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05/21/08 |
                
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Butaniku to Miso no Ochazuke Yields 4 modest servings 豚肉とみそのお茶漬け
1 1/2 lb. pork chops, cut into 1/2" slices 1 c. calrose rice 1/2 c. mirin 3 c. water 1 1/2 T. shiro miso 1/2 pkg. hon-dashi (about 1 t.) 1/2 ea. nori, torn into about 1" pieces 1 ea. hoji-cha teabag 1 t. shichimi togarashi (more or less to taste) canola oil KS&P
Heat a little bit of oil in a 10" skillet over medium high heat. Add rice and cook until rice turns opaque and smells kind of toasty. Deglaze with mirin, then add 2 c. water, miso, dashi, nori, hoji-cha and shichimi; make sure teabag is submerged in liquid, kind of like a bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally. As rice is simmering, turn on your broiler, or you can use your grill if you're feeling extra motivated. Lay out pork on a sheet pan and season with salt & pepper. With your broiler rack as close to the element as possible (or over a full-blast grill, in which case you can skip the sheet pan thing), cook pork slices until they are nice and crisp on one side. When you're done, keep 'em warm, but don't let them cook too much more or you will have jerky. After about 10 minutes, add remaining cup of water. Cook rice until the grains are damp-tender--somewhere south of al dente, but not mushy. There will/should be some liquid remaining in the pan. (If you see yourself running out, add a bit more water.) Using a rice paddle, scoop the rice mixture into a bowl, making a nice little mound. Arrange the pork slices around the sides, toasty side up. If you have such in your house, garnish with some katsuobushi flakes and grated ginger or, barring that, some green onions sliced on the bias or maybe some 2" lengths of chives. DIG. IN. I would heartily suggest some chilled sake and tsukemono to accompany.
Note from GG: I'm messing with a lot of stuff here. This is kind of risotto, kind of ochazuke, kind of congee, kind of pilaf. It's all that and none of that, but it's really, really good. I have to give partial credit to Burke for this recipe, and I will tell you the story as to why. One day at work one of the supervisors had made some miso soup and he asked me, "Do the Japanese eat rice in miso soup?" I said no, that miso is served near the middle of dinner, whereas rice is always at the end. He thought that was interesting, and then proceeded to dump a heaping scoop of rice in his miso soup, stirred it around and even added some avocado for the hell of it. While I didn't think much of that at the time, the following day found me off from work and hungry. I initially planned on making a pilaf, but I didn't have much in the way of ingredients, but I *did* have the stuff for miso soup, so here's what GG came up with. Interestingly enough, Chef Stephan and I ALWAYS used calrose (i.e. Niko Niko) rice for risottos at Ciao. It holds up almost as well as arborio rice, but it's a lot cheaper. Yes, you're welcome. You may use the pork slices to scoop up the rice (use your hashi, you heathen!), just tear into it with a spoon, or eat it daintily piece-by-piece. It's pretty versatile like that. As with my tea marinade, the tea doesn't come out too much in the flavour, but I don't want to add another bag for fear of possibly making it bitter. By the way, hoji-cha is roasted green tea, and tsukemono are Japanese pickles.
This site was last updated 05/21/08 |
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