Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Nabe = Japanese hotpot

With the arrival of colder weather, we decided it was time for our first nabe of the season.  Nabe (or nabemono) refers to the Japanese one-pot dish where all of the ingredients are cooked together.  We used a clay pot called a "donabe" and a portable burner on a kotatsu table so we could sit and eat leisurely together. You can make your nabe with a variety of vegetables and proteins.  Different nabe varieties include yosenabe, chankonabe, yudofu, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, and there are many regional variations.  We made our nabe with vegetables and cod.
 Hakusai (napa cabbage) on the bottom, with ninjin (carrots), naganagi (leek), daikon (radish), shiitake (mushroom) and enoki (mushroom)
 The broth is made from heating water and a piece of dried kombu (seaweed) on the stovetop.
 Add all of the vegetables to the nabe.  We included pieces of tara (cod) on the bottom.
 Cover and cook.
 After 10-15 minutes, transfer the nabe to a portable stove.  The earthenware pot retains the heat well.
おいしそう!
 Add shirataki noodles (konnyaku noodles) and medium-firm tofu.
 We made the dipping sauce out of a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, yuzu kosho (citrus-flavored pepper), shichimi togarashi (7 pepper spices) and raiyu (garlic sesame chili oil).
 Place some of the cooked nabe ingredients in the dipping sauce and enjoy.
At the end, we added cooked rice and a raw egg to the flavor-infused liquid in the nabe to make zousui.   ごちそうさまでした。

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