Donburi Sauce

Posted by Judy | Bebe Love Okazu on April 29, 2010 in Blog, Japanese Cuisine Favorites, Rice & Sushi | 13 comments

Donburi sauce is the foundation of my Mom’s “-don” dishes, such as oyakodon (follow link for recipe), a chicken and egg donburi; tendon, a tempura donburi; and kakiagedon (follow link for recipe), a mixed vegetable and shrimp tempura donburi; and tanindon, a beef and egg donburi.

Because of the many uses of donburi sauce, I felt this savory and sweet sauce deserved a post all to itself.  Eventually, I’ll get to each of the donburi recipes my Mom made for us, however, I’ll start with oyakodon (follow link for recipe) since I had a request from a Foodie Friend.  :)

Donburi is a type of Japanese rice dish, served in a large bowl, or “donburi”, with rice on the bottom and topped with meat cooked with egg, meat, or tempura.  There is a wide variety of donburi.

I called my Mom for her donburi sauce recipe and I was afraid I was going to get her typical response.

I was right.

She said in Japanese, “just simmer water, shoyu, mirin and some brown sugar together”.  Hmmm, OK, thanks mom… but what about the proportions?  Of course her reply was something along the lines of 1 cup water, a few tablespoons shoyu, just a little mirin and sake, and maybe 1 to 2 tablespoons brown sugar.

Using my Mom’s general guidelines I attempted to make donburi sauce last night. It turned out well.

Donburi Sauce

makes sauce for 3 – 4 donburi

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 4 1/2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet cooking sake)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cooking sake

1. In a small pot, add water and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat.  Add shoyu, mirin, and sake and let simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Add brown sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves.

I find that when I eat donburi at Japanese restaurants the sauce is typically a good balance between sweet and savory, but I prefer savory over sweet.  If you’d like to make the sauce more sweet, consider adding an extra  1/2 tablespoon brown sugar, and if you’d prefer sauce that is more savory, add an extra 1/2 tablespoon shoyu. Try experimenting to get the balance of savory/sweet that you prefer.

I let the sauce cool to room temperature and stored this in the fridge so that I could make oyakodon over the weekend.  The sauce will keep in the fridge 5 – 7 days.

Stay tuned for donburi recipes!  Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a note.  I would enjoy hearing from you.

Cheers,

Judy | Bebe Mama