Recipe for Crab Fried Rice by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat

In this dish, fried rice is cooked very simply, with just eggs and scallions. ‘The mojo here comes in the form of the ankake, which is a sauce thick­ened with potato starch, in this case, one made with ginger-infused crabmeat. Glorious!’, exclaims Harris Salat before outlining the details of the recipe. 

In this book that contains over 100 recipes, chef Tadashi Ono and his counterpart, culinary journalist Harris Salat, feature a series of comforting dishes. One example is this recipe for crab fried rice, a dish cooked by the Japanese when they want to use up their leftover cooked rice. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

4 eggs, beaten

2 scallions (about 60 g), trimmed and chopped

960 g cooked rice, warm, clumps broken up

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch ground black pepper

Ankake:

240 g crabmeat (canned is fine, about 240 g)

250 ml torigara stock

120 g iceberg lettuce leaves, cut into bite-size pieces

1.25 cm (about 8.5 g) ginger, peeled and julienned

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch ground black pepper 

2 teaspoons katakuriko (potato starch) dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

Method

Heat 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil in a wok over high heat. Add the eggs and gently scramble until set, about 10 seconds. Remove the eggs and set aside.

Heat another tablespoon of the sesame oil in a wok over high heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 sec­onds, until they give off an oniony smell. Next add the rice, and cook, always stirring, for 30 seconds more. Now add the soy sauce, salt, pepper, and cooked eggs, cooking whilst stir­ring for another 30 seconds. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil, and cook, again stirring constantly, for 10 more sec­onds. Turn off the heat.

Arrange four plates on a work surface, and ready four small bowls to serve as moulds (rice bowls are ideal). Spoon one quarter of the cooked rice into a bowl, then quickly flip the bowl over, and rest it on top of the plate rice-side-down. Do not remove the bowl for now; it will keep the rice warm. Repeat with the remaining three bowls. Set aside.

To prepare the ankake, add the crab, tori­gara stock, lettuce, ginger, salt, and pepper to a saucepan and bring to a boil over heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about two minutes, mixing occasionally. Add the katakuriko mixture, and cook, stirring constantly, for about 15 seconds. Turn off the heat.

Unmould the rice by removing the bowls covering it. Pour about one quarter of the ankake either alongside each serv­ing of rice or over it, as you desire. Serve immediately.

Japanese Soul Cooking (2013), by Harris Salat and Tadashi Ono, is published by Penguin Random House (available only in English).

Harris Salat and Tadashi Ono have also written other cookbooks together, such as Japanese Hot Pots and The Japanese Grill.