Seasoned fish "soboro" donburi 鯛のそぼろ丼

We had this as a lunch one weekend. This is a mini-"donduri" rice bowl ミニ丼 made with the last of the leftovers from the Sushi Taro osechi box. I made a similar dish before. The osechi box included a small "tai" red fish 小鯛姿焼き which is basically a symbolic dish for the new year. The fish does not have much of the meat and taste rather mild. So rather than just eat it, I removed the meat and made "soboro" そぼろ. I also used "jako" arima-ni" ジャコの有馬煮 in this donburi. I served this with a clear soup made of fish meat ball  (from mackerel) and tofu さばのつみれ汁.

To add colors and taste, I also added scrambled egg and green beans. The green beans were blanched, cut into small pieces and sautéed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The scrambled egg was seasoned with sugar and salt.

The "tai" soboro is visible on the left and the Jako arima-ni on the right.

The picture below shows the mackerel fishball soup. I added snow peas, shiitake mushroom, chopped scallion and Yuzu skin.

Fish soboro 魚のそぼろ
"Soboro" is a type of Japanese dish in which finely minced meat (chicken, pork or beef) or fish is braised with seasoning (soy sauce and mirin or sake) until almost dry. The soboro is usually used as a condiment for rice or used to make donburi by putting it on top of the rice.

I just removed the meat from the small red fish and tore the meat into small pieces. I braised it with soy sauce and mirin (about 2:1ratio) until also mostly dry. I tasted it towards the end of cooking and added more soy sauce. The seasoning is totally arbitrary but, as a condiment for rice, you may want rather strong soy sauce/salty flavor. To balance with "Jako" arima-ni, I also added sansho powder 山椒 at the end.

I microwaved frozen rice (it was frozen in a special Japanese container for rice. I just opened the steam hole and microwaved it). I placed the rice in the bowl, arranged fish soboro, Jako arima-ni, scrambled egg and green beans on top.

This was quite satisfying lunch and went well with the soup.