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 ramen lunch...with leftovers

Exciting leftover donabe lunch.

I had the super-rich pork broth from making slow-simmered kurobuta pork...infused and reduced down with pork, Tokyo negi, ginger, garlic, sansho pepper corns, and sake.


So, I used the broth to make ramen lunch. The broth was tasting perfect, so I seasoned it with just a pinch of salt.


I also had leftover simmered ground chicken ("tori soboro").


So, I used it as a topping for the ramen, along with boiled egg, chopped cilantro and scallion plus a little drizzle of la-yu at the end. Great one-pot quick donabe lunch made in mini-size classic-style donabe, "Rikyu Tokusa". I used dry instant ramen, and it tasted super!

Happy donabe life.

Donabe torisoboro over donabe rice

I got special new crop Koshhikari rice from Niigata, Japan.


So, I made plain rice with double-lid donabe cooker, "Kamado-san". Just by the look, you can tell it's real premium rice, because each grain shines like a pearl and standing up. The aroma is somewhat sweet, too. It's really, no rice can beat real Japanese rice, cooked in donabe! The texture was so perfectly bouncy.


To accompany this special rice, I made simmered ground chicken ("Tori Soboro"). I made it in mini-size classic-style donabe, "Yu-Kizeto". It's a perfect donabe for this. In addition to chicken and ginger, I also added some minced shiitake mushrooms.


Real happy moment.

Happy donabe life.

Super-simple one-pot donabe udon lunch

Mini-size donabe is great for making single-serving one-pot lunch, too.

Here's my mini Rikyu-Tokusa donabe.

Nikomi udon, with grated daikon and tororo kombu (shaved vinegar-marinated dry kombu), and soy-marinated boiled egg.


On another day, I did udon with miso & kochujang (Korean hot bean paste) broth and runny-yolk dropped egg plus tons of wakame seaweed and enoki mushrooms.

Typical simple Naoko styles.

Happy donabe life.

Mini donabe recipe...Tofu Tamago-toji (Simmered tofu with egg)

This is another very simple Japanese dish. It's also a shojin (Buddhist-style vegan) dish. It's very easy to make, and also I can normally make it with typical ingredients which I hardly run out in the kitchen (tofu, eggs, some kind of mushroom, and fu).

This dish is also very soothing and easy on your stomach for digestion.

For this, I used my small-size classic-style donabe, "Hakeme".

I combined the broth, tofu, fu (wheat gluten), and enoki mushrooms and simmered together. Whisked eggs were added, covered, and simmered longer. That was it. (If you prefer well-cooked egg, simply cook until eggs become solid.)

Served with some sansho pepper. Beautifully tasty.

Here's my recipe.

Tofu Tamago-toji

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups dashi stock

1.5 tablespoons mirin

1 teaspoon raw brown sugar

1 tablespoon light color soy sauce ("usukuchi shyoyu")

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 package soft tofu, drained and quartered

some pieces of small fu (wheat gluten)

3 oz enoki mushrooms

1 tablespoon each kuzuko (arrowroot starch) and water, whisked together

2-3 eggs, beaten

some thinly-sliced shiso leaves for garnish

some sansho pepper

Procedure

1. In a small-size donabe, combine the dashi stock, mirin, sugar, and soy sauce. Bring to simmer.

2. Add the tofu, fu, and mushrooms. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Slowly drizzle the kuzuko-water mixture into the broth and stir.

3. Drizzle the eggs over the ingredients. Cover and continue to simmer until desired doneness.

4. Serve with shiso leaves and sansho pepper.

Happy donabe life.

Mini donabe recipe...Quick-braised Flounder ("Karei no Nitsuke")

Another quick recipe with my mini donabe.

I made Quick-braised flounder fish ("Karei no Nitsuke"). I've introduced this dish (cooked with medium-size classic-style doanbe) in this blog before.

This version with a mini donabe, is a slightly different variation. It's also very simple (actually even easier). For this, I used small-size classic-style donabe, "Rikyu-Tokusa".

1C water, a piece of konbu, 1/3 cup each soy sauce & mirin, and 10-12 oz flounder cuts (blanched for 5 quick seconds in boiling water then shocked in the ice bath) were combined in the mini donabe.

The fish was simmered for about 15 minutes. 1 tsp sansho-no-mi (berries of mountain pepper) and some dry yuzu rinds were added, then simmered for extra few minutes. Yes, that's it! It was so good.

Happy donabe life.

Mini donabe recipe...Simple "Nabe-yaki" Udon

I love my new mini donabe collection, which flew straight from Iga, Japan recently.

This is my new small-size classic-style donabe, "Rikyu-Tokusa". The details are the same as the regular (medium) size Rikyu-Tokusa. It's, of course, also handmade.

One of the dishes I always wanted to make with a mini donabe was single serving udon noodle. In Japanese, it's called "Nabe-yaki Udon" (udon, cooked and served in the same pot). So, I made it! I made the broth in the mini-donabe, added abura-age (fried tofu pouch...which soaks the broth so nicely) and wakame seaweed. Udon was partially cooked separately and added to the donabe and cooked longer to finish. (Or, if you use frozen udon, you can add it directly to the donabe.)

It's such a simple dish and so easy/quick to make, and I never get tired of it!

Here's the basic udon recipe. To apply it to single-serving "Nabe-yaki" style, simply cut the recipe amount into half, and cook the broth in the small donabe.

Happy donabe life.

Mini donabe recipe...Shrimp Wontan and Daikon Soup

I've been eating out more than I've been cooking lately...so, I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post recipes as often as I would like. In the past 7 days, I've dined at more than 10 restaurants including lunch. I've been too busy to take food pictures...but maybe I can give some local resto report sometimes.

But, back to donabe cooking, which is what I truly LOVE.

My new mini donabe pots are really great. They are perfect for single-serving meal, or a small dish to share. Here's my super cute small-size classic-style donabe, "Yu Kizeto".

With this donabe, I made quick Chinese-style soup with shrimp wontan and daikon slices in it. This is perfect for 2-3 appetizer servings. The shrimp filling itself is the same recipe as the filling for previous post's "Shrimp-stuffed abura-age". So, you can make some extra filling and use it to make both dishes, if you like.

Well, I like making my own chicken stock from scratch, but if you are in a rush, you can use an instant chicken stock powder (make sure there is no MSG!). This recipe is so easy, once you have the chicken stock. As soon as everything is cooked through (it takes just a couple of minutes for the shrimp wonton to cook), garnish the soup with minced scallion. You can serve as is, or...

I like topping the soup with Korean seaweed. It adds the nice extra flavor.

You can find the recipe on toiro's website. Hope you will try it.

Happy donabe life.