15-Minute Salmon Ochazuke

Ochazuke (お茶漬け) is a Japanese dish where one pours hot green tea or dashi over a bowl of rice. The concept is similar to Chinese paofan (泡饭).  The Japanese ochazuke is light tasting, easy to digest, boosts one’s appetite and is perfect for all seasons – It is comfort food for the soul and body. This 15-minute salmon ochazuke (鮭お茶漬け) is a short cut recipe using an instant ochazuke soup pack I bought from Daiso. The bulk of the recipe time is prepping and frying the salmon (about 10-12 minutes), followed by making a pot of green tea & assembling the rice bowl (about 3 minutes).

See Also:
Upcoming Salmon Recipes:
  • Teriyaki Salmon & Scallions
  • Salmon & Umeboshi Pasta
More Salmon Recipe Ideas:

15-Minute Salmon Ochazuke Recipe

Ochuazuke Instant Soup Packs

Ochazuke Premixes

Instant Ochazuke from Daiso

These are instant ochazuke soup packs selling at Daiso (SG). There are three flavours and my favourite is the purple packaging (the basic seaweed edition) as this version had 2 more sachets of the ochazuke mix compared to the green packaging (wasabi) and the red packaging (salmon). Each sachet is a single person serving and comes with green tea soup granules, seaweed and crispy rice crackers.

PREPARE AND COOK SALMON FILLETS

Pan Fried Salmon for Ochazuke

I personally like to prepare my salmon fillets by marinating them in sake for 5-10 minutes in the fridge – this will remove the inherent, natural fishy smell from the salmon. You can skip this step if you are not sensitive to the natural smell of fish. Next, I pat the salmon fillets dry with paper towels and fry them in butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. The cooked salmon were delicious on their own or you can also eat it with a bowl of rice or salad.

MAKE TEA AND OCHAZUKE

15-Minute Salmon Ochazuke - Before & After

15-Minute Salmon Ochazuke Recipe

Next, prepare a freshly brewed pot of hot tea such as hojicha (roasted green tea). As the tea seeps, coarsely shred the cooked salmon to small chunks. Prepare a bowl of rice, topped with the contents of the instant ochazuke sachet and the shredded salmon. Pour hot tea over the rice, stir to dissolve the granules and enjoy immediately :)

15-Minute Salmon Ochazuke Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 150g salmon fillets deboned
  • 1/2 tbsp sake
  • 5g butter
  • 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • 80g cooked rice
  • 1 single-serve sachet ochazuke premix see cooking note 1 to make your own
  • 1 tsp Japanese tea leaves (such as hojicha)

You Also Need:

  • tea pot with filter sieve (or tea leaves put in a disposable tea bag)

Directions:

  1. Prepare and cook salmon fillets. Arrange salmon fillets on a plate and rub sake on both sides of the fish. Let the salmon marinate for 5-10 minutes in the fridge, then pat dry on paper towel. Heat and grease a pan with butter and olive oil. Cook salmon fillet on one side until lightly golden, then flip over and cook the salmon on the other side until cooked through (total pan frying time is about 5 to 8 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon fillets). When cooked, set aside on a plate and discard the salmon skin. Roughly shred the salmon to bite-sized chunks.
  2. Make the tea. Add tea leaves into the filter sieve of the tea pot. Pour boiling water into the tea pot and let it seep for a few minutes.
  3. Prepare the bowl while the tea is seeping. In a rice bowl, add cooked rice, shredded salmon and ochazuke mix.
  4. To serve, pour 120ml freshly brewed hot tea over the rice. Stir gently to dissolve the granules and serve immediately.

Cooking Note(s):

  1. If you don’t have instant ochazuke mix, you can make your own ochazuke mix: 1/2 tbsp shredded seaweed, 1/2 tsp dashi granules & 1 tsp tiny rice cracker (bubu arare, which can be purchased from Japanese supermarkets).
  2. Eat this immediately, otherwise the rice will soak up all the broth in no time.