5 Minutes is OK! Sake Don Recipe for Students Living Alone

Easy and Delicious Too?

The editor, ready to choose salmon without hesitation when asked about their favorite sashimi, is a true 'salmon enthusiast.' The moment they pair a tender slice of salmon sashimi topped with onion and wasabi with a glass of alcohol, an indescribable happiness washes over them.

The editor enjoys salmon sashimi in two ways. First, half is eaten as sashimi. When it starts to feel a bit greasy, they make sake-don (salmon rice bowl). Making sake-don with the remaining half allows them to enjoy the salmon sashimi to the very last bite, despite its characteristic oiliness, which can make finishing a plate alone difficult.

Today’s recipe is precisely this sake-don. The key point of this recipe is that it does not use Japanese soy sauce, which is hard to find in a single-person household pantry, nor does it require the tedious process of boiling soy sauce to make the seasoning sauce. Instead, it uses only basic seasonings found in the pantry. The entire cooking time is under 5 minutes, yet it produces an excellent-tasting sake-don! Here it is, revealed now.

Ingredient Preparation

Main Ingredients: Salmon sashimi, one bowl of rice, thinly sliced onion, radish sprouts (optional)

Seasoning Ingredients: Soy sauce, vinegar, water, sugar, wasabi

※ Prepare fluffy rice rather than sticky rice. It is recommended to soak the onion in cold water for 3 to 5 minutes before cooking to remove its sharpness.

Start Cooking!

① Add 2 spoons of soy sauce, 1 spoon of vinegar, 2 spoons of water, and 0.5 spoon of sugar, then stir until the sugar is completely dissolved to make the seasoning sauce.

② Mix the seasoning sauce into the rice, then transfer it to a deep bowl and shape it like a mountain peak.

③ Place as much salmon as you want on top of the rice. The key is to arrange it neatly, drawing a curve!

④ Place the onion (with its sharpness removed) and radish sprouts in the center, then finish by squeezing wasabi on top.

How Does It Taste?

The tangy yet salty seasoning sauce combined with salmon, the subtly spicy onion, and the sharp kick of wasabi! It instantly eliminates the greasiness of the salmon. Even though it is made only with basic pantry seasonings like soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar, the taste is very similar to sake-don ordered at a restaurant. This sake-don, which delights both the palate and the eyes, is hard to believe is the result of a '5-minute recipe.' If you plan to eat salmon sashimi, we highly recommend trying this.

Photo by Bomi Kim