Unadon, Kanto Style — cookly.recipes

Kanto style: steamed before it is grilled, which is the only reason it eats this soft.

WHAT YOU GET

The chef's hidden note — the technique no cookbook prints
Every component built from scratch, each with its own spec
Films on choosing and judging the produce before you buy it
Gross and net gram weights for every ingredient, per portion
Time and temperature at each stage, as run in the restaurant
A photo at every step that can go wrong
Substitutions for anything hard to find where you live
What usually goes wrong, and what to do about it

Yours for good once bought. Updates from the chef included.

BEFORE YOU BUY

Equipment: Steamer, Charcoal grill or grill pan, Metal skewers, Heavy sieve
Allergens: Fish, Soy, Gluten
Method: 26 steps · 20 photographed · 8 filmed
Components: 3 made from scratch
Films: 3, 20 min

3 RECIPES INSIDE THIS RECIPE

Each with its own weights, steps and timings

The sauce, the cure, the dough, the dressing — a restaurant makes these itself, and so will you. Every one below is a full sub-recipe: its own ingredient list, its own method, its own yield and shelf life. Nothing says «use shop-bought».

Eel-bone tare

Film

Soy, mirin, sake and sugar reduced with grilled eel bones and heads until it coats a spoon.

Bought kabayaki sauce is corn syrup and caramel. Bones grilled first give the tare the body that lets it cling to the fillet.

Eel bones000 g
Eel heads000 g
Something cured000 g
A hard cheese000 g
The bitter leaf000 g

Steps: 8
Time: 1.2 h
Hands-on: 30 min

Makes 300 ml · keeps 3 months refrigerated and improves

Up to 3 months ahead; a tare pot is meant to be kept going

Weights and method unlock on purchase

Shirayaki, the first grill

Film

The butterflied fillet skewered and grilled naked, with no sauce, until the fat starts to run.

Sauce applied to raw eel burns before the fat renders. The plain grill is what drives that fat out.

Eel fillet000 g
Something cured000 g
A hard cheese000 g
The bitter leaf000 g

Steps: 5
Time: 20 min
Hands-on: 20 min

Makes 2 fillets

No — part of the same sequence

Weights and method unlock on purchase

The steam

Film

The grilled fillet steamed until it loses its resistance, then grilled a second time with tare.

This single step separates Tokyo eel from Osaka eel. Kansai skips it and eats firmer; Kanto steams and eats like custard.

Shirayaki fillet000 g
Something cured000 g
A hard cheese000 g
The bitter leaf000 g

Steps: 3
Time: 20 min
Hands-on: 5 min

Makes 2 fillets

Weights and method unlock on purchase

WEIGHED

INGREDIENTS

A taste of the list · the rest locked

A few ingredients to show you what the dish is built on. Every one on the full list carries a gross and a net weight per portion, and a note on what you can swap it for where you live.

Live or fresh eel000 g
Soy sauce000 g
Mirin000 g
Sake000 g
Sugar000 g
Smoked something000 g
A whole bulb000 g
Cold-pressed oil000 g
Aged for weeks000 g

The full list, weighed, unlocks on purchase

WATCH BEFORE YOU SHOP

3 films · 20 min

Most of what goes wrong is decided at the counter, before you cook anything. These are filmed by the chef: what to buy, how to tell it is good, and how to set your own kitchen up for it.

CHOOSING8:00

Buying eel: live, frozen, and what is already glazed

TECHNIQUE6:00

Skewering so the fillet does not curl

KIT6:00

Getting grill heat without charcoal

METHOD

STEP BY STEP — 26 STEPS

20 photographed · 8 filmed

Written the way a restaurant writes a technical card: one operation per step, each with its own time and temperature. 20 of the 26 carry a photo of what it should look like at that moment, and 8 carry a short clip for the parts a still cannot show.

Hardest step: judging the steam before the second grill — step 16 of 26.

01
Read the whole method before you start, then weigh everything out. Every timing below assumes the next ingredient is already within reach.
Free preview
02
03
04
05
06
+ 20 more steps, timed and photographed

WHERE IT USUALLY GOES WRONG

3 things Takeshi Aoyagi watches for every service. You can read what they are right now — the answer to each one comes with the recipe.

01
Keeping a tare pot alive between cooks
What to do about it
02
Why sansho and not shichimi
What to do about it
03
Rice seasoning that stands up to the glaze
What to do about it

The chef's hidden note

The steaming minutes before the second grill, and the tare reduction point where it glazes instead of running off.

Written by Takeshi Aoyagi. Visible only to people who bought this recipe.

Read it — $0.99

NOTES FROM THE KITCHENS

25 verified cooks · 95% said it worked

Only people who bought the recipe and showed the dish they made can leave a note. Nobody is paid for it.

PAY $0.99 ONCE

25 people cooked it, 95% got it right, and that is the entire reason it costs $0.99 rather than nothing. In 25 more cooks the price becomes $2.99. Your copy never does.

One payment · Yours for good · No subscription