Shinya Shokudo - Butter Rice (深夜食堂 - 牛油拌饭）Season 1 - Episode 5

Shinya Shokudo - Butter Rice 

深夜食堂 - 牛油拌饭 ( Season 1 - Episode 5)

(Butter Rice - Picture Taken from the film Shinya Shokudo)

I was introduced to the Japanese series of Shinya Shokudo by my sister-in-law when I went over to visit her in Australia last December break and took the whole time to finish both season 1 and season 2.  Really liked some of the tips that they gave at the back of each show.

One of the recipes that I have been wanting to try is butter rice.  I really love butter and I do like Japanese rice.  Didn't have a chance to try it as my husband thinks that my love for butter is crazy....(hm....however he doesn't really understand....different recipes call for different styles and texture of butter).

Had a chance to try it today as I am on medical leave and I cooked a pot to Japanese rice for lunch, my rice cooker can take only at least one cup of rice, that leaves me with enough cooked rice for two meals.  Anyway, really really liked it!  I ate it all up and forgot to take photos so will have to use the image clipped from the series.  Next time, I will take it with miso soup and I think it can be my simple breakfast for some days.

Anyway for the rest of the rice, I am going to try to make the tuna rice in the afternoon.

Butter Rice (Recipe)

1 serving of steamed rice (warm from the rice cooker)

1 small knob of cold butter ( salted or unsalted)

A few drips of light soya sauce (Shoyu)

1.  Ladle the warm steam rice, preferably straight from the rice cooker, into a small bowl.

2.  Place a small knob of butter (about 1 tsp - a pinky finger size) onto the rice.

3.  Let the rice warm the butter for about 30 s, use the chopstick to wrap the butter round the rice a little. (Do not microwave !!!).  The butter will melt a little into a creamy texture.  If you microwave, it will turn into oil and separate into the milk solids and oil instead and the taste will be different.

4.  Drip a few drips of shoyu on it.  Stir the butter, rice and shoyu together and serve.

Notes:

• Soya Sauce.  I prefer to use Japanese soya sauce that has been traditionally brewed not Chinese soya sauce.  If you look at the ingredients and compare you will know why. Let us also look at the manufacturing traditional soy sauce and the chemical soya sauce.  (You can skip this part, if you are not interested in the Sciences.)

• Generally,  Japanese soy sauce is made from wheat, soy beans and salt and goes through two fermentation phases of a few months.  During the first fermentation phase, the Aspergillus mold produces enzymes that will break down wheat starch into sugars, wheat and soy proteins into amino acids and seed oils into fatty acids. Salt brine, yeasts and lactic bacteria is added before the second fermentation phase and in the second phase, the bacterial and enzymes work together and react with each other to produce sugars and ammino acids forming roasty-smelling pyrazines, acids and alcohols which combine together to form fruity esters.  The raw sauce then goes through high-temperature pasteurisation which further encourages browing reactions between amino acids and sugars.  (McGee, 2004) What results is a naturally brewed soya sauce which nutrients have been broken down properly for absorption by the body that is also concentrated, mouth-filling and full of unami.

• In contrast, most of the Chinese soya sauce I find the supermarkets seemed to be the industrially produced chemical soy sauce containing sodium benzoate which I read somewhere is carcinogenic.  (Ok, I am not sure about it, but the sodium benzoate makes me uncomfortable)   According McGee (2004), these soy sauce are produced by using concentrated hydrochloric acid to break down defatted soy meal. The caustic mixture is then neutralised with sodium carbonate, and flavoured and coloured with corn syrup, caramel, water and salt.  This results in a flat taste compared with the traditionally brewed soya sauce.  

• Somehow, I do not feel comfortable taking in so much chemicals for the industrially produced soy sauce so I always make sure I get those traditionally brewed, organically grown soy beans and I make sure I read the label.

• Butter.  Somehow different brands of butter produce different taste.  For me, I personally stick to Lurpark butter, the flavour carries a lot more depth and is less salty.  The aroma in baking is great too. On the down side, the price is usually about more than 20% more than the other butter.  So when there is sale I tend to stock up.  I usually keep in the fridge, but I read somewhere recently they can be kept in a freezer for a longer period.