Donabe-steamed Soybean Sprout Namul

I make Korean-style dishes often at home, and "namul" (seasoned vegetable dish) is one of the most frequent and also easiest dishes I make. Among different kinds of namul dishes, I especially like soybean sprout namul.


With cute and handy donabe steam-roaster, "Tochinsai", I can make it really tasty, all in one donabe! I don't even need to boil water.


First, spread soybean sprouts and julienned carrot on the grate of "Tochinsai". Cover with lid and put in microwave for about 2.5 minutes. With the effect of the heating grate and insulated body, they will cook evenly and nicely.


Mix the cooked soybean sprouts and carrot in the namul sauce in the lid of "Tochinsai".


Remove the grate from "Tochinsai" plate. Drain any liquid and wipe. Use the plate as a serving bowl. Yes, that's it!

Donabe-steamed Soybean Sprout and Carrot Namul

Ingredients: (for 3-4 servings as a side dish)
(namul sauce)
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, roasted and ground
1/4 teaspoon grated garlic
a pinch of raw brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon light color soy sauce ("usukuchi shoyu")
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
a pinch of thinly-sliced dry chili or red pepper flakes

6 oz (180 g)soybean sprouts
1.5 oz  (40 g) carrot, julienned

Procedure:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the namul sauce. Set aside.
2. Set a grate (black side up) in the plate of "Tochinsai". Spread the soybean sprouts on the grate and add the carrot on top of the soybean sprouts.
3. Cover with lid and cook in microwave (700-watt) for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
4. Uncover and turn the lid upside down. Once the vegetables are cooled down enough to handle by hand, transfer them into the lid and add the namul sauce. Mix by hand.
5. Serve at a room temperature or cold.

Happy donabe life.

Irizake-steamed Clams and Rapini in Donabe

Steamed clams are always great...it's not only such a tasty dish, but also it's so simple and quick to make.

Instead of regular sake-steamed clams, lately I'm so into "Irizake"-steamed clams. Irizake is such a magical seasoning which used to be used instead of soy sauce during Edo Period in Japan, and I've been making Irizake and using it for various dishes for a while.

Since Irizake is essentially a concentrated and fortified sake with salt-pickled plums ("umeboshi") and dry bonito flakes ("katsuobushi"), the dish becomes especially rich and complex when cooked with it.

The process is still extremely simple. To make this, I used donabe steam-roaster, "Toshinsai".


Garlic and dry red chili pepper were sautéed in olive oil, and clams were added.


Clams were covered with chopped rapini. Irizake was added, covered, and just cooked until the clam opened.


A little amount of yuzu shichimi salt were added and stirred.


Irizake-steamed Clams and Rapini

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, thinly-sliced
1 dry red chili pepper
16-18 oz (450 - 500 g) clams, scrubbed
5 oz (150 g) rapini, chopped
2 tablespoons irizake
a pinch of salt (or I use yuzu shichimi salt)
a couple of lemon wedges

Procedure:

1. In "Tochinsai", sauté the garlic and chili pepper in olive oil over medium heat until aromatic (about 2 minutes).
2. Add the clams. Cover the clams with the rapini. Add the irizake and cover with the lid.
3. Let the ingredients steam until the clams open (about 3-4 minutes).
4. Uncover and add a pinch of salt. Add more if necessary. Stir.
5. Serve immediately. Squeeze some lemon if you like.

What a delicious combination of all the flavors. Irizake really makes this simple dish special. I want to eat this every day.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe deli-style meal

Quick and easy meal with three cute donabe pots.

With donabe steam-roaster, "Tochinsai", I cut kabocha into cubes and simply steam-roasted them until tender (about 4 minutes with 700-W microwave). Then, I added a small bunch of chrysanthemum leaves and microwaved again for another 1 minute. In this way, all the nutrients are kept inside of each vegetable. Also, I like kabocha microwaved in Tochisai so much better than when it is boiled! By steam-roasting in Tochinsai, kabocha tastes more concentrated in flavor and the texture becomes nicely dense, instead of mushy.


With mini-size classic-style donabe, "Hakeme", I made simple seasoned ground chicken ("tori soboro"), and with mini-size classic-style donabe, "Rikyu-Tokusa", I made yuzu-kosho marinated mixed mushrooms. To make this, I sautéed about 12 oz of mixed mushrooms (shimeji, shiitake, and enoki) in 2T olive oil over medium heat, deglazed with a tablespoon of sake and cooked for additional 2-3 minutes. Once I turned off the heat, I added the marinade mixture (3T olive oil, 1 tsp shio-koji, and 2 tsp yuzu-kosho) to the mushrooms.


These two mini-donabe dishes were served as condiments for kabocha and chrysanthemum leaves. What a tasty balanced donabe meal, and so easy to prepare. They are all great hot or at room temperature.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe & Leftover Dumplings

We found a great rustic and authentic Chinese (Beijing-style) dumpling house in Monterey Park.
The place is called, Fortune Number 1, and their menu has a long list of steamed buns, boiled dumplings, as well as hot pot dishes, etc.


For two of us, two orders of dumplings were more than enough. We also ordered a scallion pancake. Both the pork buns and pork dumplings were really steamy and the doughs were perfect. Scallion pancake was really tasty, too. There were 8 knuckle-size buns in the steam basket, and each of us ate 3! I want to go back to this place to try other dishes, too.


The next day, I heated leftover pork buns in my microwavable donabe, "Tochinsai". I know how buns normally get too firm and lose good texture if you just wrap them in plastic and microwave. But, with this donabe, the buns came out like they were just out of the steamer! So, I could really enjoy the steamy Chinese buns two days in a row.

Happy donabe life.

Quick donabe lunch...tofu and leftover vegetables in miso sauce

Making quick lunch is normally a peaceful time for me.

I look inside of the fridge for leftover ingredients which needs to be used soon, then I just come up with a simple donabe dish with these ingredients.


Iga-yaki Steam-roaster donabe, "Tochinsai" is often a very convenient donabe to make a single-serving one pot meal.

A little drizzle of sesame oil in the bottom, then I just added some sliced garlic, shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, cherry tomatoes, and put a piece of soft tofu in the center.  Sauce was a simple mixture of 1.5T each sake and homemade miso.  It was poured over the vegetables, then covered with lid and steam-fried over medium-heat gas stove top for about 10 minutes.  How easy isn't it?!


At the table, I added some homemade chunky la-yu and sliced scallion and mixed everything together with a spoon.  That was it!

What a deep-flavored balanced meal...and it was unintentionally vegan and low-carb.
Donabe magic.

Happy donabe life.

Summer somen time...chilled in Donabe

Cold somen noodle is one of summer's signature dishes in Japanese culture.
I've been eating somen noodles 3 days in a row, and I never get tired of it.  Rather, I only look forward to eating more the next day.

And the best way to serve cold somen noodle is...with donabe!

I brought back a lot of somen noodles from Japan.  This time, I got different brands of handmade somen from Shodoshima Island of Japan.  Shodoshima is a small island between Honshu and Shikoku, and it's one of the top somen-making regions in Japan.  There are more than 200 somen producers in this island with the population of merely 40,000 people.


This was an unique semi-dry uncut somen.  It was almost 5-feet long!  So, I cut them before boiling them.


Chicken tenders were marinated in shio-koji and simply steam-roasted in my donabe steam-roaster, Tochinsai.  In just a couple of minutes in microwave, chicken came out perfectly cooked.  Once the chicken tenders were cooled down, I shredded them by hand and set aside.


Somen noodles were boiled for a couple of minutes and rinsed in cold water.  They were served on ice cubes in a classic-style donabe, "Yu Kizeto".  Because of the porous body, Iga-yaki donabe is not only great over flame, but also works wonderfully as a "mini fridge".  You put ice cubes in Iga-yaki donabe, and the body becomes insulated and keeps the food cold for a long time.  So, the cold somen noodles stay cold nicely, and it also makes beautiful classy presentation.  Especially with a special wood fork for scooping somen!


The handmade somen noodles tasted really really nice.  Wow, I just couldn't stop eating.  With my homemade dipping sauce, I served chicken tender and other condiments such as roasted sesame seeds, minced scallion, yuzu-kosho paste, etc.


This was also handmade but dry somen, made from premium Haruyutaka flour from Hokkaido and sun-dried salt.  Dashi-maki tamago (Japanese dashi-rich rolled omelet) always makes nice accompaniment with cold noodle dish, somehow.


Another somen noodle from Shodoshima Island.  It was also made from different special flour from Hokkaido (Tokachi region).This kind was aged for 2 years.  Yes, we even take somen and dipping sauce set to the beach!  It tasted especially nice between boogie boarding, even though eating out of plastic containers, last weekend.


This last one is actually not somen, but it's Hiyamugi, which is also made from flour but a little thicker than somen.  This was Inaniwa Hiyamugi from Inaniwa Town of Akita Prefecture.  Inaniwa is most famous for its handmade udon (Inaniwa Udon) but they also make handmade hiyamugi in very similar manners as making udon.  This traditional noodle with 400 years of history takes 4 days to make.  We enjoyed it with my homemade miso-sesame dipping sauce.  What a treat.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Steam-fried Shio-koji Chicken Tender

Shio-koji is indeed a magical seasoning, because it makes a simple dish taste so complete.  The enzyme of koji also tenderizes meat.  Super simple, tasty, and healthy donabe dish is here.

For this dish, I used Donabe Steam-roaster, "Tochinsai".  This compact donabe is very versatile and you can used it on both stove top and microwave.

Donabe Steam-fried Shio-koji Chicken Tender

Cut 1/2lb chicken tender into bite-size pieces and marinate in 1T shio-koji for overnight.  On a skillet of Tochinsai, drizzle 1T olive oil and spread 1 clove garlic (sliced).  Add the shio-koji marinated chicken to the skillet so that the chicken is in one layer.  Add 1T sake and cover with lid (by soaking the lid in water for a few minutes before using it, it will give a nice steaming effect).  Cook over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until the bottom side of the chicken is golden.

Stir the chicken and add 3 oz sugar snap peas and 4-6 cherry tomatoes (halved).  Cover again and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes or until everything is just cooked through.  Drizzle 1 tsp soy sauce.  Turn off the heat and let rest for a few minutes (carryover heat will continue to cook the ingredients inside).  Stir the ingredients lightly and serve.

It's a umami-packed tasty dish.  Chicken becomes really tender.

Happy donabe life.