When it gets cold, we all like to munch on comfort foods in the warmth of our cozy abodes. Many comforting foods happen to be cooked in one pot, making them easy and delicious. One simple Japanese comfort food is oden. Oden is a popular winter Japanese hot pot stew, with regional ingredients varying across the country. A hot pot is defined as a dish in which foods (veggies, meats, etc.) are boiled in a simmering broth.
Most ingredients for oden tend to be vegetable, seafood or tofu products, although anything can be used. I made this simple oden variation with ingredients I love:
Oden
- 1 daikon, peeled and cut into chunks
- 6 chikuwa, cut in halves
- 3 soft boiled eggs, peeled
- 1 block konnyaku, cut in half, then cut into 16 triangles
- 2 blocks satsuma age, cut into 8 triangles
- 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 large potatoes, cut into chunks
- 10 squares atsuage, cut in halves
- 14 tsukune
- 2/3 cup sake
- 10 cups dashi
- 1/3 cup soy
- 1/4 cup mirin
- scant amount spicy mustard
1. In a large pot, mix sake, dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. Add all the ingredients to the broth, except the spicy mustard. Bring all to a boil then cover and simmer on low for an hour.
2. Remove from heat and spoon ingredients equally into bowls. Serve with hot mustard on the side.
Makes 8 Servings
That was easy, but the oden tasted great! Some other traditional options for a hearty oden are:
This Japanese 7-11 page has some excellent photos of national and regional oden ingredients. The site language is Japanese but the pictures translate the names into a language we all know: Yummm!
Difficulty: Easy | Time: 1 hour 20 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate to Difficult
Oo! Sounds delictable! :3 I’ll have to try it next time it’s my turn to cook supper!
@Chantal-Antionette, oden is an easy recipe that tastes great. It’s even easier to make if you live near a Japanese or well-stocked Asian food store; they sell prepackaged oden ingredients in the frozen section and oden soup mix in the dashi aisle. How hard can it be to make oden that someone has it all prepackaged? o_O
Mmmmm made this last Friday and came out great. I went to this Korean Supermarket and got a big Oden set. I didn’y like the Yam cake thnou…bleh
@Cliff, we just had oden tonight. It was good on a cold night like tonight! You didn’t like the konnyaku? Was it the texture?
Yea it was…lol i dunno it was just weird, the over all flavor was fine just the texture XD