One of my favorites Japanese dishes is buta kakuni. I know that it can’t be very healthy, so I don’t indulge too often. My good friend Koichi made me his version for my birthday a few weeks back, and I asked him for the recipe. Unfortunately, he uses a rice cooker with that has a pressure cooker setting to make his, which I don’t have. I decided to give it a go with his recipe anyway, and just slow cook it for six hours. The final result was really good, although I think I need to change the proportions of the liquid. His version only stewed in the broth for one hour, and mine four, concentrating the flavors just a little too much. I’ll post the recipe after I tweak it a little. This recipe for buta kakuni is made from pork belly, shoyu, sake, sugar, ginger and dashi.

July 24th, 2009 by John (Cho-Tabetai)