Unadon (Grilled Eel on Rice Bowl)

Unadon is a Japanese donburi dish consisting of cooked rice topped with grilled eel fillets, glazed with a thick, sweet soy-flavoured sauce. The sauce is similar to the Teriyaki sauce in my recipe Teriyaki Chicken, but the flavour is much stronger. It goes so well with the oily flesh of eel.

Unadon (鰻丼) originated from Tokyo in the Edo period (1603-1867). Until then, Japanese people did not have a concept of serving a dish placed on rice. So, Unadon is the first donburi (丼) dish (rice bowl dish) invented in Japan.

Unagi no Kabayaki (Grilled Eel Fillet)

The grilled eel fillet that goes on the rice is called ‘unagi no kabayaki’ (鰻の蒲焼き) in Japanese. The word ‘unagi’ (鰻) means eel.

In the Edo era, eel kabayaki did not look like the modern day kabayaki. People used to chop an eel perpendicular to the backbone, put a piece onto a skewer and grill it with a teriyaki sauce.

The name ‘kabayaki’ came from the fact that the grilled eel on the skewer looked like the ear of the plant called ‘gama’ (cattail). It was originally called ‘gamayaki’, meaning grilled gama, but then changed to ‘kabayaki’. Any butterflied fish fillet grilled with a thick, sweet soy sauce is now called kabayaki.

Although I called it grilled eel fillet, the eel fillet is often steamed first before grilling. Steaming the fillet of eel makes the flesh moist and fluffy. This method of making grilled eel is used in Kanto (the eastern part of Japan). In Kansai (the western part of Japan), eel fillets are grilled without steaming.

Filleting a live eel is a difficult task. A live eel is meant to be gutted, filleted, and deboned jsu before making a kabayaki.  To do this, an awl is put through the eyes of a live eel to secure the head on a cutting board and cut the flesh, battling with the wiggly slimy body of the eel.

I have never done that and am not intending to do it in future either. It is much easier to buy a cooked eel fillet. Even in Japan, people buy prepared eel or cooked eel.

What’s in my Unadon (Grilled Eel on Rice Bowl)

Unadon is a very simple dish, and the main ingredients are just rice and eel fillet, with a bit of sake. Even the tare (sauce) consists of only a few ingredients.

• 1 pack of frozen grilled eel (120-150g)
• Cooked rice
• Cooking sake

Depending on the brand, the size of eel fillet varies (see the photo below). You will also notice the price varies significantly by brand. Some frozen packs are made in China and the prices are affordable. The most expensive frozen grilled eel is from Shimanto (四万十) River in Kochi prefecture, Japan (the top photo below). They are 4-5 times more expensive than the Chinese packs (the middle photo berlow).

Shimanto region is the most famous place for fresh unagi as it not only sells farmed eels but also naturally caught eels, which are tastier and less fatty.

Tare (Sauce)

• Soy sauce
• Mirin
• Cooking sake
• Sugar

You can buy a bottle of tare, specifically made for kabayaki, from Japanese/Asian grocery stores (see the thumbnail photo). It is much thicker than my home-made tare and the flavour is stronger too. You may want to try it and compare with home-made tare.

Topping

• Sanshō powder (Japanese pepper)

Topping is optional but if you can find sanshō, you should try it. Sanshō powder is sprinkled over the cooked eel for a couple of reasons:

1. It eliminates the muddy smell of eel (as it is a river fish).
2. It warms up your stomach and improves the digestion of oily fish like eel.

Naturally caught eel has a strong muddy smell and sanshō is perfect for it. However, most eel on the market these days is farmed eel, and you don’t get the muddy smells. Because of this, some restaurants do not serve sanshō powder when serving kabayaki anymore, or they serve sanshō powder in a separate container so that the diners can sprinkle it on themselves if needed.

If you want to appreciate and enjoy the flavour of eel, it’s probably better not to sprinkle sanshō on, but you may also want to try the eel with sanshō on it to see how it changes the flavour.

How to Make Unadon (Grilled Eel on Rice Bowl)

Frozen unagi needs to be reheated in the right way. There are a few different methods of reheating frozen grilled eels. Today, I used the method that I believe is the best.

1. Make tare.
2. Defrost the frozen pack and halve the eel fillet.
3. Place the eel fillets in a pan and sprinkle cooking sake over the fillets.
4. Turn the heat on and steam-cook the fillets with a lid on over low heat.
5. Place cooked rice in a serving bowl and baste the tare on the rice using a basting brush.
6. Place the eel fillets on the rice and pour a small amount of tare over the fillets.
7. Sprinkle sanshō over the eel and serve while hot.

Other methods of reheating grilled eel are:

• Microwave the pack (as per the direction on the pack).
• Boil water in a large saucepan and boiling the pack.

These methods are easier and require less washing. But I think that my method makes the eel fluffier.

Unadon vs Unajū

Because I served unagi (鰻, eel) on rice in a donburi (丼, large rice bowl), it is called Unadon (鰻丼). If I serve it in a lacquered rectangular box, it will be called ‘unajū’ (鰻重), which is the shortened words of ‘unagi’ and ‘jūbako’ (重箱). The photo below is unajū.

A jūbako is a layered lacquered boxes that is used to fill various dishes. The most representative use of jūbako is osechi ryōri (traditional New Year’s food). Jūbako is also used to carry food for a picnic.

But, in the case of unajū, it is a single layer box. Perhaps because of the lacquered box, unajū looks more elegant and classier than Unadon. In fact, uunajū is more expensive than Unadon. But the flavours are the same and both are delicious!

If you go to any good unagi restaurant in Japan and order an Unadon or an unajū, you will most certainly be served with a bowl of clear soup with a few eel offal pieces (mainly stomach) in it. It is called ‘kimosui’ (肝吸い).  It is considered to be a luxury as you need three eels to make just one bowl of soup.

You may not be able to make kimosui at home due to the difficulty of finding fresh eel offal. But making Unadon (also unajū for that matter) is super easy and so delicious. I hope you try it.

Yumiko

5 from 1 vote

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Unadon (Grilled Eel on Rice Bowl)

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Unadon is a Japanese donburi dish consisting of cooked rice topped with grilled eel fillets, glazed with a thick, sweet soy-flavoured sauce. The sauce is similar to the teriyaki sauce in my recipe, Teriyaki Chicken, but the flavour is much stronger. It goes so well with the oily flesh of the eel.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Main

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: donburi dish, Grilled eel

Serves: 1

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 1 pack frozen grilled eel fillet (thawed, note 1)
• 2 tbsp cooking sake
• 200g / 7.1oz cooked rice (hot)

Unadon Tare (Sauce)

• 1 tbsp cooking sake
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1½ tbsp sugar

Topping (optional, note 2)

• Sanshō powder

Instructions

Warming Up the Grilled Eel Fillet

1. If your grilled eel comes with the head, cut the head off and use it for your Unadon Tare (note 3).

2. Halve the fillet so that you have the front half and the back half of the fillet.

3. Place the fillets in a non-stick frying pan (note 4) without overlapping, skin-side down, and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cooking sake over the fish.

4. Turn the heat on to low and steam cook for a minute with a lid on.

5. Turn the fillet over. If there is no liquid left, add the remaining sake to the pan and steam-cook with the lid on for another minute.

6. turn the fillet over again and turn the heat off.

Serving

1. Put rice in a serving bowl, levelling the surface.

2. Using a basting brush, baste the surface of the rice with the tare.

3. Place the eel fillets on the rice, skin side down, covering the surface of the rice. Pour the rest of the sauce over the eel.

4. Sprinkle sanshō over the eel and serve while hot.

Unadon Tare (make this first)

1. Put cooking sake and mirin into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.

2. After boiling for 1 minute or so, add the remaining ingredients and the head or the tail bit of the eel (if using) to the pan.

3. When it starts boiling again, reduce the heat to low and continue to cook until the sauce thickens (bubbles on the surface become larger and start rising) and is reduced to about half the volume.

4. Turn the heat off. When cooled down, the sauce will thicken further.

Recipe Notes

1. Depending on the brand, 1 pack of grilled eel can weigh 120-150g / 4.2-5.3oz. My eel was 140g / 4.9oz. If larger than 150g / 5.2oz, you may want to serve a half or 2/3 of it.

The price of frozen grilled eel varies significantly depending on where the eel was caught and packed. The most expensive and delicious eel is from the Shimanto (四万十) region in Japan (see the sample photo in post). The Chinese pack is the cheapest.

2. You can buy sanshō powder from Japanese grocery stores. It comes in a large quantity, like a tall bottle of ground pepper, but you can use sanshō powder on meat etc in place of pepper.

Alternatively, you can use ground Sichuan pepper.

3. My eel did not come with a head, but the tail end was a bit dry. So, I cut about 2cm / ¾” long piece off the eel from the tail end and added it to the tare. It adds a better flavour to the tare.

4. If you don't have a non-stick frying pan, place a cooking paper on the frying pan, then place the fillets on. top.

5. Nutrition per serving. It assumes that you used up all the sauce, but you probably won't.

serving: 464g calories: 738kcal fat: 17g (26%) saturated fat: 3.5g (18%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 1.6g monounsaturated fat: 10g cholesterol: 176mg (59%) sodium: 1833mg (76%) potassium: 606mg (17%) carbohydrates: 93g (31%) dietary fibre: 1.1g (4%) sugar: 32g protein: 34g vitamin a: 97% vitamin c: 4.2% calcium: 4.8% iron: 20%