Chashu donburi チャーシュー丼

I am really running out of new things I can cook and post nowadays. My wife has really contributed a lot recently by coming up with some new dishes. Although our posts may not be as interesting or new, it is nice for us to have a record of the various dishes we ate that we can refer back to later. This is one such post. Using the same chashu pork チャーシュー I made chashu egg チャーシューエッグ, I made  this donburi 丼 or rice bowl with chashu, ajitsuke tamago 味付け卵, and spicy baked tofu 豆腐のピリ辛オーブン焼き for lunch. It was an unexpectedly pleasant and sunny day and we were lounging on our deck. This was a quick lunch to make since we did not want to spend too much time inside cooking.

I used the simmering liquid with which I made the chashu. It was concentrated; having reduced by 2/3 during the cooking of the chashu.  I let the remaining 1/3 jell by cooling it in the refrigerator and removed the congealed fat on the surface. I repurposed it by making a sauce/broth for this dish. I thinly sliced half of a medium onion and cooked it in the broth (1/4 cup) for several minutes with a lid on until cooked. I had blanched green beans. I sliced them on the bias and placed slices of chashu pork, green beans on the top of the cooked onion and cut the flame and let it warm up (not to cook further) with a lid on. Since I made baked spicy tofu that morning, I also added it to this dish. The rice was previously frozen and then microwaved to thaw. I added some of the broth to moisten the rice and the rest was poured over to my wife's bowl since she like more liquid than I do.

As I mentioned before, the egg yolk in ajistuke egg changes in consistency during the  marinating process. It becomes firmer; almost like a custard.  It also absorbs the flavor of the marinade. As far as we were concerned the egg was the star of the dish...but the pork was pretty good too, oh and there was the tofu; it was mighty fine. This was a perfect small lunch to enjoyed outside on an early summer day. I usually make some kind of miso soup but I did not this time to maximize the lounging time outside.