Rice with Vegetables

This popular one-pot dish can be made with meat or vegetables and, like most casseroles, is easily varied. There are, of course, similar dishes throughout East Asia (and throughout this chapter), but this one is made distinctively Japanese by the addition of mirin and even more so if you use dashi for the cooking stock—a terrific touch.

Aburage—fried tofu—is available, precooked, at Japanese markets; it’s slightly sweet.