‹ The Fire 50 › Cook it at home

The Fire 50 · cook it at home

Unaju at home: glazed eel (or salmon) over rice

40 min · 2 people

Eel houses grill, steam and grill again over binchotan, brushing on a sweet soy glaze. At home, store-bought grilled eel (unagi kabayaki) reheated under the broiler with homemade sauce is close; salmon makes a good stand-in.

Save it and it opens in Chef Amazing with a timeline, mise en place, what you already have and a shopping list.

The real one

You need

• 2 pieces store-bought grilled eel (unagi kabayaki), about 300 g (10 oz) total, or 2 skin-on salmon fillets
• For the sauce: 60 ml (1/4 cup) soy sauce
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups cooked short-grain rice, hot
• To serve: a pinch of sansho pepper, pickles, a clear soup

How to make it

1. Make the sauce (10 min): Simmer the soy, mirin, sake and sugar in a small pan over medium-low until thick enough to coat a spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. It thickens more as it cools.
2. Prepare the fish (5 min): Eel: rinse the store sauce off under warm water and pat dry. Salmon: pat dry, salt lightly, and cut into 2 pieces.
3. Grill and glaze (10 min): Heat the broiler with the rack 10 cm (4 in) from the element, or set the pieces over a hot charcoal fire. Eel: grill 2 minutes skin side up, brush with sauce, grill 1 minute, brush and grill again until glossy and bubbling at the edges, 3 rounds in all. Salmon: grill skin side up 4 minutes until the skin crisps, turn, then brush and grill 1 minute at a time 3 times, until cooked to medium (50°C / 122°F).
4. Assemble (5 min): Drizzle 1 tbsp sauce over the hot rice in a box or bowl, lay the fish on top, and brush with more sauce. Sprinkle with sansho and serve with pickles and soup.

Tips

• Keep the leftover sauce in the fridge for a month.
• A blowtorch gives the charred edges a charcoal grill would.
• Don't skip the rinse; fresh glaze tastes much better than the packet.

Chef Amazing's own home version of unaju, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.