Japanese and Chinese Hybrid - Tenshinhan 天津飯

Tenshinhan/てんしんはん, A Japanese and Chinese hybrid rice recipe. One can often see crab meat, or the more commonly used imitation crab and eggs as two main ingredients. Basically it's steamed white rice top with soft scrambled eggs, with slightly thickened soupy toppings poured over. Such toppings are usually made with Japanese style stock, sometimes with additional crab meat and shiitake mushrooms. 

Due to its simplicity, the stock used can be the key to success. I've seen fine dining restaurant in Japan use stock made with red snapper, and the finished dish was dusted with grated yuzu, what an elegant presentation. As for my easier homemade version, I've incorporated clear Chinese chicken stock that was already seasoned with salt earlier. You can also prepare Japanese stock from scratch with kombu and katsuobushi. For an even less troublesome approach, store-bought chicken soup or Japanese stock powder can come in handy.

Tenshinhan 天津飯 -

Ingredients (about 4 portions)?

• 4 cups Chinese chicken stock (already flavored with salt)
• 8 imitation crab sticks
• 8 eggs
• 5 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/3 cup peas
• 1 stalk scallion
• Some corn starch and water mixture
• Some sesame oil
• Some olive oil
• Some steamed white rice

How?

Cook the white rice first and set as warm while waiting for the soupy topping. 

Bring a small pot of water to a boil and add in the peas, cook for about one minute, drain and set aside.

Destem and chop the scallion, destem and slice the shiitake mushrooms. Tear the imitation crab sticks into strips. 

Beat all the eggs in a bowl then mix in crab strips.

Use a medium pot, pour in 4 cups Chinese stock or some other lightly salted stock choice. Add in shiitake mushrooms, bring to a boil then keep it at a simmer. Cook till shiitake reaches desired texture, slightly softened at least. Switch to low heat.

Prepare some corn starch and water mixture. Keep stirring the soup while slowly pouring in the corn starch and water mixture. Just a touch so the soup can turn into slightly gooey, a wee bit thickened density.

To make the softly scrambled eggs, it has to be prepared one by one. So for 4 portions, please repeat below steps 4 times.

Take a non-stick pan, add in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and few drops of sesame oil. Turn to medium heat. Once warmed up, pour in some egg and crab meat mixture, enough for one portion. Gently stir the mixture while cooking using medium heat. The eggs should look like a softly and slightly fluffy western scrambled eggs. Remove from heat before the egg mixture fully set. 

Scoop some rice onto each serving plate. Top with the egg and crab mixture. Keep making the softly scrambled eggs for each servings. Scoop some gooey stock right over the eggs. Garnish with some peas and chopped scallion.

If you've got a pretty spacious freezer, I highly recommend you to take some time and make the stock yourself. Homemade stock can be stored in airtight containers and freeze for quite some time. One of my friends even get the big bones from the butcher, roast them under high heat in the oven to draw some more flavors before used in stock. Sounds like a lot of work, but it'll totally worth it. 

Just make sure to make a huge pot of stock, might as well get more stock to store in the freezer after going through all that hassles right? 


Other rice recipes:

• Bitter tea oil fried rice 苦茶油炒飯
• Salmon and egg donburi
• Smoked duck pistou fried rice
• Salt cured fish and chicken fried rice 鹹魚雞粒炒飯 
• Ground pork and Chinese basil AKA da pao fried rice 打拋豬肉風炒飯