly, I have never made it before. I promise to post a recipe when I have made it for the first time.

[ChryZ]

Sorry, I should have been more specific.  8 + 2 = 10 minutes is a minimum required amount of simmering time.  I usually simmer it for around 15 minutes.

Drowning?  I prefer more broth than usual.  Do you know the word "tsuyudaku", which is used at Yoshinoya and other donburi restaurants?  It roughly means "extra sauce".  I did some googling and found that "tsuyudaku" is called "dip" in English.  (I wonder if that's true.)

http://shinoken.tea-nifty.com/xxx/2004/01/post_4.html

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Interesting!

I've checked the term "tsuyudaku" at WWWJDIC:

つゆだく (n) soupy; containing more broth or sauce than usual (of gyudon, etc.)

ねぎだく; ネギだく (n) (see つゆだく) containing more onions or leeks than usual (of gyudon, etc.)

The Japanese wikipedia is also mentioning the term at their entry for gyudon.

So soupy/brothy is actually quite valid. Good to know.

[Hiroyuki]

Do you got any insights, directions or recipes regarding butadon / 豚丼? I've already did some research, but there are so many variations: some recipes are gyudon with pork instead of beef, other recipes are pretty much BBQ'd or pan-fried pork slices on a bed of rice. You're input would be most welcome!

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I googled butadon (豚丼 to be exact) today, and I immediately realized that there were actually two types:

A specialty of Hokkaido, which is said to have originated in Obihiro, Tokachi district.

A dish that was put on the menu of Yoshinoya after the BSE problem in Japan.

I checked some recipes for tare (sauce) for Hokkaido butadon.

One example:

150 ml mirin

150 ml sake

Put them in a pot and boil until alcohol is fully evaporated.

Add

150 ml soy sauce and 50 g sugar. Boil for another few minutes.

This results in a very amakara sauce, probably too sweet for my taste. (I would leave out all sugar.)

I think that Hokkaido butadon is essentially the same as "yakiniku (grilled meat" don". I have never tasted Hokkaido butadon, but it's kind of off-putting to me because it consists almost entirely of rice and meat, with little or no vegetables.

I think I much prefer Yoshinoya-style butadon because it contains onions. I think I'll make butadon based on my gyudon recipe and report back.

Butadon-like dishes are called differently by different restaurant chains:

Yoshinoya: Butadon 豚丼

Matsuya: Buta meshi 豚めし

Sukiya: Ton don 豚丼

Naka u: Buta donburi 豚どんぶり

from here

[Hiroyuki]

I made butadon, simply by substitituting pork for beef in my gyudon recipe. It wasn't bad at all, but I prefer gyudon. My wife said it was good, better than gyudon, probably because she likes sukini, a local dish here, which is quite similar to sukiyaki, but is made with pork not beef.

[helenjp]

off-putting to me because it consists almost entirely of rice and meat, with little or no vegetables

Vegetables What an idea! Contrary to all the TV ads featuring grinning farmers with armloads of cherished veg, a lot of Hokkaido people are not keen on their greens - at least, not unless they're pickled and drowned in soy sauce as well. Tohoku people seem to have the same tendency?

[ChryZ]

Hiroyuki, I tried your gyudon recipe. It was delcious! Many thanks!

Extra sauce is indeed great!

[Hiroyuki]

Thank you, Christian. Yours really looks like gyu-don. Mine looks more like onion-don . I like cooked onions because they are so sweet and tasty.

[GlorifiedRice]

Thank you, Christian.  Yours really looks like gyu-don.  Mine looks more like onion-don .  I like cooked onions because they are so sweet and tasty.

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Do you get Vidalias, WallaWalla, Oso Sweets or Maui Sweets (onions) in Japan?

[torakris]

Thank you, Christian.  Yours really looks like gyu-don.  Mine looks more like onion-don .  I like cooked onions because they are so sweet and tasty.

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Do you get Vidalias, WallaWalla, Oso Sweets or Maui Sweets (onions) in Japan?

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I haven't yet found them if they are here....

[Hiroyuki]

Thank you, Christian.  Yours really looks like gyu-don.  Mine looks more like onion-don .  I like cooked onions because they are so sweet and tasty.

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Do you get Vidalias, WallaWalla, Oso Sweets or Maui Sweets (onions) in Japan?

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I haven't yet found them if they are here....

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GlorifiedRice and/or torakris, how do you use these varieties? Are they sweet? How are they different from the onions available in Japan?

[ChryZ]

Mine looks more like onion-don

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Now that you mentioned it!

Oh and it's actually great that you brought it up, because it reminded me of a question I wanted to ask.

What kind of ratio did you use for ginger:garlic?

Mine was pretty much 1:1 for ginger:garlic and a bit more beef than onions.

[Hiroyuki]

Mine looks more like onion-don

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Now that you mentioned it!

Oh and it's actually great that you brought it up, because it reminded me of a question I wanted to ask.

What kind of ratio did you use for ginger:garlic?

Mine was pretty much 1:1 for ginger:garlic and a bit more beef than onions.

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I usually use only one knob of ginger. I do like ginger and I could use two or more, but then my daughter couldn't eat the gyudon. (That actually happened when I used a large amount of ginger to make "butaniku no shoga yaki" (pork fried with ginger)).

I rarely buy fresh garlic because I usually let it go stale before I can use it up. (I don't like garlic very much, and Japanese cuisine doesn't make much use of it anyway.) I use dried garlic slices instead. For gyudon, I usually use 6-8 slices.

For the beef-to-onion ratio, I use about 300-500 g of beef with 2 big onions (8-10 cm in diameter).

I didn't specify the amounts of garlic and ginger to use in that recipe of mine, because I thought that everyone had their own preferences.

[torakris]

GlorifiedRice and/or torakris, how do you use these varieties?  Are they sweet?  How are they different from the onions available in Japan?

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They are very sweet and are often used raw in dishes, the really good ones you can even eat like an apple....

[GlorifiedRice]

GlorifiedRice and/or torakris, how do you use these varieties?  Are they sweet?  How are they different from the onions available in Japan?

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They are very sweet and are often used raw in dishes, the really good ones you can even eat like an apple....

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Exactly. They also dont give you heartburn or make you cry when you cut them.

The Vidalia Catalog used to sell a Chocolate Cake that had 1/3 cup of pureed Vidalia Onions in it to replace some of the fat and keep it moist. However it was frosted with a lard based frosting..

And yes it was really good.

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks, torakris and GlorifiedRice.

I found one farm in Japan that grows WallaWalla, but the site does not provide any price information.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I tried Hiroyuki's gyudon recipe tonight, with some alterations because I didn't have any mirin and didn't want to break open the mindo sized bottle of sake that has been residing in my liquor cabinet since time began.

It was a hit with my husband, my 7 year old son, and my 1 year old. My one year old was clammoring for the onions and meat more than the rice or benishoga.