Unagi Donburi with Egg

Cooking relaxes me.

The meditative rhythm of the kitchen slowly rolls back the chaos of work. Tweak the seasonings, sear a little hotter this time, maybe spill a little on the floor. The reward is in the smiles as people eat. I begin to unwind.

Yet there are days when even cooking sounds like too much work. You know the ones? Computer crashes, unreasonable people, impossible deadlines and nothing goes right. At the end of it all I want to collapse. It's on those days that I reach for my easiest dinner recipes. Unagi donburi, literally "eel rice bowl," can be prepped in the time it takes to cook up a pot of rice and it requires only common items from a Japanese pantry (soy sauce, dashi, mirin, rice), plus prepackaged eel.

Unagi kabayaki (grilled eel in a sweet sauce) is generally sold frozen in Japanese groceries. I picked up an 8 oz. package for $5 at Marukai and held it in the freezer until I needed a quick and easy meal. It kinda defeats the purpose if you have run out shopping for unagi in order to make "quick" and "easy," so buy a package in advance and just hold onto it.

Traditional unagi donburi consists simply of eel over rice. I like to add egg and scallions to turn this into a one bowl meal. Other variations could add shiitake mushrooms or bamboo root. My son likes green peas in his. Whatever floats your boat -- the whole point of this meal is to restore you.

Unagi Donburi with Egg
Serves 2-3

• cooked rice
• 3/4 c. water
• 2 T. mirin
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 2 t. dried dashi soup base
• 1 T. sugar
• 3 scallions, roughly chopped
• 8 oz. package unagi kabayaki
• 2 eggs, very lightly scrambled
• shichimi tōgarashi (optional)

Start your rice cooking. Wait a few minutes, because you don't want to finish the eel before your rice is ready. Now would be a good time to set the table, or depending on how bad the day was, crack open a cold one.

Once the rice is well on its way, heat the water, mirin, soy sauce, dashi, sugar and scallions to a simmer in a small skillet. Any optional variations like mushrooms, bamboo or peas should also be simmered with the stock to ensure they have enough cooking time.

Once the stock begins to boil, add the unagi. Cook 30 seconds, then pour eggs over top and cover with a lid. Cook one minute then serve immediately over rice in large, deep bowls. If there's any sauce left, drizzle that over top. Add a dash of shichimi tōgarashi for heat.

Then you can put your feet up, knowing that even the worst of days can't keep you from eating well.