ippudo nabe soup

Since Satoshi was sick I thought “sharing” nabe (hot pot) was risking me getting whatever he had, so I made each of us a bowl of tan tan men instead

I used half of the soup since the package says it is for 3 to 4 people.

First I cooked some minced pork, man! the oil that came out from the pork.

After sopping up the oil with many paper towels, I added a little taberu rayu (chili crisp), then drained the whole thing on another paper towel

I also chopped up nuts since Ippudo’s karaka men has nuts in it

The noodles we bought were a little too thick for my liking, but this was spicy and delicious.

We also had gyoza with this.

I stuck the other half of the soup in the freezer, so we'll definitely have this again, hopefully we'll be able to find thinner noodles 

ichiriki

Ichiriki with good friend G!

Lots to catch up on since from before the pandemic.

It was my first time here, the food was delicious.

It was nice catching up with G and we hope to meet up for cherry blossoms next year!

Thanks for today, G! 

gyoza nabe

We recently tried these huge gyoza called Ken-chan gyoza.

They are made in Tokyo and the wrappers are quite thick.

I thought the gyoza snob would not approve but he gave this a thumbs up.

shh...I don't think he actually has criteria for gyoza....

This was tasty though and I'm glad we tried this, if I see it at the market again, I'll pick up some more.

yosenabe

Yosenabe literally means collection hot pot.

You put whatever you want into the hot pot.

I cooked half a daikon, 1 carrrot, 1 "stick" of gobo (burdock) and the outer part of some chinese cabbage.

Then I cooked the nabe set I purchased from Benny.

The price of the set was super reasonable and there was all sorts of seafood...bummer that one of the clams did not open after being cooked.

The crab was kind of slim pickings too...but the broth was flavorful

Our blog rarely had nabe on it in the past, but now that "someone" eats at home more, we can have nabe more often.

If you eat nabe (hot pot), what is your favorite ingredient?

mizore nabe

Recently we tried mizore nabe.

Mizore in Japanese means sleet.

Grating the daikon makes it look like "sleet".

I peeled then grated a 8-inch long piece of daikon, then set it aside.

Then, I filled up our clay pot with all sorts of veggies (chinese cabbage, chrysanthemum greens, carrots, maitake mushrooms) and a little pork.

Added 4 cups of dashi and brought everything to a boil then down to a simmer.

After cooking everything, I turned off the heat, squeezed out the water from the grated daikon and added it to the nabe, heating it in the clay pot for like a minute or two.

We ate this with ponzu (citrus soy sauce) and a little shichimi (Japanese 7-spice) but you can eat it with your favorite condiment.

I'm glad we tried this, it was a nice way to warm up and also use up some daikon.

the past couple of days

The weekend was forecast for the coldest front in many moons.

The weather dude even forecast that Okinawa may even get some snow!

Whoa?!

We bought some water for drinking, just in case the power went out.

My survival skills go only as far as for hurricanes, so this blizzard thing was new to me.

Luckily (read disappointedly), we didn't have ANY snow.

In fact, the sun came out for the most part of the day.

Still, we didn't go outside, the wind was pretty icy.

Oh well, at least I got to finish a book I was reading.

Dinner was a nabe (hot pot) of pork belly, hakusai (chinese cabbage), a can of diced tomato, dashi (stock) and curry powder.

We also had some really pale gyoza...I still need to get the hang of cooking gyoza...

To end, we made ojiya and added some rice and cheese.

Hope your weekend was a good one.

sunday dinner

Awhile back, I made mille feuille in my frying pan with a cover.

On a recent trip to visit MIL, I asked Satoshi to look for a donabe (clay pot) amongst her "stash".

She had several and Satoshi brought home this one made by Ginpo. These are made in Japan and are very sturdy (and heavy!). They hold heat well.

Last night we had mille feuille for our Sunday dinner, made in the donabe.

I had to adjust my recipe because this pot holds more liquid.

Instead of 1.5 cups of water, I used 6 cups. The flavors were a lot lighter but since Satoshi is watching his sodium, it was just right.

We had this with beer.

And at the end, I re-heated the soup, added some rice and egg to make a dish called Ojiya (which is also known as Zosui--a porridge of rice and veggies).

You might be wondering what the difference between zosui/ojiya and okayu is? Well, Okayu is just the porridge of rice (plain, if you will). Zosui/ojiya is a rice porridge that is seasoned with condiments like miso, shoyu or salt.

Dinner was easy to put together and I can see why lots of families like to make this during the winter.

I think we'll try other dishes in this donabe (clay pot) for our Sunday dinners in the coming weeks.

Have a nice week!

zuwaigani

Yesterday, it rained all.day.long.

We stayed indoors, and had our zuwaigani (snow crab) which we received from the mystery tour for dinner.

I think I told you I don't have something proper to heat sake in, well, I don't have a proper clay pot to make nabe (hot pot) either.

Anyway, we made do with what pots I do have.

The veggies (hakusai (chinese cabbage), shungiku (garland chrysanthemum), maitake and carrots, I cooked in my frying pan with a couple of ladlefuls of dashi with a cover.

The crab, we removed the legs and put them in a pot along with some dashi (stock) and heated them for about 5 minutes.

Since the crab was par-boiled, it didn't need to be cooked too long, just heated through.

By the way, the 2nd photo is the way Satoshi wanted to show you the crab...beady eyes and all.

For the dashi, put 4 cups of water and a 10 centimeter (3.9 inch) piece of konbu in a pot and heat until just before boiling.

Remove the konbu and add 2 tablespoons sake (rice wine) and 1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce).

Cook for about 5 minutes to burn off alcohol of sake.

This was delicious, the crab had a slight sweetness to it, though we thought there could've been a bit more "meat".

Still, was a great dinner and a nice way to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

millefeuille

You won't find many nabe (hot pot) dishes on this blog for three reasons...on weekdays, most times Satoshi and I eat at different times. On weekends, we mostly eat out. And I don't have a proper donabe (doe-nah-bay = deep ceramic pot).

After seeing a similar dish on television, I was itching to try this, but not wanting to go out and buy a donabe, so I made do with what I had...a 10-inch non-stick pan with a cover.

Millefeuille means a thousand leaves in French and is usually found as a dessert with layers of puff pastry and custard cream.

This recipe is a savory version.

Kat's Pork Kim chee MilleFeuille Style "Nabe"

300 grams pork belly, thinly sliced
100 grams kim chee
1/4 hakusai (chinese cabbage)
1 pack maitake (hen of woods mushroom), broken up into pieces
1 pack eringi (oyster mushroom), sliced thinly
1 chicken consomme cube
1.5 cups water

Cut the core of the cabbage and wash each leaf, leaving it as much intact as possible
If the base of the rib of the leaf looks thick, use a peeler and shave off some of it
Also, if the leaf is too wide, cut it to a 3-inch width

Layer cabbage and pork, then slice to about 3-inch squares.
Arrange the layers into your pan or deep pot
Add maitake, eringi and kim chee into the gaps.

On low heat, add part of the water and cover.
Cook for 10 minutes then add the consomme cube.
Add more of the water then cover and cook for another 10 minutes.

Check to see that the rib of the cabbage is at least a little cooked through, it doesn't have to be limp.

And as long as the soup comes up to near the top of your layers, the pork should be cooked through after the 20 minutes.

NOTES: this was so good! If I had a deeper pot or larger frying pan, this would have been easier to cook.

I know this blog has a lot of pork and kim chee combination recipes but the two go so well together.

The last picture is of what was leftover in a 4-cup Ziploc container, by the way, Satoshi had 4 servings and 2 bowls of rice.

I'm making this again.

It's Friday here, hope you have a good weekend!

yudofu

I made this dish awhile ago, but I thought I would post about it today since it is raining and the temperature has started to drop here.

This dish is another great way to use ponzu. It is called yudofu, which translates to tofu (soy bean curd) boiled in a pot of hot water. Doesn't sound too appetizing, yeah? But, it is actually a nice, light way to warm up on these cold nights.

I don't have the donabe (ceramic pots) that you will usually see this dish cooked in in restaurants.

First make your stock. In a shallow pot, put 500 cc (about 2.5 cups) of water and a 2 inch piece of dashi konbu (kelp that you use to make stock), bring to a boil. If you are serving more than 2 people, increase the water and konbu.

While the broth starts to warm up, get your veggies and tofu ready. I used shiitake, carrots, hakusai (chinese cabbage) and a semi-firm tofu. You could also add leeks, I didn't have any.

To cut the star/cross on top of the shiitake, take your knife and cut the top at an angle from right to left, not cutting all the way through. Take your knife again and cut at an angle from left to right. Repeat until you get the design you desire, just don't cut through the mushroom. Throw the bits from the cut-out design into your broth.

Cut your carrots and hakusai to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness, this will help for them to cook quickly. Cut your tofu into cubes. If you use leeks, cut them at an angle to about 3 or 4 inch pieces.

When the broth starts to boil, turn heat to simmer and put in the veggies that will take the longest to cook--carrots and hakusai (and leeks). When those veggies get soft, add the tofu and shiitake.

Take out and splash some ponzu on and add a little more stock to your bowl.

Enjoy!

Hope you are keeping warm where you are.

the day after...

It's the day after Christmas and Satoshi is back to work. Santa brought us some great gifts. We really appreciate our family and friends who also sent us some great things and who were really thoughtful for remembering us this Christmas. Thank you!!

Our party with Satoshi's co-workers and their families was nice. We were literally eating ALL afternoon.

I brought "kamaboko" (fish cake) dip (sorry I ran out of memory space on my camera, so no photo) and a box of Ritz crackers to eat the dip with. After the appetizers of kamaboko dip, salmon sashimi (sliced and raw) and salad, we moved onto the next course, bulgogi (a Korean dish of thinly sliced beef marinated in shoyu, garlic and other spices)...there was a brief intermission (the children, including the men went out to play dodge ball...)...the women chatted....the next course was "nabemono" or "nabe" (which is a meal cooked in an earthen pot).

Nabemono is eaten mostly during the winter months. The flavoring of the "nabe" broth varies from household. Recently, kim chee nabe and tonyu (soy milk) nabe have been big hits. We had kim chee nabe. Boy, was it SPICY!!

After the nabe was eaten, it was dessert time...Christmas cake. During Christmas, the price of cake skyrockets. You can expect to pay close to $40 (or more) for a 6" round cake. The cake is usually a yellow sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries in it and on top. You can also find yule log style cakes. Thank goodness the cakes were small, we all had a little piece and by 8:00pm were STUFFED to the gills!!

The children seemed to enjoy all the food and the adults enjoyed the company.

Kamaboko dip
1 kamaboko grated
chopped green onions (the amount is up to you)
pepper to taste
add mayonnaise for the consistency that you want
box of Ritz crackers (or your favorite cracker)
5 water chestnuts-chopped (I can't find them in Japan (don't know the Japanese name))--optional

It is a really easy recipe, try it!!
We hope you had a nice Christmas!!

UPDATE: the Japanese name for water chestnuts is kuwai (coo-why)