Sometimes, I don’t want to cook but I am hungry. This is a great dish when I feel that way—my favorite lunch meal and one of the easiest rice dishes, Ochazuke!
Ochazuke is the warm rice with assorted toppings, usually very salty and savory like grilled or marinated fish and pickle, pouring hot dashi soup or hot tea.
I want to introduce one of my ochazuke repertoire, with a canned sardine. The rich-tasting and mild sweetness from sardines and miso are great for this weather and it can warm you up with a hot dashi soup!
I like buying the Spanish sardine brand “Matiz Gallego Sardines in Olive Oil”.
Mix miso and mirin well. Brush the mixture over sardines. Position the sardine about 6 inches from the heat source and broil for about 3 minutes.
Make the Dashi soup. In a pot, heat 2 cups of water and kombu over high heat. Remove and discard kombu before it comes to boil. Add bonito flakes, soy sauce, mirin, and salt and simmer for 2 minutes. Strain dashi and discard the bonito flakes. Keep it hot or warm up right before serving. If you don’t have kombu and bonito flakes, substitute for 1 teaspoon of instant dashi powder.
I put it in a tea pot for easy pouring.
Sautee the leek with sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin until it gets soft.
For the rice, I usually cook big batch, and keep it frozen. For the Japanese rice, it is recommended to be frozen rather than refrigerating whenever you have extra. Refrigerating makes Japanese rice a bit drier, so I feel freezing is better since the good point of Japanese rice is soft and fluffy texture. You can take 1 portion of cooked rice and wrap it with a plastic wrap, then freeze it. You can microwave for a few minutes. The BEST rice is always freshly cooked, but I don’t bother myself to cook rice for just 1 portion. That way, I can make my lunch using frozen rice really quick!
Now you can put rice in a bowl with toppings. Place with sautéed leek and miso broiled sardines. Place assorted toppings such as umeboshi (pickled Japanese plum), shredded shiso leaves, chopped green onion, wasabi paste, sesame seed, and nori seaweed!
Serve the rice bowl with hot dashi soup. Pour over the rice and eat with your toppings.
- ***Miso Broiled Sardine
- 1 ea canned sardine in oil
- ½ tablespoon miso
- ½ tablespoon mirin
- ***Dashi Soup
- 1 ea dried kombu, cut into 1 inch square
- ½ cup bonito flakes
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon mirin
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ***Seasoned leek
- 2 inches leek, cut half in lengthwise and slice into thin strips
- ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon mirin
- ***Toppings
- 1-1.5 cups cooked Japanese rice
- 1 ea umeboshi
- 1 ea shiso leaf, finely shredded
- ¼ ea green onion, chopped
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
- ½ teaspoon, wasabi paste (if you like spicy kick)
- 1/8 sheets nori seaweed, tear with hand (if you have)
- Mix miso and mirin well. Brush the mixture over sardines. Position the sardine about 6 inches from the heat source and broil for about 3 minutes.
- Make the Dashi soup. In a pot, heat 2 cups of water and kombu over high heat. Remove and discard kombu before it comes to boil. Add bonito flakes, soy sauce, mirin, and salt and simmer for 2 minutes. Strain dashi and discard the bonito flakes. Keep it hot or warm up right before serving.
- Sautee the leek. In a pan, put leek, sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin. Sautee until it gets soft.
- Put the warm rice in a bowl topped with sautéed leek and miso broiled sardines. Place assorted toppings such as umeboshi, shiso leaves, chopped green onion, wasabi paste, sesame seeds.
- Serve the rice bowl with hot dashi soup. Pour over the rice and eat with your toppings.
Hi Misa,
I made this last weekend, even though I didn’t have any umeboshi or shiso. It was so yummy!!! Thank you!
I’m glad you like it! Thank you so much for trying my recipe!
Big fan of sardines, so this recipe was perfect for my purposes. Thanks for posting this! This is a good dish if I need something healthy and fresh in a pinch.