Unagi don is one of Japan's great celebratory dishes - fillets of eel, grilled until the skin turns dark and lacquered, brushed repeatedly with a sweet, savoury soy glaze called tare, then laid over a bowl of hot, fluffy rice so the glaze seeps down into every grain. It's rich, smoky and slightly sweet, with a texture somewhere between tender and crisp.
Traditionally this is a dish for hot summer days in Japan, believed to give you strength to push through the heat, though these days it's eaten and loved year-round. Restaurants that specialise in unagi spend years perfecting their tare sauce, but a good home version comes together easily using pre-grilled unagi fillets, which are available vacuum-packed from Japanese and Asian grocers.
All you really need to do at home is warm the eel through and build a glossy glaze from soy, mirin and sugar - the kind of thing that takes fifteen minutes but tastes like a special occasion. Serve it with a sprinkle of sansho pepper if you can find it, and a side of pickles to cut through the richness.
