Uchinanchu Ochazuke
かちゅー湯ごはん·(kachu-yu gohan)
The American Uchinanchu Pantry (Foundations)
Ask a mainlander about ochazuke, and they will picture delicate green tea poured over a refined bowl of rice. Ask an Okinawan, and you get kachu-yu gohan: a rustic, zero-prep miracle born of pure pragmatism. Okinawa consumes more dried bonito than anywhere else in Japan, and here, they do not bother straining it into a fussy dashi. A massive handful of flakes goes straight into the bowl with leftover rice, an egg, and a dollop of miso. Hit it with rolling boiling water, and you have an instant, smoky umami-bomb of a broth. It is the ultimate unvarnished taste of home, ready in exactly three minutes on a tired Tuesday night.
Ingredients
- cooked short-grain white rice1 cup
- hanakatsuo1 cup
- egg1 large
- awase miso1 tsp
- umeboshi1 med
- water1 cup
Method
- 01
Place the leftover rice into a deep soup bowl.
- 02
Pile a massive handful of the hanakatsuo high on top of the rice.
Do not be shy; you want a literal mountain of bonito flakes here.
- 03
Use the back of a spoon to press a small well into the center of the bonito flakes and rice, then crack the raw egg directly into it.
- 04
Tuck the miso paste and the pitted umeboshi into the bowl right next to the egg.
- 05
Pour the rolling boiling water directly over the egg white and the bonito flakes.
The water must be at a violent boil to flash-extract the umami from the bonito and properly coddle the egg white. Pour just enough to submerge the rice.
- 06
Let the bowl sit untouched for exactly sixty seconds to allow the flavors to meld and the egg to set further.
- 07
Vigorously stir the miso and runny egg yolk into the broth with chopsticks and eat immediately while it is piping hot.
Notes
Substitute boiling jasmine tea for the water to create a traditional Sanpin-cha chazuke.
Steep a bag of Okinawan Jasmine tea (Sanpin-cha) in the boiling water before pouring. The floral bitterness cuts beautifully through the richness of the egg.
Upgrade the bowl with a homemade Spam andansu (pork miso).
Instead of plain miso, fry finely diced Spam until crispy, then stir in two tablespoons of miso and one tablespoon of brown sugar to form a thick paste. Drop a spoonful of this sweet pork miso into the bowl for a heavy-duty, intensely nostalgic meal.
From Cook Okinawan in America.