Tricolor Bowl (Sanshoku-don)

My second child is a very finicky eater. I would like to spend some time writing about her on my blog in the future, but this time, I’d like to go straight to the story about this recipe.

There are dishes that my #2 would eat very well. They are mostly Japanese dishes. I don’t know if I was eating a lot of Japanese food during my pregnancy, but she has always preferred Japanese food since she started eating solids. One of her favorite dishes is this “tricolor bowl”.

I have always loved this dish growing up when my mom made it, so I’m not surprised that both of my girls love it. It’s very simple yet delightful and quick to fix. You can’t beat that when you are a busy mom. I think that kids like this dish because it slightly has a sweet taste to it as it calls for sugar in the recipe.

I originally got a recipe from one of my favorite cook books. (It’s actually a mook.) I, however, altered it so that it’s easier for non-Japanese and new to Japanese cooking people.

I apologize in advance to those vegetarians and those who eat kosher. I would like to post recipes that are vegetarian or kosher friendly in the future.

Tricolor Bowl (Sanshoku-don)

Ingredients
Meat
ground chicken or trukey……….500 g (or about 1 lb)
rice wine, sugar……….3 tbs each
mirin, soy sauce……….6 tbs each
ground ginger……….1 tbs
Eggs
eggs……….6
mirin, sugar……….3 tbs each
soy sauce……….1/2 tsp
water……….9 tbs
Frozen green beans……….half cup
Rice

What is mirin?

It is an essential condiment used in Japanese cuisine. It is sweetened rice wine with a lower alcohol content. I usually buy it at a Korean supermarket. You can google substitute to this and I have used sherry (and Marsala) instead of mirin, but if you are into Japanese cooking, you should have one in hand. If you cook Japanese food without mirin, it’s like cooking Italian food without olive oil.

1. Make meat soboro

Mix all the ingredients under meat in a pot and place the pot on a medium heat. Heat the meat as you mix and break the ground meat with cooking chop sticks or a fork if you don’t have any chop sticks. (If you use a fork, be careful as you might leave marks on the bottom of the pot.) When the meat is completely cooked, lower the heat and leave it for about 10 minutes. The meat will look like the one on the right photo.

2. Make scrambled eggs

Mix together all the ingredients under “eggs” in a bowl and move the content into a pot. Place the pot on a low heat. Keep mixing the egg content as you heat it. Cook the eggs until it will look like the photo above. Actually you don’t want to burn it as shown in the photo… Don’t leave the pot like I did!

3. Defrost the green beans. Put rice on a bowl and place eggs on one side and meat on the other half. Line up green beans in the middle.

Voila! Here’s a typical Japanese home cooking (made a little simpler by me)! It wasn’t that hard, was it?

Happy cooking!