Donabe Recipes...Summer Vegetables Curry with Turmeric Rice

I'm on fire doing donabe cooking with all the summer vegetables.
And, of course, my appetite for tomato curry grows even bigger especially in the summer time. This dish can be made with very similar ingredients as making ratatouille. The big difference is the spice. Just like my ratatouille, vegetables can be sun-dried beforehand. But, in this recipe, I simply salted eggplant and zucchini to take some moisture out before cooking. Cherry tomatoes and kabocha are cooked separately in the oven. They can be directly added to donabe without pre-cooked, but these extra steps make the dish taste much nicer. Kabocha tastes sweeter and its texture is much better aftert it's roasted.


Here's my summer vegetable curry recipe. The dish is completely vegan, and extremely satisfying. I use shio-koji to season the dish, so this brings up the umami flavors in this dish. My husband loves it so much he says he can finish the whole donabe-ful of it himself. My soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", stays so busy during the summertime.


The curry is served with my donabe turmeric rice, which was made in double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamdo-san". This time, I used just water, instead of vegetable stock, and added some mochi-mugi (sweet barley) to brown rice. It was so nice with the curry.


Vegetable curry and turmeric rice, both were made in donabe. It's so hard to stop eating.


Tomato-flavored Summer Vegetable Curry
(for large-size "Miso-shiru Nabe")

Ingredients (4 servings)

5 oz (150 g) cherry tomatoes, halved

1/6 medium kabocha squash, shave off thin layer of skin, and cut into large bite-size pieces

3 medium Japanese eggplants, cut into oblique

2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2" (1 cm) thick disks

olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, grated
1 knob ginger, grated (about 1/2 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 3/4" (2 cm) square
2 to 3 teaspoons curry powder (make sure it's very high quality)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
8 oz (240 ml) crushed tomato from a jar/ can
1 cup (240 ml) vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons shio-koji (can be substitued with 1 teaspoon sea salt)
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Pre-heat the oven at 350F (180C) degrees. In a sheet pan, toss the halved cherry tomatoes in some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread in one layer. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes. Set aside.
2. Turn up the oven to 450F (230C) degrees. In another sheet pan, toss the kabocha in some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread in one layer. Roast in the oven until it's just tender (15 - 20 minutes). Set aside.
3. Put the eggplants and zucchini in colanders separately and sprinkle some salt and leave to let them sweat for 15 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan and sauté the eggplants over medium to medium-high heat until golden brown. Transfer the eggplants to a plate lined with paper towel to drain excess grease. Set aside.
5. Wipe off the grease from the pan and heat 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sauté the zucchini over medium-high heat until golden brown. Transfer the eggplants to a plate lined with paper towel to drain excess grease. Set aside.
6. In "Miso-shiru Nabe", heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and sauté the onions for 20-25 minutes until the onions are lightly browned.
7. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, and bell pepper. Sauté until the bell pepper is softer (2-3 minutes). Add the curry powder, and cayenne. Continue to sauté for a minute or so until the mixture becomes fragrant.
8. Add the bay leaves, tomato sauce, and vegetable stock. Turn up the heat to medium-high. As soon as the mixture (curry) starts almost boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the garam masala and shio-koji, and ground some black pepper. Adjust the seasoning with some salt, if necessary.
9. Add the rest of the vegetables, and stir. Bring back to simmer and turn off the heat. Serve with donabe turmeric rice or plain rice.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Shio-koji Ratatouille with Sun-dried Vegetables

Here's another tomato-flavor dish with donabe!
My heart is so geared up for all the summer flavors. Ratatouille is one of the simple summer dishes I enjoy both making and eating so much. Jason loves my ratatouille so much that he says he can eat a whole donabe full of it himself.


There are few points for the wonderful result in my donabe ratatouille. First, I sun-dry the vegetables for a few hours to half day. I'm not necessarily drying the vegetables, but I let them "sun-bathe" until they shrink a little and just the outside is dry when touched but inside is still moist. This process will make the dish less watery and flavors richer in umami. Also, the texture will be much better (less mushy), too. Also, instead of cooking everything in one pot, I pan-fry the eggplant and zucchini separately in a sauté pan until the surface is golden brown, before assembling with the other ingredients in donabe. This process helps preventing ingredients from collapsing, and makes the texture better, too.


Once all the vegetables are in a donabe, add the crushed tomato, shio-koji (or salt is okay), and the remaining ingredients. Then, simmer for 15 minutes or so.


The delicious ratatouille is ready. Shio-koji seasons the dish with rich round flavor. It's an excellent donabe dish.


Shio-koji Ratatouille
(for medium-size classic-syle donabe)

Ingredients: 4 servings

4 medium zucchini, cut into 1/3" (8 mm) thick disks
6 medium Japanese eggplant, cut into 1/3" (8 mm) thick disks
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
1 orange bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
5 oz (150 g) shimeji mushrooms
6 oz (180 g) cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 medium onion, minced
1/2 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 cloves garlic, thinly-sliced
1 1/2 cups (360 ml) crushed tomato (in a jar or can)
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons shio-koji or 1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
olive oil
salt and pepper


Procedure:

1. Place the cut zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, and shimeji mushrooms in baskets, and let them sun-dry until they are slightly shrank and dry on the surface (a few hours to half day). Rinse and pat dry. Cut off the bottom of the shimeji mushrooms and pull apart by hand.
2. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven at 350F (180F) degrees. In a sheet pan, toss the cherry tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil and season with some salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
3. In a sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and cook the zucchini until both sides are lightly browned over medium-high heat (about 1-2 minutes each side). Transfer to a bowl. In the same sauté pan, heat 3 -4 tablespoons olive oil and cook the eggplant the same way as zucchini. Add more olive oil, if necessary. Transfer the eggplant into the same bowl as the zucchini. Set aside.
4. In a donabe, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and sauté the onion and fennel seeds over moderate heat until the onion is very soft (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic and sauté for a couple more minutes. Add the bell peppers and shimeji mushrooms, and sauté until the bell peppers are soft (3-4 minutes).
5. Add the crushed tomatoes, shio-koji, zucchini, and eggplant and set over medium-high heat. As soon as the sauce starts boiling, turn down the heat to simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add a good pinch of black pepper. Adjust the seasoning with salt, if necessary. Add the cherry tomatoes and gently stir. Turn off the heat and let it rest for a few hours. For even better flavor, transfer the content to a different bowl and let it rest overnight in refrigerator.
7. When it's ready to serve, Add the basil and stir gently. Drizzle more olive oil. Serve cold or at a room temperature.

You can also see the recipe in toiro kitchen's website.
Happy donabe life.

Donabe hot pot recipe...Shio-koji Chicken Wings & Daikon Nabe

Chicken and daikon are a classic combination in Japanese cooking. Until the last minute, I was debating whether I should make a classic stew style dish or a hot pot dish with these main ingredients for tonight. At the end, I decided to do a hot pot. Boy, it came out so rich in flavor and really amazing. For this dish, I used classic-style doanbe, "Hakeme" (medium-size). This donabe is just perfect for this recipe.

Chicken wings are marinated in shio-koji overnight, and they are pan-fried, followed by the daikon radish.


Ingredients are assembled in donabe and simmered until ready. The broth becomes so rich. The chicken wings are fork tender and fall apart in the mouth. Daikon absorbs all the deep flavors.

Shio-koji Chicken Wings & Daikon Hot Pot

Ingredients: (4 servings)

18 oz (500 g) chicken wings (drummettes and mid section)

1 1/2 tablespoons shio-koji (or 1 teaspoon salt)

1 piece 2" x 2" (5 cm x 5 cm) dry kelp ("dashi kombu")

2 1/2 cups (600 ml) chicken stock (preferably Asian style)

1 knob ginger, sliced into 3-4

1 Tokyo negi (Japanese green onion) or 3 scallions, green part only

1 piece rectangular fried tofu pouch ("abura-age"), blanched and cut into 8 strips

1 1/2 tablespoons potato starch ("katakuriko")

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 oz (240 g) daikon, cut into oblique

1/3 cup (80 ml) sake or Chinese rice wine

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

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 oz (50 g) glass noodles, cut into 4" (10 cm) or shorter

3 oz (100 g) enoki mushrooms

1 Tokyo negi (Japanese green onion) or 3 scallions, white part only, thinly-sliced diagonally

5 oz (150 g) mizuna, cut into 2" (5 cm) length

2 teaspoons sesame oil

ground black pepper

yuzu kosho paste

Procedure:

1. Rinse the chicken in cold water and pat-dry with paper towel throughly. In a bowl, combine the chicken and shio-koji. Mix well by hand. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight (or at least 2-3 hours).
2. In a separate bowl, combine the dashi kombu with the chicken stock. Set aside for 30 minutes to a few hours.
3. Put the ginger, Tokyo negi (green part only), and abura-age in the donabe.
4. Combine the chicken with the potato starch, and mix well by hand.
5. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and and cook until the bottom sides are golden (2-3 minutes). Turn them over and cook for another minute or so. Transfer the chicken to the donabe.
6. In the same sauté pan, add the daikon and cook until both sides are lightly golden (about 2 minutes per side). Turn off the heat. Transfer the daikon to the donabe.
7. Add the chicken stock (with the dashi kombu), and sake into the donabe. Set over medium heat. Remove the dashi kombu when the broth is almost simmering. Skim as necessary.
8. Place a drop lid (or line the surface with a piece of parchment paper). Cover with lid and simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes.
9. Add the soy sauce, salt, glass noodles, enoki mushrooms, and thinly-sliced white part of Tokyo negi. Cover again and continue to simmer for additional 5 minutes.
10. Add the mizuna and cook for 1 minute.
11. Drizzle the sesame oil and sprinkle some ground black pepper.
12. Divide into individual bowls and serve with some yuzu kosho paste on the side.

Happy donabe life.

Shinbikiko Chicken Kara-age (marinated in Shio-koji)

Shinbikiko is a special type of rice flour, made from sweet rice.


The process of making Shinbikiko is quite remarkable. Sweet rice (mochi rice) was steamed, dried, and ground to be "Domyojiko", which is shiny coarse ground rice flour, typically used for making Japanese confectionary. This Domyojiko is further ground to finer powder, then carefully toasted to make it puffy (but with no color!).

Shinbikiko is used for both Japanese confectionary and savory dishes. Most common way of using Shinbikiko in savory dishes is for batter for frying. Especially with delicate fish, Shinbikiko makes beautiful airy crust.

With Shinbikiko, I made simple Kara-age chicken (fried chicken). The recipe is extremely simple.


Shinbikiko Chicken Kara-age


1. Cut 10 oz (300 g) chicken tender into bite-size pieces. Marinade in 1 tablespoon shio-koji overnight (or 2-3 hours is fine).
2. Combine the chicken (with the marinade) and egg white from 1 egg and mix well by hand. Set Shinbikiko in a bowl on the side.


3. Heat vegetable oil to 360F (180C) degrees. Lightly dredge each piece of chicken tender in Shinbikiko and deep fry in the oil until outside is crispy and inside is cooked through (about 3 minutes).
4. Serve with lemon wedges.

Crust was so airy and chicken was so tender and juicy. Shinbikiko totally upgrade your homey kara-age to another level. How lovely.

Shio-koji Turkey Sausage

This dish tastes very nice at both hot and room temperatures.  I like to take it to picnic, too.  It's very easy, and again, shio-koji gives the nice flavor and also works as a binder for the meat.

Shio-koji Turkey Sausage


1.  To make the patty, combine 1 lb ground turkey, 1/2 small onion (minced), 1 clove garlic (minced), 1T minced almond, 1/2 jalapeno (minced), 2T oyster sauce, 1T shio-koji, 1/4 tsp ground pepper in a bowl.  Mix well by hand.  Cover and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour.


2.  Take it out of the fridge and make it into round-shape patties by hand.


3.  Pan-fry the patties in oiled saute pan until done (3-4 minutes per side).


4. Serve with the lime-nampla sauce, cilantro, scallion, and lime wedges.

(Lime-nampla sauce)
Combine 2T raw brown sugar, 2T lime juice, 1.5T nampla, 1.5T water, 1T minced almond, 1/2tsp minced ginger, 1/2tsp minced dry red chili.


On one night, we had a nice eclectic meal around the turkey sausages.  Shio-koji Salmon Rillettes with cheese and fruits, simmered devil's tongue yam jelly ("Tazuna Konnyaku"), and of course, donabe rice.  I will write recipes for these dishes soon.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe-steamed Shio-koji Chicken Chawanmushi

This is a party-style chawanmushi (egg custard) with chicken inside.
You can make it very easily in the donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe".  This dish is always a hit when people come over to our house.  Chicken is seasoned with shio-koji, so it adds a nice deep flavor to the dish.  Here's how I make it.

Donabe-steamed Shio-koji Chicken Chawanmushi

1. To make the egg custard base, whisk together 3 large eggs, 2 tsps mirin, 1tsp white soy sauce ("shiro-shoyu"), and 1.5C dashi stock.  Strain through fine-mesh sieve and set aside.
2. To make the chicken base, mix together 5 oz ground chicken, 2 tsps shio-koji, 1 tsp juice from grated ginger, 1tsp sake, and 1T potato starch ("katakuriko").  Transfer the chicken into a shallow ceramic bowl, which can hold at least 3.5C and can fit the donabe.


3. Gradually whisk in the custard mixture to the chicken in a bowl.  Cover with a plastic wrap tightly.
4. Make sure the donabe is ready (water is boiling inside).  Steam in the donabe for 30 minutes or until the custard is jiggly over low heat.
5. To make the sauce, in a sauce pan, combine 3/4C dashi stock, 1T sake, 1T soy sauce, and 1T mirin.  Bring to simmer.  Turn the heat down to low.  In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2T potato starch ("katakuriko") and 1/2T water, and whisk the mixture into the broth.  Stir until the mixture is slightly thickened.  Turn off the heat.


6. Take the chawanmushi out of the donabe and put on a trivet.  Pour the sauce and sprinkle some sliced scallion.  Serve immediately.
*Be careful with the hot steam!  Always use pot holders when handling the hot donabe.


Among Jason and I, we can always finish the whole dish so easily.  It's that good.

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.

Oil-marinated Sun-dried Mushrooms (scented with shio-koji)

Just like many other places in the northern hemisphere of the world,  we've experienced very hot summer here in LA this year.  Now September is almost ending, but we are still experiencing unusually hot weather for the season.  So, the good thing is that in the past weeks, it takes very short time to make nice sun-dried mushrooms.


In the wintertime, I normally let them sun-dry at least 1 full day or 2 days.  But, just 4 hours of sunbathing in the morning make the nice semi-dry mushrooms.

With these mushrooms, you can make a wonderful appetizer. So, here's the recipe.

Oil-marinated Sun-dried Mushrooms (scented with shio-koji)

Ingredients
7 oz  enoki mushrooms
5 oz  shimeji mushrooms
10 oz  shiitake mushrooms
1/4C  olive oil
1/4  medium-size sweet onion, minced
1 clove  garlic, thinly-sliced
2  baby bell peppers, julienned
2T  sake
2T  water
1 tsp  vegetable stock powder (optional)
1T shio-koji
salt and pepper to taste
2T  lemon juice

1T  pine nuts
1tsp  sliced dry red chili

1T  chopped parsley

Procedure
1.  Cut and discard the bottom part of the mushrooms.  Sun-dry the mushrooms until semi-dry (half day to full day).
2.  Saute onion and garlic in 2T olive oil over medium-low heat until the onion is very soft (about 5-7 minutes).
3.  Turn up the heat to medium.  Add the mushrooms and bell pepper, and continue to saute for a few minutes.
4.  Add the sake and water.  All add the vegetable stock powder.  Cover and steam-fry for 5 minutes.
5.  Once the liquid is reduced down to almost nothing, add the shio-koji, and also season with salt (if necessary) and pepper.  Stir.
6.  Add the lemon juice and remaining olive oil.  Add the pine nuts and sliced dry red chili.  Stir again.  Turn off the heat.
7.  Once the mushrooms are cooled down.  Add the parsley and stir again.  Serve immediately or you can refrigerate and keep for 2-3 days.  Bring it back to room temperature to serve.

Grilled Garlic Shio-koji Shrimp

Jason is so happy it's BBQ season.  Almost every day lately, he's been asking me "What do you want to cook on our Santa Maria BBQ Grill tonight?"

On one day last week, I was so busy all day and couldn't think of any elaborate menu for dinner.  So, I came up with a quick shrimp BBQ dish.  I marinated peeled & deveined shrimp in the mixture of shio-koji etc.  Here's how you make it.


Garlic Shio-koji Shrimp

1 pound  shrimp (peeled & deveined)
2 tablespoons  shio-koji
1 clove  garlic, grated
1 small knob  ginger, grated
2 tablespoons  sake

You just mix together shio-koji, garlic, ginger, and sake, and marinade shrimp in it for 30-60 minutes.  Skewer the marinated shrimp and grill.


Jason started the fire on our Santa Maria BBQ Grill, and we grilled the skewered shrimp and also corn on the cobs.


They were both grilled perfectly.  I also made quick asparagus frittatas.


Another wonderful BBQ dinner with donabe rice.  The dinner went really well with lemony and refreshing Ribolla Gialla.