Beef and Gobo (burdock root) quick donabe stew

Beef and Gobo (burdock root) are very common combination in Japanese cooking. Together, they make the very nice earthy rich flavors.

My soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", makes the wonderful quick stew. I made simple stew, called "Shigure-ni", with beef and gobo (burdock root). The addition of sansho (Japanese mountain peppers) berries gave the nice layer in the flavors. This dish can be made in less than 20 minutes!

Beef and Gobo Quick Stew "Shigure-ni"

1. In Miso-shiru Nabe, saute 1/2 pound gobo (sliced into thin disks, soaked in water for 15 minutes and drained) and 3 oz thinly-sliced konnyaku (yam jelly) in 1T sesame oil for 2 minutes.

2. Add 5 oz dashi stock, 2 tablespoons sake, and 1 tablespoon raw brown sugar. Cover the surface with a piece of foil, cover with the lid and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, saute 1/2 pound thinly-sliced beef in 1T olive oil. Add thinly-sliced (about 1/2 tablespoon) ginger and saute a little more.

4. Add the meat-ginger mixture to the donabe. Cover again and simmer for additional 10-15 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons sansho berries (if you can't get them, you don't have to add) and stir. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes.

5. Serve into small bowls, and garnish with chopped mitsuba herbs (optional).

This dish is great with plain donabe rice.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe brown rice...Lotus Root/ Shirasu Fish/ Yuzu-kosho Onigiri (rice balls)

Rice is my heart and soul.

This double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", makes the premium quality rice and make my life so happy always.

I made onigiri (rice balls) again with donabe rice. It's lotus root and steamed shirasu (baby white fish) rice, with a little kick of yuzu kosho (yuzu citrus and hot pepper paste). I sauteed the lotus root slices, seasoned with some soy sauce and yuzu-kosho, then tossed with shirasu fish. The mixture was added to the freshly made donabe brown rice and tossed. It smelled so wonderful!

I made the mixed rice into onigiri (rice balls) and wrapped each in nori (roasted seaweed). Look, how beautiful the brown rice was cooked. The taste was AMAZING. I had 3 large onigiri! Here's my recipe:

Lotus root/ Shirasu/ Yuzu-kosho Onigiri

1. Cook the plain brown rice.

2. Peel the lotus root (about 3 oz), and slice thinly. Cut further into quarters. Soak in water for 15 minutes. Drain.

2. Saute the sliced lotus root in 1/2T olive oil. Add 1T sake and 1.5T light color soy sauce ("usukuchi shoyu"). Cover and steam-fry for about 5 minutes.

3. Add shirasu (baby fish - about 3 oz) and 1 teaspoon yuzu kosho paste. Add 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds. Stir well.

4. Remove the pan from the heat. As soon as the rice is ready, add the mixture to the rice. Toss well. Make the mixed rice into onigiri (rice balls) and wrap with nori.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe Kinpira Gobo (steam-fry bordock root)

I almost never run out of gobo (burdock root) especially during the wintertime in my kitchen. I love the natural sweet-earthy flavor of gobo and use it for so many different dishes.

Kinpira Gobo is one of the most popular Japanese gobo dishes. When I was a child, I always loved my mom's Kinpira Gobo and was so excited whenever she made it.

So, it's such a rustic dish, but I can make it taste "upgraded" by cooking it with my tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". Instead of simply sauteing the burdock root in a pan, by steam-frying in the donabe, it can bring out the maximum flavor as well as the great soft-crunchy texture. And, the best part is that it's even easier to make with Fukkura-san than with a pan, because I don't need to keep sauteing during the cooking process.

Thinly-sliced burdock root was first steam-fried with some sesame oil, sake, mirin, and sugar in Fukkura-san for about 5 minutes.

Carrot and soy sauce were added and continued to steam-fry until most of the liquid is evaporated (5-8 minutes). To finish, the ingredients were tossed with some sesame seeds. That's it! I love it both hot and room temperature. This dish is also great with a bowl of plain rice. So healthy. Here's my recipe.

Donabe Steam-fry Kinpira Gobo

(for tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san")

Ingredients

5-6 oz gobo (burdock root), thinly sliced into match-sticks and soaked in water for 15 minutes. Drained.

2.5-3 oz carrot, thinly sliced into match-sticks

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons sake

2 tablespoons raw brown sugar

1 tablespoon mirin

2 tablespoons light-color soy sauce ("usukuchi shoyu")

1 tablespoon dark color soy sauce

1 tablespoon white sesame seeds

some water, optional

Procedure

1. Saute the gobo in sesame oil in the skillet of Fukkura-san over medium-heat for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add he sake, sugar, and mirin. Cover and steam-fry for 5 minutes.

3. Add the carrot and both soy sauce. Stir. Cover and steam-fry until the liquid is reduced to very little (5-8 minutes). If the liquid is reduced too fast, add some water.

4. Uncover, add the sesame seeds and stir again. Cover.

5. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe hot pot...Salt sukiyaki with mushrooms

This sukiyaki doesn't use any soy sauce, so it's called salt-sukiyaki. I found a recipe by a famous Japanese chef, and tweaked it to my version.

It's very easy to make and also very healthy, as it's mostly mushrooms and vegetables. For this dish, you can use any kind of classic-style donabe, but I would particularly recommend Kyoto-style shallow and wide donabe, because the dish is cooked with less amount of broth than regular (soupy) hot pot dishes.

Bacon was sauteed in the donabe first, then burdock root, broth, mushrooms were added. Once everything is cooked through, I put a big pile of mizuna on top, and let it wilt with the cover on for a minut or so. To finish, all the ingredients were mixed together. To serve, I like dipping the cooked ingredients in a bowl of raw egg (like how we eat sukiyaki in Japan), but if you are afraid of raw egg, you can just serve it with some broth and condiments such as grated daikon radish, shichimi pepper, etc. It was so delicious! Here's my recipe.

Salt Sukiyaki with Mushrooms

Ingredients

4-6 oz bacon, cut into 1.5" strips

3 oz gobo (burdock root), thinly sliced and soaked in water for 15 minutes

2+ cups mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, eryingi, shimeji, enoki, sliced as necessary

1.5 cups mizuna, bottom part removed, and cut into 2" length

(sauce)

1.5 cups dashi stock

1/4 cup sake

1/4 cup mirin

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt

Condiments: Raw egg (for dipping), shichimi pepper, grated daikon, etc.

Procedure

1. Saute the bacon in the donabe. By using paper towel, soak up excess fat released.

2. Add the burdock root and continue to saute for a minute or two.

3. Combine the ingredients for the sauce and add to the donabe.

4. Add the mushrooms. Let them simmer until the mushrooms are cooked through.

5. Cover the surface with the mizuna. Cover with the lid and let it wilt for 1 minute.

6. Open and stir well.

7. Serve with your choice of condiments.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe cooking class report...Earthy One Pot Dishes

What a beautiful sunny Saturday it has been today. We had a great time hosting a donabe & Japanese cooking class earlier today.

The theme was "Earthy One Pot Dishes". 3 out of 4 dishes we made were one-pot dishes by using 3 different types of donabe pots.

This was the only "non-donabe" dish we made. It was Wilted Mizuna & Wasabi Brie "Ae-mono". This is a unique combination of blanched mizuna, olive oil, apple, lemon juice, soy sauce, wasabi paste, and some brie cheese. Brie was quickly marinated in soy-wasabi mixture and tossed with the rest of the ingredients.

Then, we had Mixed Mushrooms & Tofu Steam-fry in Miso Sauce. They were steam-fried with my homemade miso and sake mixture in the tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". Then, served at the table with homemade la-yu and scallions.

The rice dish was very earthy Gobo Gohan (Burdock root rice). Brown rice was cooked with coarsely minced burdock root, abura-age (fried tofu pouch), etc. in the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". Kabu (Japanese turnip) green was sauteed and topped on the finished rice.

The main course was Sake-kasu Nabe (monk fish and vegetables hot pot in sake lees broth). We made the aromatic broth with sake lees in the classic-style donabe, "Hakeme", and the ingredients were cooked at the table in the broth. Sake lees has not only wonderful flavor, but also has great healthy benefit. It's considered to help lowering your cholesterol level and also make your skin beautiful! The hot pot was especially nice with today's wine selection: "The Supernatural" Sauvignon Blanc from Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

(*Oops, I just realized I forgot shiitake mushrooms for this dish...I left them in the fridge. Sorry!)

I also made Sake-kasu pound cake! The cake had the wonderful sake aroma.

We had the wonderful and enthusiastic guests today, and I was so glad everybody enjoyed these very healthy donabe dishes!

Happy donabe life.

Donabe rice...Green Tea Onigiri (rice balls)

Taste of Kyoto...

I got a wonderful gift of green tea "furikake" (seasoning for rice) from Kyoto. This is made by Nakamura Tokichi (中村藤吉本店), which is one of the historic Japanese tea makers from Uji, Kyoto. This special seasoning consists of "Ten-cha" green tea leaves (tea leaves are steamed and dried) and plum-seasoned kelp tea. I mixed them with some toasted white sesame seeds and set it aside.

Meanwhile, I made some plain rice with my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". As soon as the rice was cooked and rested for 20 minutes, I tossed it with the green tea furikake. The aroma was so unbelievably wonderful!

I made the green tea mixed rice into onigiri (rice balls) and wrapped them with premium nori seaweed from Ariake ocean. Look how you can see each grain and how shiny the rice is. This is the magic of Kamado-san. This donabe makes the premium-quality rice so easily. The green tea onigiri was so DELICIOUS! Wow, this is my new favorite.

Next time, I want to make my own green tea furikake. I gotta do some recipe experiment.

Happy donabe life.

PS: I'm sorry that Kamado-san is out-of-stock again! I am in the process of getting the new shipment from Iga, Japan, so Kamado-san as well as other out-of-stock donabe items will be available again in a few weeks.

Super Bowl "Yakiniku" with Iga-yaki Grill

Last Sunday, we did our version of Super Bowl dinner. We did "yakiniku" (grilled meat) with our table-top Iga-yaki gril, "Yaki Yaki San".

Our special grill, made of the ancient clay from Iga, Japan, was just set on the table-top burner. We got all the ingredients ready. So, all we had to do was just cook, eat, drink...all at the table while watching the gave on TV. We got some beef tri-tip, chicken, and kurobuta "ton-toro" (fatty neck to shoulder meat of kurobuta pork), as well as mushrooms to cook on the grill. We also had some salad and appetizers.

This is a brilliant smokeless table-top grill. All the meat cooked perfectly juicy and flavorful. We also made some "temaki" style by wrapping the meat with donabe rice in nori seaweed.

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

Happy donabe life.