My recent obsession with Kokoro Japanese Restaurant finally bled over into my own kitchen. I wanted more Japanese food, but I wanted it to be as quick and simple as it was delicious. Paging through my copy of Japanese Soul Cooking, I saw a gorgeous picture of a bowl of vibrant red tuna slices brushed with a wasabi soy sauce and served over rice – a simple Japanese dish called tekka-don. It looked amazing, and I decided we would have it as soon as possible.
The market, however, didn’t quite cooperate. At the Whole Foods fish counter, I did find some okay-looking tuna… but not great-looking tuna. (Frankly, I hardly ever find great-looking tuna, shiny and red without gapping.) Moreover, the tuna was twice as expensive as the lovely, tight-fleshed salmon further down the case.
The answer was obvious, especially since my favorite sushi fish is salmon (sake in Japanese, as confusing as that seems when you’re drinking sake on the side). Sake-don it would be.
Choosing the fish was probably the hardest part of the preparation. And you should choose yours carefully: Like runny eggs or rare burgers, raw fish has potential health risks. Make sure the salmon looks beautifully fresh, and look for sushi-grade or previously frozen fish. There is a possibility for raw fish to contain parasites, which are killed by freezing. You won’t be killing them by cooking – there’s hardly any of that involved here, especially if you have a rice cooker. (If you don’t, simple instructions for cooking Japanese rice are included in the recipe notes.) A little slicing, brushing, and attractive piling, and it was done. And what a huge payoff!
Really, this is sushi for the lazy. The rich salmon looked beautiful lounging on its bed of rice and nori seaweed, glistening with wasabi-laced soy sauce. And it tasted wonderful, slightly warmed by the rice, almost melting in our mouths. So simple, so divine. The dish does benefit from something fresh and green alongside. Try a simple salad topped with Japanese carrot-ginger dressing, or Smitten Kitchen’s terrific avocado-cucumber salad (which is what we had). I think we’ll be eating this a lot this summer!
Salmon Rice Bowl with Soy-Wasabi Sauce (Sake-Don)
Notes
The total cooking time reflects the time needed to cook the rice.
To prepare about 3 cooked cups Japanese-style rice on the stove, measure 1.5 cups Botan, Calrose, or other good short-grain rice. Rinse well and drain. Move to a pot with a well-fitting lid, and add 3 cups of water and a large pinch of salt. (For softer rice, add 2 more tablespoons of water.) Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Stir once, cover, and turn heat quite low. You want the rice to simmer gently, not boil.
Cook for 10 minutes, until the rice is almost done and the water is absorbed. You can lift the lid briefly to check. If the rice is still quite firm, don't worry. Turn off the heat, put the lid back on, and set aside for at least 10 minutes. After this resting time, the rice should be perfect. It will stay warm in its covered pot for another 15 minutes or so.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine) or 1/2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon wasabi, to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon dashi powder or granules, optional
- 8 ounces very fresh raw salmon
- 1 sheet nori seaweed
- 3 cups cooked short-grain rice, warm
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Stir together the soy sauce, mirin or sugar, and wasabi; stir until the wasabi (and optional sugar) is fully dissolved. If using dashi, dissolve in 1 teaspoon warm water and stir in.
- Cut the salmon into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Brush with sauce and let rest while you assemble the bowls.
- If you want to toast the nori, briefly and carefully wave it over the flame of a gas stove to release its aroma and make it extra crisp. You'll see it shrivel a little and darken slightly. Cut into strips with scissors.
- Scoop a cup and a half of rice into each of two bowls and top with the nori strips. Arrange the salmon slices on top, then mound the scallions on top. Serve right away, with the extra wasabi soy sauce on the side for dipping.
Hi Joyce!
I’m afraid your link didn’t work for me, but I am aware of the potential for tapeworms and anisakis worms in raw fish. My comment about impaired immunity was less about bacteria than about immune responses to the anisakis worms, which look to me like the most threatening part of such an infection. My reading suggests that, though they are often not frozen, farm-raised salmon are less likely to have parasites than wild salmon, because parasites aren’t introduced to them by the pelletized food they eat. In any case, I do appreciate you bringing the issue up because it encouraged me to do some more reading and update my knowledge.
Thanks for your compliment about the sake-don looking beautiful! I was quite pleased with how the photos came out. :)
Best,
Kristin
Hi, Kristin,
Thank you for your reply. I should clarify the problem(s). In addition to the problem of bacterial contamination, which is why people with impaired immunity are advised to not eat raw fish, there are parasites in fresh water fish (salmon spends part of it’s life in fresh water) that can affect even people with fully intact immune systems. The tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium, lives in your intestine, “outside” of your immune system.
Commercially frozen fish are fine, but Atlantic farmed salmon has not been frozen, nor are the wild salmon now coming into season. Here is another link: http://seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafood_safety/patients/parasites.php.
PS: Although I’m not an infectious disease specialist, I am a retired physician and a lover of Japanese cuisine.
Hi Joyce!
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. You are right, I should have said something about the health risks of eating raw fish, even sushi-grade fish. Personally, after doing some research, I have decided that the risks of eating raw fish are similar to the risks of eating undercooked eggs and medium-rare burgers – I acknowledge that they’re there, and I wouldn’t do it if my immune system was compromised in any way, but the deliciousness is worth the small risk. I definitely respect folks who choose otherwise!
I do prefer to buy previously frozen fish, figuring that will give me some protection, and in New Mexico that’s most of what is available anyway.
I will edit something in on this subject. Thanks again, for reading and for caring enough to comment!
-Kristin
Hi, Kristin,
When I took Japanese tea ceremony lessons, which included preparing traditional dishes, my Tea instructor taught that salmon should be frozen for several days to kill potential parasites. The FDA recommends a minimum of 7 days of freezing. (See this article by Marc Matsumoto on problems of cross-contamination of “Sushi-grade fish”…http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/myth-sushi-grade/). When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was easy to find fish markets specializing in fish for sashimi, but I now live in Nevada, I don’t feel comfortable using fish from the local markets to eat raw. However, your sake-don looked beautiful and made me very homesick! Joyce