Donabe smoked jumbo scallops

I've been making this over and over and I never get tired of it. Scallop is one of my favorite ingredients to smoke in my donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin"!

"Ibushi Gin" is a genius cooking tool. It's a indoor "smokeless" smoker. You just set it over the gas stove and in just about 30-35 minutes (including the 20 minutes resting after turning off the heat), the quick and delicious smoked dishes are ready.

I also smoked some wild-caught Mahi Mahi, semi-soft boiled eggs, and cheese. So delicious.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe steam-fried root vegetables

I enjoy earth-color dishes. Here's another quick and healthy dish (shojin - Buddhist-style vegan).

The dish is made with the tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". This cute donabe with the dome-shape hat does wonderful steam-fry dishes.

It's steam-fried lotus root and gobo (burdock) root with black vinegar, etc. I love the crunchy texture of the root vegetables and the deep flavors. Here's my recipe.

Steam-fried Lotos and Gobo Roots

Ingredients

12-14 oz lotus root, cut diagonally and soaked in water

6-7 oz gobo root, cut diagonally into thin long strips and soaked in water

1.5 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons sake

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons black vinegar ("kurozu")

1/4 cup shojin (vegan) dashi stock

some shichimi peppers

Procedure

1. Drain lotus and gobo roots out of water and saute in the skillet of "Fukkura-san" in the sesame oil over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes.

2. Combine the sake, soy sauce, black vinegar, and dashi stock, and add to the skillet.

3. Cover, and cook until the liquid is reduced to very low. Meanwhile, open the lid and stir the ingredients a couple of times.

4. Turn off the heat and sprinkle some shichimi peppers. Enjoy hot or at a room temperature.

Here's another Buddhist-style vegan ("Shojin") dish and it's one of my regulars. Steam-fried Brussels sprouts and tofu skin in white miso sauce. I made it for a web video program for which I was invited to do a demonstration...It was my first time to do cooking in front of a camera!

Happy donabe life.

Fresh donabe tofu and donabe "kama-age" udon

My regular lunch last week...

With donabe, I can make delicious and healthy lunch very easily and quickly. I made two dishes.

First dish was donabe fresh "sukui" tofu. This is basically the free-shape fresh warm tofu. I made it with the extra light-body all-purpose classic donabe, "Yu-series, Kizeto" (it's currently out-of-stock, but we should have the new shipping from Iga, Japan in a few weeks). I first heated 1 liter of the fresh soy milk (from Meiji Tofu) in the donabe. Before it was going to boil, I turned off the heat and added 2.5 teaspoon of nigari liquid. Then, it was covered and let it rest for 15-20 minutes. It was so soft, delicate, and delicious. Eating fresh warm tofu is such a luxury to me.

I also made "Kama-age" udon. I simply cooked the udon in the boiling water in the classic-style donabe, "Hakeme" (or any classic-style donabe would work), and served it right on the table with the dipping sauce and condiments.

So satisfying.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Cooking Class report...Donabe Steaming 2

Last Saturday, we did a new Donabe Steaming class, and it was a lot of fun! We made 4 savory courses (all are cooked with the donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe), donabe "new crop" brown rice (cooked with the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san"), and as a little bonus dessert, we even had the donabe steamed "Sake Manju" (sweet dumplings).

Here are picture of the dishes we made in the class. (Some pictures are taken in the rehearsal.)

First course was Tofu Chawanmushi (soy egg custard) with Saikyo Miso Sauce.

Steamed vegetables (Satsuma-yam, lotus root, king oyster mushrooms, and haricot vert) with Peanut - Soy sauce.

Shrimp dumpling on soft tofu, served with sizzling sesame oil - soy based sauce. They were assembled on the table and steamed for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, we enjoyed cold "Otokoyama" Junmai sake from Hokkaido, Japan.

Steamed Gindara (black cod), hanpen (fluffy fish cake), konnyaku (yam jelly), and vegetables. They were served with Oroshi Black Vinegar Ponzu sauce.

It was another very fun class, and I was so happy that everyone enjoyed it, too!

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Steamed Tofu and Matsutake Mushrooms

Matsutake is in season now!

Matsutake is a highly seasonal mushroom (autumn), and in Japan, the domestic matsutake is considered to be the most highly-regarded and most expensive among all the mushrooms. The high price (could go up to about $1,000/ per pound) is due to the very limited harvest. But the Japanese domestic matsutake has the amazing aroma, and we enjoy it in simple forms of cooking (grill, add to the soup, cook with the rice, with the very light seasoning) to best enjoy the full "matsutake" aroma.

In recent years, we've seen more and more imported matsutake in Japan, and they are so much cheaper, although you can't expect as high quality as the domestic kind. In any case, living in Los Angeles, I was very happy when I found American "domestic" matsutake at Nijiya Market the other day. And, it was so cheap! There were 4 medium-size pieces for only $6!

So, I didn't have a very high expectation, but I thought I can give a try.

I sliced the matsutake (after wiping the surface with damp paper towel - never rinse matsutake in water) and steamed with soft tofu (from Meiji Tofu) in our donabe steamer, Mushi Nabe. After about 5 minutes, I could smell the wonderful aroma coming out of the donabe. It was a good sign.

We did the steaming table top, and once cooked, we served the matsutake and tofu into plates with the black sesame sauce and minced scallion. Wow, the American matsutake was so surprisingly wonderful!! I was so impressed. Simple steamed matsutake, tofu, and black sesame sauce...what a wonderful combination. This has become one of my favorite donabe steamed dishes of all time. I got to go back to Nijiya to buy more matsutake!

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Steamed Sake Manju

The weather has been pretty cool lately. It makes me feel like more donabe steaming.

My donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe", is not only great for savory dishes, but I enjoy making sweet dishes with this donabe also.

I made a traditional Japanese sweet, "Sake Manju" (or we also call saka-manju). Sake Manju is a sweet dumpling with the sake-flavored skin and anko (azuki bean paste) filling. There is no dairy, so it's naturally a vegan dessert.

To make the dough for the skin, you mix the flour (I use whole wheat flour), baking powder, sugar, sake, and sake lees. Sake lees are called "Sake Kasu" in Japanese, and it's sold in either hard or soft paste. It's basically a leftover of sake production (what's left after draining the liquid after fermentation). Sake kasu still retains wonderful sake aroma and it's used in different dishes, such as soup, marinade for fish, etc. With the dough, I wrapped the anko (azuki bean paste) from Hokkaido, which I mixed with roasted walnuts.

In just 10 minutes of steaming with the donabe steamer, the Sake Manju were ready. The aroma was just so wonderful. It's like smelling sweet sake!

Once they are done, the manju were transfered to a basket and cooled down with a hand-fan (just for a minute or so, to cool down the skin). I love this dessert so much. It's good right after it's made (while hot), as well as next day. I eat it after dinner as a dessert, in the morning as breakfast, and afternoon snack. Sake manju can make a nice small gift when you visit someone.

You can find the recipe of Sake Manju on toiro's website. (I just added it!)

Happy donabe life.

PS: White Mushi Nabe from current inventory has just sold out today, but black is still available (just a few). We will have more units shipped from Iga, Japan, very soon!

More donabe steaming

More donabe steaming pictures...

My donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe", is in full action. I just love donabe steamed dishes so much. This week, I've been making a lot of steamed vegetables. I simply lay the ingredients (Japanese sweet "Satsuma" yam, lotus root, king oyster mushrooms, and haricot vert.) and let the donabe do its work. Vegetables taste so good when they are steamed. The yam and lotus root slices were steamed first (about 8 minutes) then the rest of the ingredients were added and steamed for additional 3 minutes. That's it. I served the vegetables with my homemade peanut-karashi (Japanese mustard) sauce, and they tasted fantastic! You can serve the steamed vegetables with any kinds of dipping sauce to enjoy variations.

Here's a dish which is my twist on Chinese dim-sum style shrimp dumpling on tofu. Shrimp dumpling and tofu are steamed together in the donabe steamer, and served with the sizzling sesame oil - soy sauce sauce. Another great hit!

Can't stop donabe steaming.

Let's steam with donabe

This week, I'm busy doing test kitchen/ final tweaking for the upcoming donabe & Japanese cooking class. The theme is "donabe steaming", and we will make multi-course donabe steamed dishes...I'm so excited!

Our donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe", has made the steam cooking easy, fun, and really delicious.

One of the dishes I've been making a lot lately is donabe steamed tofu "chawanmushi" (savory soy custard). I finally achieved the best consistency. In just about 20 minutes of steaming, the custard becomes so soft and jiggly. I serve it with the warm saikyo-miso sauce with chopped mitsuba. This dish is so simple and delicious. The warm tofu custard is so gentle in your stomach and comforting.

Here's a fish course. Simple steamed salmon, gindara (black cod), bok choy, konnyaku, carrot, and hanpen (fluffy fish cake). In just about 5 minutes, the dish is ready! It's served with oroshi ponzu sauce (ponzu with grated daikon). The concept is basically "steam shabu shabu". Because everything was steamed, all the flavors were sealed inside and the taste was so perfect.

Happy donabe life.

Oboro Kombu Udon

I brought home special Oboro Kombu (from Hokkaido) from my last trip back to Japan. Oboro Kombu is a beautifully shaved vinegar-marinated uncooked kombu (kelp). Oboro Kombu and Tororo Kombu are made the same way but just the shaving style is different: both are fluffy but oboro is longer and bouncier. The taste is so elegant and the flavor is packed with umami.

So, I made the simple udon and topped with the oboro kombu. As the kombu soaks the broth, it creates the different texture and flavor. So wonderful.

Oboro kombu can be used not only in the broth, but also to wrap onigiri (rice ball), flavor the sashimi, etc. To me, it's one of the essential items in my pantry.

The Most Dramatic Birthday Week

I'm finally back blogging. I've been through so much (or I can say too much) this past week. But, let's start with the happy events...

My birthday was last Sunday (Oct. 3). On Saturday night, some of my very close friends took me out to Kiwami Restaurant in Studio City for dinner. Kiwami is one of a few sushi restaurants I like to go to in LA. Their sushi is always fresh and nice. The place is so lively and fun.

Here are just a few pictures among all the dishes we had. We started with oyster shooters (fun!), then we had assorted sashimi, houroku yaki, (seafood, grilled in the dish and served with soy-butter sauce), tempura (shrimp stuffed shishito peppers were so nice), and finally all the sushi. Wow, the food was really excellent.

Kiwami's corkage fee is also reasonable ($10/ bottle). We had 2002 Domaine Bouchard Pere & Fils, Meursault Genevrieres 1er Cru, 2007 Domaine Ramonet, Puligny-Montrachet, and 2001 Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Volnay Santenots-du-Milieu 1er Cru.

Sushi and Burgundy, to me, always create magical pairing. All the wines shone so well with the dishes we had. I had such a fantastic time with wonderful friends...thank you so much for the special time, friends!!

Then, on my birthday, Jason took me to Osteria Mozza for dinner. It's also one of my favorite restaurants in LA and he took me there as a surprise. How sweet! We shared various dishes...the picture is braised rabbit and rabbit sausage, which was one of their special of the night. All the dishes we had were quite impeccable.

However, there was a reason I couldn't eat much at Mozza that night. I was starting to feel very sick and couldn't even attempt to order a nice bottle of wine for my birthday (so we ordered carafes). I got food poisoning from a fish taco I had for lunch at a restaurant (it's a popular place) on the same day, and my condition was going downhill in the evening. I was actually already feeling something strange in my stomach right after lunch, but I originally thought maybe I got too full or just a reaction to the spicy sauce).

So, I could manage to go through the dinner Jason planned for me, but as soon as we got back home, I went to bed and started moaning. On monday (next day), I was very sick. In the evening, as soon as Jason got home from work, I was taken to the ER for the first time in my life. I was so sick that I couldn't eat anything all day. After different IV's etc., I was finally released from the ER, still feeling, sick, but Jason was so worried that I hadn't eaten anything all day. So, he stopped by at a restaurant on our way back home to pick up "organic" chicken pho, so that he thought I could at least taste the soup. This is also a very popular restaurant and always crowded.

He served the "organic" chicken pho for me as soon as we got home. The chicken was BAD. I mean, it smelled so stinky and so bad. I just couldn't believe it. "Adding insult to injury"...I can't find any better situation to use the idiom than this. Jason was so angry (for the situation) and dumped the whole thing to the sink. Organic my ___.

I continued to struggle the next days and finally started to feel close to normal by Friday. But, I am still very much traumatized by the whole experience...I don't want to even see or smell fish or meat for a while.

I feel like I am born again. I just don't want to repeat the same experience EVER again. Just want to tell you (who have kindly read through this posting) that please be careful when you eat out. I only try to choose reliable places but it still happens. I mean, how can you serve bad chicken (they should be able to smell it before even start cooking!)?? It's terrifying. Then also, there are many wonderful restaurants which are committed to the highest food safety and serving the best stuff in Los Angeles. So, I am grateful to them for their good work.

Because of this unexpected event, I couldn't cook all week. Now, it's time to go back to DONABE cooking! Today, I hosted another Shojin Bento class (here is the link to the previous class). I was so happy that I didn't have to cancel the class, and got to spend wonderful time with really nice guests!

Happy donabe life.