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Mom’s Friend Doria
Posted by Chris Lehrer on 11-26-08 in Not All Raw Fish
Doria is Japan’s answer to tuna casserole. It’s quick and easy, and you can put leftovers in it, and the kids love it. Since you don’t have an oven, the technique is of course a bit different.
[Incidentally, although this is part 2, part 1 is mostly about the column rather than the food, so you're probably not missing anything. But there is a nifty classification of Japanese food types, and that's got its advantages.]
As usual, there’s a full recipe here. And as usual, you can vary the ingredients and stuff pretty drastically to taste. Here’s the basics.
What you actually need is cooked rice in a cooker, some vegetables and stuff to cook with the rice, some vegetables and/or protein or whatever to put on top of the rice, a bunch of shredded very mild cheese, and some white sauce — usually from a can.
Here you see the makings of a bog-standard doria. To cook with the rice, mushrooms (I’m only going to use one) and a block of bacon (I’ll cut about a third into little cubes). To cook and put on the rice, a couple of cherry tomatoes, and I’m also going to add some frozen peas. For the sauce, onion and a can of white sauce. For cheese, a bag of shredded cheese and a bit of decent Gruyère I happened to have in the back of the fridge. For cooking fat, a bit of butter (in the aluminum foil).
Up close and personal, the cheese...
... and the white sauce. The Japanese reads, “ho-wa-i-to so-[long]-su.” White sauce. Basically cream of mushroom soup in a can, without the mushrooms.
Protein is usual, but not really necessary. Chicken, tuna (not usually the canned stuff), and shrimp are most common.
Start by sauteeing the stuff to go in the rice: here’s bacon and mushrooms. When they’re mostly done, add the rice and stir-toss until well mixed. Dump this in a greased ovenproof dish.
Now saute the protein and other vegetables in butter until just done. I’ve used peas and tomatoes, but you could use broccoli, cauliflower, or whatever. Stagger the cooking times as necessary so as not to under- or overcook your protein if any: chicken needs a little while, but shrimp cook fast, and so on. Pour all this over the rice mix and top with half the cheese.
Cook a little onion in butter until softening, then add the white sauce and stir until the sauce is warm and smooth. Pour this sauce mix on top of the rice, and top with the rest of the cheese.
Put the whole thing in the toaster oven and run it until the top is brown and bubbly. My toaster oven sucks, so I just wait until it's good and melty.
Since people make this in a toaster oven, it’s usual to serve it in individual serving bowls, of which you can generally get two or three into a toaster oven. If you want to make this at home where you have an oven with a broiler, you can put it in a larger shallow casserole and do it that way. Since everything is already hot and cooked, you don’t have to worry about it getting hot through or anything: the broiling is just to get the cheese melted (and preferably brown, in which case don't use my rotten toaster oven).
Some people garnish the top with mayonnaise or ketchup. Both come in squeeze bottles here with thin tips, so you can draw cute lines and squiggles if you like. Mayo here is more like Miracle Whip than Hellman’s, i.e. sweet and like salad dressing, if you’re wanting to try this. Personally, I can sort of see the ketchup, but the mayo thing makes me shudder.
I’m pretty much done here, but in the next and final part I want to muse a little about the whole doria “thing”: what it is, where it comes from, how it should be done (as opposed to how I’ve just told you to do it), and so on.
Read on!
[Incidentally, although this is part 2, part 1 is mostly about the column rather than the food, so you're probably not missing anything. But there is a nifty classification of Japanese food types, and that's got its advantages.]
As usual, there’s a full recipe here. And as usual, you can vary the ingredients and stuff pretty drastically to taste. Here’s the basics.
What you actually need is cooked rice in a cooker, some vegetables and stuff to cook with the rice, some vegetables and/or protein or whatever to put on top of the rice, a bunch of shredded very mild cheese, and some white sauce — usually from a can.
Here you see the makings of a bog-standard doria. To cook with the rice, mushrooms (I’m only going to use one) and a block of bacon (I’ll cut about a third into little cubes). To cook and put on the rice, a couple of cherry tomatoes, and I’m also going to add some frozen peas. For the sauce, onion and a can of white sauce. For cheese, a bag of shredded cheese and a bit of decent Gruyère I happened to have in the back of the fridge. For cooking fat, a bit of butter (in the aluminum foil).
Up close and personal, the cheese...
... and the white sauce. The Japanese reads, “ho-wa-i-to so-[long]-su.” White sauce. Basically cream of mushroom soup in a can, without the mushrooms.
Protein is usual, but not really necessary. Chicken, tuna (not usually the canned stuff), and shrimp are most common.
Start by sauteeing the stuff to go in the rice: here’s bacon and mushrooms. When they’re mostly done, add the rice and stir-toss until well mixed. Dump this in a greased ovenproof dish.
Now saute the protein and other vegetables in butter until just done. I’ve used peas and tomatoes, but you could use broccoli, cauliflower, or whatever. Stagger the cooking times as necessary so as not to under- or overcook your protein if any: chicken needs a little while, but shrimp cook fast, and so on. Pour all this over the rice mix and top with half the cheese.
Cook a little onion in butter until softening, then add the white sauce and stir until the sauce is warm and smooth. Pour this sauce mix on top of the rice, and top with the rest of the cheese.
Put the whole thing in the toaster oven and run it until the top is brown and bubbly. My toaster oven sucks, so I just wait until it's good and melty.
Since people make this in a toaster oven, it’s usual to serve it in individual serving bowls, of which you can generally get two or three into a toaster oven. If you want to make this at home where you have an oven with a broiler, you can put it in a larger shallow casserole and do it that way. Since everything is already hot and cooked, you don’t have to worry about it getting hot through or anything: the broiling is just to get the cheese melted (and preferably brown, in which case don't use my rotten toaster oven).
Some people garnish the top with mayonnaise or ketchup. Both come in squeeze bottles here with thin tips, so you can draw cute lines and squiggles if you like. Mayo here is more like Miracle Whip than Hellman’s, i.e. sweet and like salad dressing, if you’re wanting to try this. Personally, I can sort of see the ketchup, but the mayo thing makes me shudder.
I’m pretty much done here, but in the next and final part I want to muse a little about the whole doria “thing”: what it is, where it comes from, how it should be done (as opposed to how I’ve just told you to do it), and so on.
Read on!
