Taco Rice was another of my staples on Okinawa. It was invented in the 1980’s as a fast food for the servicemen. It is exactly what it sounds like. Rice topped with ground beef, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes or salsa and avocado. Lime wedges on the side for an extra burst of acid. They do use a typical taco seasoning but jazz it up with soy sauce, ketchup, mirin and dashi. I managed to find a recipe, thankfully, or I wouldn’t know about the dashi. Dashi is a broth made from kombu-dried kelp and katsuobushi-dried, smoked tuna. At my local Asian market they sell the katsuobushi already shaved and call it Bonito. I have been ordering my kombu online from the International food app. There is also instant dashi called HonDashi. Mirin is a sweet rice wine.
2 cups sushi rice rinsed and cooked in 2 1\2 cups of water.
1 onion, chopped fine
1 pound of ground beef
2 tablespoons each of ketchup, soy sauce and mirin
1 teaspoon instant dashi
1 packet of taco seasoning
cheese of your choice, lettuce, diced avocado, salsa or fresh tomatoes
Start by softening the onion for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the ground beef, make smaller crumbles like you would for tacos. Cook the meat until its brown and add the taco seasoning. Once it starts to smell like tacos add the ketchup, mirin, soy sauce, instant dashi and 1 cup of water. Bring the mix up to a boil and cook until the liquid has thickened up. Don’t let it turn into gravy, it needs to be a little juicy so it covers the rice.
There is an order to how the bowls get built. Rice first, beef, cheese, lettuce, avacado and salsa or tomatoes. Lime wedges on the side.
If you don’t eat the meats, tofu would be good here or any of the alternative meats. Ground pork would be OK but beef really is the best.
Thanks for taking another trip to the islands with me! Enjoy your kitchen! Create your own version of Taco Rice or make up a new one!
Ali's Kitchen 