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Tekkadon - vinegared rice topped with slices of fresh tuna sashimi, pickled ginger, wasabi, shiso and chopped spring onion in a black lacquerware bowl

Tekka Don (Japanese Tuna Sashimi Bowl)

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time5 minutes
Marinating30 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients 
 

Marinated Tuna

Sushi Rice

To Serve

Instructions 

Marinate the Tuna

  • Combine 3 tbsp mirin and 3 tbsp sake in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, keep it boiling for 1 minute and turn off the heat.
    Heating sake and mirin in a pan
  • With the heat off, add 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) and swirl the pan to blend. Pour the marinade into a wide container that holds the tuna in one layer and cool it until it no longer feels warm to the touch.
    Making marinade
  • Sink 2 g dried kelp (kombu) in the cooled marinade. Dip 200 g sashimi grade tuna into it one slice at a time, turning each to coat both sides, and lay the slices flat side by side. Do not stack or overlap them.
    tekkadon marinade for tuna
  • Press plastic wrap right onto the surface of the tuna and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
    Sashimi grade tuna soaking in a marinade to make tekka don

Make the Sushi Rice

  • While the tuna marinates, stir 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu), 1 tsp sugar and ½ tsp salt together in a small bowl until the sugar and salt dissolve.
    Rice vinegar, salt and sugar mixed in a small glass bowl
  • Put 400 g cooked Japanese short-grain rice in a large bowl while it is still warm. Pour the vinegar over the rice and fold it through with a rice paddle, using a cutting motion, until every grain is coated. Keep the grains whole as you go.
    Pouring sushi vinegar mixture over warm rice
  • Fan the rice as it cools. Stop at body temperature, about 37 °C (99 °F), and cover the bowl with a well-wrung damp cloth.
    Japanese sushi rice in a wooden sushi-oke half covered with a damp tea towel

Assemble the Bowls

  • Divide the sushi rice among the bowls and scatter ½ sheet kizami nori (shredded nori) over the rice.
    cooked white rice in a black bowl topped with shredded nori seaweed
  • After its 30 minutes, take the tuna out of the fridge, lift the slices from the marinade and arrange them on top the nori. Spoon ½ tbsp of the leftover marinade over the tuna in each bowl. If you like, garnish with wasabi paste, pickled sushi ginger (gari), perilla leaves (shiso) and finely chopped green onions to taste. Enjoy!
    Tekkadon in a black lacquerware bowl topped with ooba leaf, gari (pickled ginger), wasabi and chopped spring onion

Notes

Marinating does not make fish safe raw: What the soy sauce marinade brings is flavor. It has no power to turn fish into something you can eat raw, so only use sashimi-grade fish that has been labeled as safe to eat raw.
Cool the marinade all the way first: If the marinade still holds some warmth when the tuna goes in, every surface it touches turns white and firm.
Stop the rice at body temperature: Rice that is still hot goes gummy, and the tuna on top spoils sooner. Chill it too far and the grains clump and stay stuck together as you eat. That is also why it stays out of the fridge.
Use a cutting motion with the paddle: Stirring in circles makes the rice sticky, and a cutting motion keeps it from going gummy. Scoop up from the bottom and slice down through the rice, again and again, to spread the vinegar evenly.
Eat the marinated tuna the day you make it: Skip the freezer too. Most tuna sold at the counter has been frozen once already, and a second freeze turns it watery.