Donabe rice and miso soup

The very core of Japanese diet is rice and miso soup. They are so important in our daily lives that we take them very seriously. Just like many other Japanese people, it's so important for me to make the best quality rice and miso soup every day.

The best quality rice cannot be achieved without my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". Even with the California-grown rice, the rice is always so fluffy and nicely chewy when cooked with this donabe. I like doing half white-half brown rice, just like shown in this photo.

When I first tried the miso-soup, made with the soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", I was extremely excited. Now, I can't live without it. The same simple miso soup made in the same way tastes so much better and more comforting with this donabe than a regular pot.

I want to thank my donabe pots for keeping my life so healthy and delicious.

Wakame Salad with Saikyo Miso Vinaigrette

This happens to be another "shojin" (Buddhist monk style) vegan dish and I really like the flavors.

I made this quick salad the other day. It was a big hit by my American husband, Jason.

Wakame Salad with Saikyo Miso Vinaigrette

Ingredients - 2 servings

(for vinaigrette)

2 tablespoons Saikyo (white) miso

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

some ground white sesame seeds

1 cup wakame seaweed, cut into small pieces

1 avocado, cut into small cubes

10-12 green beans, blanched

1/2 carrot, julienned

Procedure

Combine the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Mix well.

Toss the rest of the ingredients with the vinaigrette.

Really...that's it, and it's delicious.

Kabocha & Azuki "Itoko-ni" with Donabe

Kabocha & Azuki "Itoko-ni" (kabocha and azuki bean stew) is a very rustic Japanese dish. I make this dish often in the winter time.

It's also a shojin (Buddhist monk-style) vegetarian/ vegan dish. But, you don't need to be a vegetarian to love this dish.

The best donabe to cook this dish is the soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe". This donabe does the wonderful braising job.

Azuki beans were simmered in the donabe for about 45 minutes until they were tender and the cooking water is reduced down to barely cover the beans. Then, the kabocha pieces were added with some sake, sugar, mirin and soy sauce.

After about 15 minutes of simmering, the dish was ready. I love this rustic look!

This dish is so hearty and healthy.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe smoked duck breast...new favorite

I've been smoking with my donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin", almost every day lately.

Here, I got the beautiful duck breast. I did the dry-marinate with salt and pepper (that's it!) for 3 days. For the better smoking, I scored the skin by making the incisions crosswise. I just put them in my donabe smoker with the sakura smoke chips and let the donabe do the work.

After about 35 minutes, the juicy smoked duck was ready.

I sliced them into bite-size pieces and served with other smoked items. Outstanding!

Next day, I wanted to improve my salt-marinated smoked duck even better. I trimmed some more skin fat from the edges, and scored the skin by making the incisions both crosswise and lengthwise this time.

After 35 minutes in the donabe smoker, my duck breast came out even better! The skin had the better texture and even had more smokiness. The meat was so tender and juicy.

You can find the basic smoking recipe on toiro's website. Please check it out.

Happy donabe life.

Tonight's donabe cooking...Cod with Daikon Two Ways

As always, my donabe pots worked hard to make delicious dinner.

Tonight's dinner was created by my soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", and tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san".

With my tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san", I made another seafood dish. I got the nicely oily cod filet, so I made the dish with daikon "2 ways".

First, I made the daikon "steak" by searing the thick daikon slices with the sesame oil. Then, I added the broth (dashi, sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar) cod, shrimp and shiitake mushrooms.

To finish, I added the grated daikon to the broth. The whole process was less than 15 minutes. It was so quick and easy.

And, so delicious! I posted the recipe on toiro's website. So, please check it out.

With the Miso-shiru Nabe, I made the miso soup with lotus root, abura-age, and aosa seaweed.

I love healthy donabe dinner.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Smoking...Oil Marinated Smoked Scallop

I'm having so much fun smoking with my donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin".

I got the large scallops and salmon filet. They were simply seasoned with the salt and pepper.

Beautiful smoked seafood was ready in just about 35 minutes. They were so smokey while still very moist.

I just wanted to finish everything, but I saved a few scallops for another dish to try next day. I marinated the scallops in the olive oil with some sliced dry hot chili peppers.

The next day, my Oil Marinated Donabe Smoked Scallops were ready. It was really wonderful. Really wow.

Super Bowl with Donabe Smoker, "Ibushi Gin"

We were invited to a Super Bowl party at our friend's house. It was a potluck party. So...

Our donabe traveled to the party! We brought our Donabe Smoker, "Ibushi Gin", and a variety of ingredients to this very American party.

Indeed the party was very American and I really enjoyed the festivity. There were margarita server, popcorn machine, and even hotdog machine! And, wow, I've never seen "cookies & cream popcorn".

My very Japanese donabe somehow blended in among all the American dishes in the kitchen. We first smoked some shrimp, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms and Swiss cheese. They came out very nice and quickly disappeared as soon as they were plated.

We did the second batch with the chicken drummettes. After 35 minutes, they were so smokey and juicy.

The chicken was served with Wasabi-creme fraiche dipping sauce. Mmm...so delicious. They were all so good that we did more smoking after we returned home.

Donabe Soybean "Gomoku-ni"

I love beans in general. Among all the bean dishes, soybean stew ("Gomoku-ni" - stewed with various ingredients) has always been one of my favorites. It's not only easy to make, but also very healthy. Luckily, whether you are a meat-eater or vegetarian, our (Japanese) typical diet consists of a lot of vegetarian/vegan dishes like this and keep us healthy.

This Soybean "Gomoku-ni" is also considered to be a shojin-style (Buddhist monk-style vegan) dish.

To make Soybean "Gomoku-ni", my soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", is the best tool. After soaking the soybeans over night, I first simmered them in a separate pot for about 20 minutes. The beans were drained and transfered to the donabe, and cooked with carrot, shirataki konnyaku, hijiki seaweed, and dry shiitake in dashi-based broth for about 30 minutes. That's basically it. Because the beans were cooked with this donabe, they were so fluffy and flavorful. I can eat the whole pot myself.

You can find the whole recipe on toiro's website. Please check it out.