Donabe-braised black soybeans...sloooow oven-braising

Wintertime is my big bean-braising season.

For making braised beans, Soup & Stew Donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", does the best work. To me, Miso-shiru Nabe is the king of slow-cooking pot.

I made Black soybeans in black sugar syrup. I make this dish every winter. Sweet black beans is traditional Japanese dish, which we serve in New Year or anytime:-)

Rinse black beans first and soak them in 6C water in a large bowl overnight. Transfer the beans and soaking water to Miso-shiru Nabe and set over medium-heat on gas-stove top. Once it starts simmering, skim any floating foam. Line the surface with a piece of parchment paper and cover with lid. Remove from the heat and transfer Miso-shiru Nabe to 325F oven. Slow-cook in the oven for 8-9 hours or until the beans are very tender. Meanwhile, check the beans 1-2 times and add more water if necessary.

Take Miso-shiru Nabe out of the oven. While it's resting, make the soaking syrup for the beans. In a small pot, combine 1.5C Okinawa black sugar and 1C water with a pinch of salt and bring to boil. Turn off the heat. Transfer the syrup to a container. Drain the beans while they are still hot and transfer to the container with syrup. Let the mixture cool down completely. Cover and let rest in the refrigerator overnight.

My black beans look like jewels. They are really tasty, and not overly sweet. The texture is not mushy or firm...just the perfect level. It's the magic of donabe. I like eating this anytime of the day.

Happy donabe life.

Sushi night at Aburiya Toranoko

This is why I love Aburiya Toranoko.

Hisa-san's sushi is always great.

We were there for 5 hours the other night. Always so much fun there.

Quiche lunch

Sunny day lunch at Jin Patisserie on Abotto Kinney.

I had Spinach and Mushroom Quiche. The crust was nicely flakey. The filling was very rich. The quiche was followed by a slice of chocolate rolle cake with cream & chestnut filling. My friend had a piece of pistachio mousse, which was good, too.

Korean sesame leaves in soy marinade

This is one of my favorite items in typical Korean banchan (small side dishes). So, I decided to make my own. Sesame leaves ("kkaennip") have very distinctive aroma, which I really like. Fresh sesame leaves are much tougher than Japanese shiso leaves, but once they are marinated, they become soft and very nice.

First, make yangnyum sauce. Combine 3T sake (boiled once), 2T honey, 3T water, 6T soy sauce, 2tsp salted baby shrimp, 1.5T ground red chili, 1T roasted white sesame seeds, 1 small knob ginger (grated), 1 clove garlic (grated), 2 scallions (minced), and 1.5T sesame oil.

Sesame leaves are rinsed and pat dry. Then just submerge them in yangnyum one by one. In about 1 hour, they are ready.

These are great on its own, or I also love it with rice (I wrap rice in a piece of sesame leaf)! For any leftover marinade after eating all the leaves, I use it for making stir-fry noodles with it and it's really nice, too.

Warm Tofu and Mushroom "Namul" Salad

With my semi-dry mushrooms...

I made very easy salad with tofu and some greens.

Just set the mixed mushrooms and a piece of tofu, with a splash of 2T of sake, in a microwavable donabe steam-roaster, "Tochinsai" (without a grate). Cover and cook for 4.5 minutes (700-watt). This microwavable donabe is really amazing. You wouldn't believe it's cooked in microwave. Tofu comes out so fluffy and mushrooms are perfectly aromatic.

Meanwhile, to make the "namul" style dressing, combine 1T sesame seeds (roasted and ground), 1 small clove garlic (grated), a pinch of brown sugar, a pinch of salt, 1/8 tsp soy sauce, 1t olive oil, 1T sesame oil, and a pinch of thinly-sliced dry red chili.

To finish, pour the dressing over the tofu & mushrooms, and mix by a large spoon by breaking the tofu. Add some minari (dropwort - you can substitute with watercress or other green of your choice) leaves and toss again. That's it. You cook, mix, and serve in just one Tochinsai. So easy. And, it's so tasty.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe-steamed Ankimo

Yes, it's the season for monkfish now!

I was excited to find fresh ankimo (monkfish liver) at a store today, so I picked up a piece to make steamed ankimo with my donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe".

Here's how I make it:

After picking up veins with a knife, put the fresh ankimo in a plastic bag and add 2-3 teaspoon of soy sauce. Let it soak for a few minutes.

Rinse off the soy sauce and let the ankimo in sake for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, turn it a couple of times.

Wrap the ankimo in a piece of plastic wrap so that it forms like a log. Wrap again with aluminum foil.

Get Mushi Nabe ready by heating the water in it until it starts steaming. Put the wrapped ankimo in it and steam over medium+ heat for 20 minutes. Take it out and let it cool down. Then, refrigerate it until it's completely chilled.

Remove the foil and plastic wrap from ankimo. Slice and serve.

My homemade steamed ankimo was ready! I served it with shiso and Kanzuri, which is a type of chili paste condiment from Niigata, Japan. It's made by leaving red chili peppers in the snow, and mixed with rice koji, yuzu & salt, and was aged for 3 years. This is a beautiful condiment with rich flavor but the heat is not overpowering. It's much milder than yuzu kosho and has the slight sweet character from rice koji. So, Kanzuri enhances richness of ankimo and the combination is perfect.

In a Japanese science program I watched recently, I learned that ankimo has the highest DHA (Omega 3) content among all the food...even much higher than ikura (salmon roe) or o-toro (fatty tuna)! So, I want to eat my homemade steamed ankimo every day while in season.

Happy donabe life.

Donabe braised chicken in soy black vinegar

Classic donabe is always versatile. You can do table top hot pot, or you can make a one-pot braising/ stew.

For this dish, I used my classic Iga-yaki donabe, "Ame-yu". This donabe's body is large and deep enough to cook generous amount of braising dish for a group, so I like using it when I cook large pieces of meat.

I got some chicken legs from McCall’s Meat & Fish, and braised in soy sauce & black vinegar based broth with kabu (Japanese turnip) and shiitake mushrooms. This dish is so easy to make, as you just need to assemble the ingredients in donabe and set over the gas stove. Because donabe does the very efficient slow cooking, once you put the ingredients in donabe, you basically just let the donabe do the rest of the work. How easy and delicious the dish is!

Aromatics for the dish…scallion (green part), garlic, ginger, and dry hot chili. Chicken and aromatics were added to the cooking liquid (water, sake, raw brown sugar, soy sauce, black vinegar), then braised for about 25 minutes on gas stove.


Aromatics were removed and kabu and shiitake mushrooms were added and simmered for additional 15 minutes.


Leaves of kabu were added. Donabe was removed from the heat and rested for 15 minutes.


The dish came out gorgeous! Chicken was so juicy-tender, and tasted great with the sauce. Vinegar added the key complexity to the sauce (the sauce never tastes “vinegary”). Jason said he wanted to baithe in this sauce.

I posted the recipe on toiro’s website. So, please check it out.

Happy donabe life.