Soboro Donburi

Soboro is a Japanese dish of ground meat cooked in soy sauce, dashi, and sake; donburi is meat and vegetables served over rice. This Food & Wine version is made with ground beef and peas. It is easy to make and, most remarkably in our household, got a rare 4 thumbs up! I discovered that my kids are particularly fond of pickled ginger (the kind typically served with sushi), so much so that I could almost use it as a bribe to get them to try something new. This dish is a winner! The amounts below make 4 servings – don’t hesitate to double them.

1 lb. 90% lean ground beef
1/3 cup sake
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup dashi (or water)
1 ½ Tbsp. granulated sugar
½ cup frozen English peas, thawed
1 Tbsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
5 cups hot cooked rice
2 Tbsp. beni shoga (Japanese pickled ginger)

Stir together ground beef, sake, soy sauce, dashi, and sugar in a small Dutch oven or medium-size, heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-high, stirring often to break up large lumps of beef, 5 minutes. Stir in peas and ginger; cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is mostly evaporated and beef is no longer pink but is still moist, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Divide rice evenly among 4 large bowls. Spoon ½ cup beef mixture over each. Garnish with pickled ginger.