Tenshindon.

Today, I'm looking at a simple, Japanese comfort food, tenshindon. "Tenshin" is the Japanese name for the Chinese city, Tianjin and "don" is short form for a bowl of rice, hence "tenshindon". If there are any Japanese manga readers out there, you'll know that tenshindon is also called tenshinhan, like the famous character in the Dragon Ball manga series that's named after this dish.  Funnily enough, although it's on the menu of every Chinese restaurants in Japan, it is in fact, a Japanese creation. Nobody is sure of the true origin but tenshin-don emerged shortly after the end of World War II and has been popular ever since. Basically, what you see is what you get, an omelette, (sticklers will claim that the omelette must contain crab meat but I prefer it without seafood - and it's cheaper that way!) a thick soy/oyster sauce gravy and hidden underneath, the rice. It's the sort of thing the Japanese eat when they want something quick, nourishing and hearty.

Click Tenshindon to see the video tutorial or just scroll to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.

Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX

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ingredients:

(makes 2 servings)

4 large eggs

3 seafood sticks

1 spring onion

1 tbsp mirin

salt & pepper

1 tbsp veg oil

200g Japanese rice (cooked weight)

for the sauce:

200ml water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsps oyster sauce

2 tsps japanese rice vinegar

10g frozen peas

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how to:

shred the seafood sticks with your fingers

finely chop the spring onion

put the egg, seafood sticks, spring onion, mirin, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix well, then set aside

to make the sauce:

add the water, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, peas and potato flourto a pan, heat to a simmer and whisk until the sauce has thickened

to make the omelette:

heat 1/2 tbsp of veg oil in the frying pan, add 1/2 of the egg mixture to the pan. when the bottom has cooked, turn over and fry until the omelette is firm

finally:

take 100g of the rice and mold in a small bowl. upturn on a plate, then cover with the omelette. ladle 1/2 the sauce and peas over the top

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