Donabe miso kimchi "ojiya" (soupy risotto)

With my homemade kimchi, we did miso & kimchi nabe (hot pot) again.

Kurobuta pork slices, sun-dried (semi-dry) mushrooms, and vegetables.

First, I heated the water & sake with dashi kombu and mushrooms. Then, once the broth strated simmering, I added miso and kimchi (both my homemade!)

Tofu was added, then pork was added.

My medium-size classic-style donabe, "Hakeme", is simply outstanding for hot pot cooking. The flavor was fantastic. It was so satisfying.

The dinner couldn't end without making "shime" (end of the meal) course of "ojiya" (soupy risotto). I made firm rice with my donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", and added about 1 cup to the leftover broth. Drizzled some whisked eggs and cooked (with the cover) for another minute.

Super nice. The rice soaked all the deep flavors of the hot pot.

Happy donabe life.

Today's sun-dry mushrooms

While my mushrooms were being dried in the patio the other morning...

I saw a visitor. He was just curious. Squirrels don't eat mushrooms.

My 2-day sun-dried mushrooms...Shimeji, maitake, enoki, eryingi, and shiitake.

I've been so crazy about these semi-dry mushrooms.

Brunch at AOC

Yes, AOC does weekend brunch, and it's really good.

I had grilled asparagus with spring vegetables, soft-cooked egg, and parmesan polenta. Jason had toasted brioche with gruyere, prosciutto, frisee, and egg. My dish was really nice. The vegetables were so tasty, and kabu (turnip) had a especially nice flavor.

I can always rely on their food quality. I think AOC is one of no-so-many consistent-quality restaurants over many years in LA.

Maison Bordier Sable with Soba Honey Ice Cream

At La Cremerie in Paris, I found a box of special cookies, so I brought it back to LA.

Inside of the box are cute little butter sable cookies, made with demi-sel (medium-salt) butter from Maison Bordier! Maison Bordier is a traditional butter-maker in Saint-Malo in Bretagne and makes super-premium hand-made butter. These cookies were made by Maison Bordier by using La Cremerie's family recipe.

What a treat! The flavor was really amazing...mmm...butter. I served them with my homemade soba-honey ice cream (with honey from soba flower, by Onuma Yoho in Yamagata, Japan). My little guilty pleasure.

Donabe hot pot...Miso Kimchi Jjigae

With my homemade kimchi, I was looking forward to make a hot pot dish. Kimchi and miso make good flavor combination, so I made Miso Kimchi Jjigae (Korean-style stew) with tons of my home-dried mushrooms and some leftover ingredients from the fridge.

For this dish, I used Classic-style donabe, "Yu-Kizeto" (medium-size).

For the broth, I combined 3C water, a couple of dashi kombu (dry kelp) pieces (2" x 2"), and 1/3C sake with some sun-dried mushrooms and sliced abura-age. Since I had a couple of leftover pieces of donabe-smoked chicken drummets, I sliced off the meat and added the remaining bones to the water to enhance the broth flavors! Once the broth started simmering, I let it continue to simmer for about 5 minutes, then added 2.5T miso and 4 oz homemade kimchi and simmered further.

Chicken bones were removed and other ingredients - some tofu, meat from donabe-smoked chicken drummets and gindara (black cod) were added and simmered until everything was cooked through.

At the end, some chopped minari (dropwort) leaves were added, and the dish was ready. My homemade kimchi jjigae with leftover ingredients was fantastic! Wow...the broth was so deep and also the donabe smoked chicken added the extra depth in flavors.

After the hot pot, my homemade rum vanilla & cranberry swirl ice cream it another spot.

Happy donabe life.

Fresh Homemade Kimchi

I have probably mentioned this many times, but unfortunately I hate pickles in general. I wish I liked them. And, obviously, Korean kimchi is one of them. But, I discovered in my last trips to Seoul that I can handle freshly-made kimchi, or I even really liked some of them! I still cannot stand aged (with strong fermented flavor) kind, but if it's only the first or second day since it's prepared, I'm good. And, I really enjoyed learning how to make authentic kimchi in my last visit in Seoul.

So, here's my napa cabbage kimchi...which I enjoy eating on the first day it's made. When it's a little older, I can use it for making kimchi jjigae (kimchi hot pot) with donabe.

For napa cabbage (medium-size), I cut it in half and soaked in salt water (1C salt was dissolved in about 2L water) overnight. Then, it was drained and rinsed throughly for 3-4 times.

After rinsing the napa cabbage and lightly pressed to drain more water, it was sun-dried for a day. My happy napa cabbage enjoyed sun-bathing with my mushrooms (which are for other purposes).

To make yangnyum paste (to mix with napa cabbage), I got anchovy sauce (1T), red chili pepper flakes (3-4T), salted baby shrimp (2.5T, then minced), honey (1/2T), ginger (1 knob, grated), garlic (1 clove, grated), apple (1/2 medium-small, grated), baby scallion (2-3, cut into 2" length), minari (dropwort, several stems, cut into 2" length), daikon (3 oz, cut into 2"-long thin match-sticks), sesame seeds (1T), and brown sugar (1 tsp). Baby shrimps are very salty, so I made sure to drain the liquid well before mincing them.

For aging kimchi, you rub the yangnyum paste between the leaves of half napa-cabbage. But, since I am making it for eating soon, I already sliced the napa cabbage and simply tossed them in the paste.

My homemade kimchi is ready! It's so tasty...homemade is the best way.

Mini donabe main course for ONE

On a home-alone night.

Mini-size donabe often becomes a wonderful friend. Tonight, I used small size classic-style donabe, "Yu Kizeto", which is a ultra light-weight donabe.

I made the broth with dashi stock, miso, and sake-kasu (sake lees). Mixed mushrooms, kabu (Japanese turnip), and tofu were cooked inside. Shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves) was added at the end.

The entire donabe was served at the table, and I could eat right out of it.

Itadakimasu! So delicious. Single serving hot pot is fantastic.

Happy donabe life.

This winter's first miso

It was time again...

We've been eating so much miso every day, so we need to keep making more miso regularly.

This time, the ingredients were combination of both Japanese and American. I used rice koji from both Japan and US. Sea salt was from Japan. Soybeans were Laura's soybeans from Iowa.

You can find my entire miso-making process here.

We also checked some of our aging miso. The first picture is the miso we made in November 2010, so it's almost exactly 1 year old. Looking nicely developing. The second picture is from January 2010, so it's almost 2 years old! I have started using January 2010 miso in my cooking and it's tasting amazingly rich and full-flavored.