Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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Miyuki Igarashi was born as the eldest daughter of a couple who ran a Chinese restaurant.

When she came home from school, she would set down her school backpack and head to the restaurant kitchen on the first floor of her home, where a heap of dishes waited for her in the sink. She helped every day washing dishes, among other chores.

Igarashi’s mother would often cook her “chuka-don,” or a Chinese-style rice bowl dish, while working in the kitchen. She would casually hand it over, and Igarashi would eat it at a corner of the counter. The ingredients of vegetables and bits of barbecued pork varied from day to day. It was her lucky day when she found a boiled quail egg among the ingredients.

“Though I ate it without thinking at the time, the dish had vegetables and meat, and it was so nutritious. Chuka-don is amazing,” Igarashi said.

Her father, who owned the restaurant, was a hardheaded man and would yell at her mother. Watching her parents frequently argue, Igarashi once asked her mother when she was in elementary school, “Why did you marry Dad?”

“Because a woman cannot live on her own” was the answer.

Hearing that, Igarashi promised herself, “I will learn skills and become someone who can stand on her own.”

Though she was tempted to take things easy, Igarashi thought it was important to acquire cooking skills, which she did by watching her father at work. She studied about food in high school, and after graduation, she began officially working in the kitchen of her parents’ restaurant.

The restaurant earned a local reputation for serving good food, and her father was even invited to appear on the popular TV show “Iron Chef.” Igarashi, who was 22 at that time, appeared on the show instead.

She drew attention as the youngest female chef to appear on the show, and the restaurant shot to fame. After working at her parents’ restaurant for about 10 years, Igarashi decided to strike out on her own.

The keys to a good chuka-don are the texture of the vegetables and the colors they offer. To retain the texture and bright colors, there is a preparation process in Chinese cooking called “aburadoshi,” where the ingredients are plunged in heated oil.

But since this is not practical at home, Igarashi came up with “oil coating” where the fresh ingredients are dressed in oil before being heated. This way, they will cook quickly.

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Miyuki Igarashi: Born in 1974 in Tokyo, Igarashi is the owner-chef of a Chinese restaurant. She opened Chugoku Ryori Miyu in Tokyo in 2008 and also directly manages a restaurant in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. She is known for “healthy Chinese cuisine” with a moderate use of oil and seasonings.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serves two)

40 grams bok choy (chingensai), 80 grams Chinese cabbage, 1 green asparagus, 1/6 red bell pepper (papurika type), 1 baby corn, 1 shiitake mushroom, 80 grams sliced pork bits (buta-komagire-niku), 2 peeled and boiled shrimp, 2 boiled quail eggs, 1 slice ginger, 150 ml chicken stock, Seasoning A (1 Tbsp oyster sauce, 1/2 Tbsp each of soy sauce, vinegar and sugar), mixture of katakuriko starch and water (1 Tbsp each of water and katakuriko), 300 grams rice

1. Cut ginger into 1 cm slices on a side. Cut vegetables and shiitake into larger bite-size pieces.

2. Place vegetables, except for ginger, and shiitake in bowl. Pour 2 Tbsp oil in circular motion, mix lightly so oil coats all.

3. Pour 1 Tbsp sesame oil in frying pan, add pork and ginger and stir-fry. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add (2), shrimp and peeled quail egg, cover with lid and cook for about 1 minute.

The key is to add vegetables when chicken stock has come to a boil. By adding vegetables to the hot soup and cooking in a short time under a lid, they remain crunchy.

4. Remove lid, add Seasoning A and stir-fry briefly. As a final touch, add mixture of katakuriko and water to thicken. Serve on rice.

About 605 kcal and 2.2 grams of salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column