how to make tuna soboro

Shreela has asked me what the tuna soboro looks like when I did “How to make soboro”, so I decided to cook it tonight! I also wanted to do an experiment with Japanese and American mayonnaise in tuna soboro, because I almost always use Japanese mayonnaise when I cook. So I went out and got a jar of kraft “real mayonnaise”! I think having a bigger fridge is definitely encouraging me to do food experiments more. 😛

[How to make tuna soboro]
– 2 cans of tuna
– 3 tbs of soy sauce
– 2 tbs of sugar
– 1 tbs of mayonnaise

I didn’t need 4 cans worth of tuna soboro, so I used a can of tuna for each mayonnaise.

1. Drain water or oil from tuna as much as you can, and start cooking.

2. Mix mayonnaise, soy sauce and sugar. The mayonnaise will not completely dissolve, but don’t worry because the heat will melt mayonnaise.

3. When the tuna gets drier, put the mixture of mayo, soy sauce and sugar in and cook until all the fluid is gone. It doesn’t get as dry as beef or pork soboro. Tuna soboro is mushier.

It takes longer than beef/pork soboro because of the water in tuna.

The difference in American mayonnaise and Japanese mayonnaise is that American one uses white distilled vinegar, and Japanese one uses rice vinegar. Also American mayo has a more thick gelatinous texture than Japanese mayo.

Left: American mayonnaise, Right: Japanese mayonnaise Both soboro look exactly the same, but each has very distincitve taste

Turns out from my experiment, tuna soboro with American mayonnaise is milder than tuna soboro with Japanese mayonnaise. My boyfriend thought the one with Japanese mayo tasted like it had more soy sauce in it, even thought they both had the same amount of soy sauce. I think because American mayo is thicker and contains more fat, it makes the tuna tastes milder than with Japanese mayo.

I think I mentioned this a couple of times before, but Japanese dishes tends to taste a bit salty because it is usually meant to be eaten with rice. So if you’re just using tuna soboro in a sandwich or something, American mayo might be better. If you’re using tuna soboro with stir fried vegetables or eating it with rice, Japanese mayo might suit better.

For those who don’t know what to do with soboro, you can use beef/pork/tuna soboro for…

– Onigiri filling. You can just put it inside onigiri.
– Soboro-don (Soboro rice bowl). Put soboro over rice, and you have soboro-don! You can also put scrambled eggs, and stir fried string beans (or any type of green veggie) with soboro and make Sanshoku-don. (three colored rice bowl)
– Stir fried with anything! Since soboro is already seasoned, you can just put it in plain stir fried vegetable.
– Croquettes. (mix with potato)
– Potato salad.
– Making the ground for your kyaraben. That’s what I do. 😛

There are so many ways to use soboro, but I suggest you just sprinkle over food and find out for yourself. 🙂

How to make tuna soboro on my flickr

Also,
How to make soboro on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!