Instead of our regular multi-course complete meal style, in this class, we cooked our two "rice as a main dish with a side dish" suggestions. They are all "one-pot" dishes!
Salmon & Hijiki Rice. Once it was cooked, the skin and bones were removed and the salmon was tossed with the rice.
The side dish was Komatsuna (Japanese spinach) and Abuar-age (fried tofu pouch) "Nibitashi" or a quick stew. It was cooked with our classic-style donabe, "Hakeme". Now that we have a new Kyoto-style (wide & shallow) donabe home, I would love to cook this dish with this new donabe next time.
The meat rice dish was Ginger Pork Belly Donabe Rice. Pork belly block was cut into bite-size pieces and marinated in Chinese rice wine and light soy sauce before they were added to the mixture of short grain regular and mochi rice. When the rice was ready, the aroma was just so fantastic.
For the pork rice, the side dish was Tofu and Lotus Root with Daikon "Mizore" Barley Miso Soup. In this soup, you can enjoy different textures of the ingredients... crunchy lotus, coarse barley miso, soft tofu, slushy grated daikon, with the thickened soup with "kuzuko" (arrowroot starch). The soup developed such nice soothing flavors after it was cooked with our soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe".
Cremant d'Alsace Brut Rose made a nice pairing with both rice dishes.
I had the wonderful time with the most enthusiastic wonderful guests on both dates!
Here's the Menu...
Donabe and Japanese Cooking with Mrs. Donabe
Theme: “Surf & Turf” Rice Dishes with Kamado-san
Date: February 28, 2010
Menu
Salmon and hijiki rice
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Komatsuna and abura-age “nibitashi”
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Ginger pork belly “okowa” style rice
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Tofu and lotus root with daikon “mizore” miso soup
Wine Selection
Domaine Allimant-Laugner, Crémant d’Alsace, Brut Rosé
Happy donabe life.
