Donburi in a hurry

So today I just couldn’t get my act together, I wanted to make Oyako dons for like two days. Donburi is a term the Japanese use for rice bowls. The Oyako is a chicken and the egg bowl, translating to to parent and child, it has dashi, but that is about the only really exotic ingredient. During the week I don’t drive at all, I do everything in the nomadic style (on foot) with two kids which is not always an easy feat. Today the store I was shopping at didn’t have the chicken thighs or the dashi, so I changed it up. I have this badass cook book from a thrift store about Donburi’s and it had a Ma po (pork and tofu), both of which the store had so that was the new plan. Honestly though, this is a great method for any ingredients, quinoa instead of rice, brown rice, vegetarian, anything you like you can choose, and it’s a great way to use up stuff in the fridge or pantry.
I used a lb of lean, course ground pork
1lb firm tofu
1 Cup mushrooms of choice, I used button and sautéed them first so they would be golden, then I added them back in at the end
1 small shallot, I had one in the fridge and had half a medium white onion, diced both browned them with the pork
1 small zucchini, diced small added in last, not as good when overcooked, had this leftover from the farmer’s market and wanted to use it.
Thought I had a can of water chestnuts, upon inspection, I did not, so I used half a jicama diced small.
¼ Cup hoision sauce
1 tsp chili garlic paste (add what you like)
1 can of creamed corn, yeah weird I know, but I thought it was regular and wasn’t worked great actually cause it already contains a lil’ sugar and cornstarch so I didn’t need to add any extra sugar or starch.
So in a hot wok I added two tablespoons canola oil, browned meat, with onions, added tofu, jicama, hoison, chili garlic paste, added corn and a lil soy sauce to taste. Done. Serve over rice or whatever you like, we used good old short gain Japanese sushi rice. I topped our bowls with green peas, scallions, sciracha, sesame seeds, and sautéed mushrooms. This makes about 6-8 bowls so you can freeze half to use later or this is great for big groups, we just eat the rest for dinner the next day.