Donburi is a Japanese dish that we ate often when growing up. While donburi is really a category of dishes, meaning served over rice (gyudon with beef, oyakodon with chicken and egg); growing up Mom would always make it with ground beef, vegetables and egg. For more traditional recipes, I love Just One Cookbook.

I’m pretty notorious for calling up Mom or Sister to ask how to make simple dishes, and this is definitely one I’ve made Mom walk me through a couple of times, so I better blog about it so I remember it. Based on Mom’s latest suggestion, I swapped lean ground turkey in instead of the ground beef, and now I’m wondering if firm tofu would work in this too. While we always had this with shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and onions, it’s a fairly adaptable recipe, so feel free to experiment.

What are your favorite childhood recipes? Who do you call when you don’t know how to make something??

Donburi

Serves 4-6

1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cup very hot water
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 lb ground beef / turkey
3/4 cup sliced carrots
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp mirin (rice wine)
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Rice, to serve

Before you begin, wash your hands with soap and water. Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water.

In a large skillet, heat canola oil over medium high heat. Add onions to the pan and saute for a few minutes, until they begin to soften. Add ground turkey and break up as it cooks through. Add carrots and continue to cook for a few minutes. Add in the shiitake mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Stir in the soy sauce, mirin and about 1/3 cup of the shiitake soaking liquid. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. You want a little bit of sauce but not too runny. When the seasoning is to your liking, give the eggs a quick beat with a fork, then pour over the meat and veggies and then put a lid on the pan and let steam for about 3 minutes, or until the egg sets. Serve over rice.