Foil-wrapped Matsutake Mushrooms, wakame and Scallops in Toban

Matsutake, scallop, and wakame in Toban

Matsutake season has arrived. I'm very happy. This year, both in Japan and in the US, I heard that the matsutake mushrooms are experiencing a very good harvest, thus the price in general is more affordable than previous years.

So, since matsutake has been out in the market this season, I've been cooking and eating matsutake so many times already in so many ways.

One of the easiest and tasty ways to cook matsutake for me is with donabe skillet, "Toban". I make foil-wrap matsutake mushrooms with my toban.

Here's how I make it.


Slice the matsutake mushrooms first. Then, take a large piece of aluminum foil and place on toban. Rub a little amount of butter on the aluminum foil then pile the ingredients, starting from the bottom with wakame seaweed (rehydrate first, if you are using dry kind), thinly-sliced tofu (pressed to drain beforehand), sashimi scallops, and sliced matsutake mushrooms. Sprinkle some butter on top.


Wrap and seal the foil. Put the toban with the wrapped foil in the 450F (230C)-degree oven and steam-roast for 18-20 minutes.


Break open the top and carefully slide the content into the toban. Drizzle some ponzu and garnish with chopped mitsuba. The super aromatic matsutake and scallop are ready. The scallops were perfectly cooked to medium-rare, because they were under the matsutake. The combination of the flavors of matsutake, scallop, and butter created amazing effect on the palate!


You can make different variations of this dish. The other day, I did foil wrap of simply wakame and matsutake (no tofu or scallop). It was really nice. Scallop can be substituted with chicken tender, too.

Happy donabe life.

Toban Firely Konnyaku ("Kaminari Konnyaku")

Konnyaku (yam jelly) is a very convenient ingredient to keep in a fridge, as a packaged konnyaku can keep long and can be used in a wide variety of dishes. It's close to zero calories and has a lot of fibers, so it's a good diet food, too.

This dish is called Kaminari Konnyaku...Kaminari means "thunder" in Japanese. The name of this dish comes from the cracking sound while sautéing the konnyaku and also the heat from the added chili pepper.


To make the dish, Iga-yaki Toban is the perfect cooking vessel. You can serve right in the Toban at the table, and the size is also just right.
Tear 1 piece (about 7 oz or 200 g) of konnyaku into bite-size pieces and blanch for a few minutes in boiling water. Then, in the empty heated toban (medium heat), add the drained konnyaku and sauté until the surface is dry. Add 1T sesame oil and 2 shiitake mushrooms (sliced) and continue to sauté until the mushrooms are soft. Make a mixture of 2T sake, 2T, and 1T miring and add to Toban. Continue to saute until the moisture is almost completely reduced. To finish, sprinkle some sesame seeds and sliced dry chili. Serve immediately.


With my quick Kaminari Konnyaku, I served wakame & shirasu fish rice, daikon & abura-age miso soup, hijiki stew, tamago-yaki, and crab and vegetable salad.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe recipe...Miso-lime Jumbo Shrimp in Iga-yaki Toban

When I don't have time, this dish saves so much time and makes a very nice savory main course.  I love it!  You just quickly marinade the shrimp and cook in the Iga-yaki donabe skillet, "Toban".  Once it's ready, you can take the toban right to the table to enjoy.

Miso-lime Jumbo Shrimp in Toban

1. To make the marinade, whisk together 2T miso, 1 clove garlic (grated), 1tsp grated ginger, 2T lime juice, 1tsp sake, 1/2T sesame oil, and 1.5T olive oil.
2. Peel 8 jumbo shrimp and marinade in the miso sauce for 10-15 minutes.


3. Pan-sear the shrimp in the oiled Toban both sides until cooked through.


4. Serve with cilantro and some la-yu (hot chili oil)

Happy donabe life.

Donabe recipe...Sun-dry Zucchini and Shio-koji Chicken Tender in Iga-yaki Toban

Taking advantage of the intense sun...


Sliced zucchini becomes nicely semi-dry after half day of sun-bathing.  Sun-dried zucchini is packed with umami flavors and the texture becomes very nice, too.

With the sun-dried zucchini, I enjoy making very simple donabe dish with my Iga-yaki donabe skillet, "Toban".  It's a delightful izakaya-style one pot (skillet) dish.


Sun-dry Zucchini and Shio-koji Chicken in Toban


In Toban, sauté 2 miedum-size zucchini (sliced and sun-dried) until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes each side) in olive oil.  Transfer to a plate and set aside.


Coat the toban in 1T oilve oil and add 8 oz  chicken tender (cut into bite-size pieces and marinated in 1T shio-koji for at least 6 hours to overnight).  Cook until the chicken is lightly golden (about 2 minutes each side) and almost cooked through over medium-high heat.


Add 1T sake and the cooked zucchini back into the Toban.  Stir until sake is reduced down.  Turn off the heat and add some ground black pepper, 2T grated Parmigiano Reggiano and 1/2T chopped parsley.  Serve immediately.

The shio-koji chicken is so tender and zucchini is meaty.  It's a umami-packed wonderful dish.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe izakaya-style dish...Oysters in Oyster Sauce

You don't see foie gras sold or served commercially in California anymore.  Luckily, oysters are not banned in the State of California, so I can buy as many oysters as I want right now.  I wonder maybe in the future oysters will also be banned because some people say forcing open the oyster shells is considered animal abuse?!

"Milk" of the ocean.  I love oysters so much.  This is what I make sometimes as one of small dishes to serve at dinner.  I do quick high-heat simmer of oysters in Chinese rice wine in donabe skillet, "Toban", so the flavors are sealed inside and oysters come so plump and tasty with the effect of toban cooking.


Oysters in Oyster Sauce

Ingredients:
10-12 oz  shelled oysters
1 tablespoon  Chinese rice wine (or sake)
2 teaspoons  oyster sauce
1 teaspoon  soy sauce
some la-yu (hot oil)
some scallions

Procedure:
1. To clean the oysters, in a bowl combine the oysters and 1/2T salt and mix by hand throughly.  Rinse in running water and pat dry the oysters.
2. In the donabe skillet, "Toban", add the oysters and sake and bring over high heat.  Once the oysters are plump, add the oyster sauce and soy sauce and stir once.  Turn off the heat.
3. Drizzle some la-yu and garnish with thinly-sliced scallion.


I also made a couple other izakaya-style dishes to go with donabe rice.  Carrot in ama-zu (sweet and sour) marinade.  Carrot slices were steam-roasted until crisp tender in the microwavable-donabe, "Tochinsai".  I also made hijiki and avocado salad.

Happy donabe life.

Toban-baked Mountain Yam ("Yama-imo")

Another wonderful izakaya-style dish.

This time, with my Iga-yaki Toban (donabe skillet).

I shredded some about 7 oz yama-imo (mountain yam), and mixed with 2T steamed shirasu (baby white fish), 1.5tsp shio-koji (can be substituted with a good pinch of sea salt), 1 tspkuzuko (arrowroot starch), and 2T shredded Swiss cheese. The mixture was poured into oiled heated toban, and topped with some more cheese. It was cooked for 4-5 minutes over medium-heat and finished in broiler to brown the surface.  To serve, it was garnished with some minced scallion.  For vegetarian version, you can simply omit shirasu fish, and it would still taste very flavorful.

It was great. Outside was nicely crisp and inside was gooey. Another sake-friendly dish.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Negi-Jako-Miso Gohan...Yaki Onigiri (Grilled rice balls) on Toban!

I'm so hooked with my Donabe Negi-Jako-Miso Gohan. The combination of different flavors and textures work quite perfectly in this humble rice dish.

So this time, I made it into Yaki Onigiri (grilled rice balls).

I made it into triangle-shape onigiri and lightly grilled on Iga-yaki TOBAN (donabe skillet). As the rice balls were being grilled, the beautiful miso aroma was floating in the kitchen and I just couldn't wait to taste them.

Meanwhile, I sliced my 24-hour shio-koji marinated soft-boiled eggs. Mmm...perfectly done.

My Toban yaki onigiri with shio-koji marinated eggs. Fantastico...waaaah...sooo good.

Happy donabe life.

Very izakaya-style quick donabe dishes

Supper one night.


With Iga-yaki toban (donabe skillet), I seared squid legs (I marinated them in shio-koji for 1 hour) and deglazed with sake.


With tagine-style donabe, “Fukkura-san”, I simply steam-roasted salt-marinated hokke. With Fukkura-san, the fish comes out so moist and tasty. (with the crisp skin in the bottom)

Really tasty.

Toban (donabe skillet) cooking...Natto Okonomi-yaki (savory pancake)

With my small-size Iga-yaki donabe, I can make quick and delicious meal for one.

The other day, I was craving for Okonomi-yaki (Japanese savory pancake), so I made it with Iga-yaki Toban (donabe skillet). Because this toban is made of 100% Iga-clay, once it's heated, the toban gives the intense steady heat and cooks the ingredients so nicely.

First, I heated some olive oil in the toban over medium-high heat. Once it was hot, I turned down the heat to medium-low.

I poured the batter (mixture of flour, water, egg, kombu powder, mountain yam, cabbage, dry baby shrimp, scallion) and covered the surface with a package of natto (fermented soybean).

After 4-5 minutes, it was turned over and cooked for 3-4 more minutes.

My quick Natto Okonomi-yaki was ready. I decorated it with some "okonomi" sauce, mayo, sliced scallion, bonito flakes, and ao-nori flakes. Because it was cooked in Iga-yaki toban, the texture was nicely fluffy, and Okonomi-yaki remained to be hot for a long while. It was just delicious!

Happy donabe life.

Toban (donabe skillet) cooking...Mixed Mushrooms & WP24 Peking Duck Izakaya-style

I took home some leftover Peking Duck slices fro dinner at WP24 the other night...

Instead of just reheating it to enjoy it again, I decided to use it for a quick izakaya-style dish with my beautiful Iga-yaki Toban (donabe skillet). Because this is made of 100% special Iga-clay, this Toban builds the heat very nicely and cooks the ingredients fast and juicy. And, you can just take it directly to the table as the nice presentation. How convenient! Here's how I made it...it's so easy and so tasty!

Toban Mushrooms & Peking Duck "Tamago-toji" (finished with egg)

First, just pile the leftover roasted peking duck (about 4 oz, further sliced into strips), some minced ginger and garlic, one package (3.5 oz) shimeji mushrooms, and 5-6 medium-size shiitake mushrooms (thinly-sliced) in Toban, and set over medium-high heat gas stove top. Because the duck skin has good amount of fat, the ingredients starts to sizzle nicely without additional oil.

Turn down the heat to medium, stir for a couple of minutes until mushrooms are soft. Add 2T sake, 1T mirin, and 1T soy sauce, and stir. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn down the heat further if necessary.

Whisk together 2 large eggs in a bowl, and drizzle over the duck/ mushroom mixture. Cover with a lid (or a piece of aluminum foil), and cook for 1 minute (or longer according to your preference of egg doneness). Turn off the heat and let it sit for another 1-2 minutes.

Garnish with sliced scallion and shiso leaves. Serve with sansho pepper powder, if you like.

*Leftover roasted Peking duck can be substituted with fresh meat, such as cut chicken thigh. In this case, add 1/2T sesame oil to Toban before piling up the ingredients.

The dish was so flavorful and great with some freshly made donabe rice!

Happy donabe life.