The Anime BlogJapanese meals http://www.theanimeblog.com The Anime Blog features Anime and Manga News and Reviews, Japanese Culture Articles, Japanese Recipes, Lolita Fashion and more. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:34:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 English hourly 1 Odenhttp://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/oden/ http://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/oden/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:47:32 +0000 Rachel http://theanimeblog.com/2008/01/29/oden/ oden

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

tofu

  • 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

Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/oden/feed/ 7 Japanese Recipe: Ozonihttp://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/japanese-recipe-ozoni/ http://www.theanimeblog.com/japanese-recipes/japanese-recipe-ozoni/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:43:31 +0000 Rachel http://theanimeblog.com/2007/12/26/japanese-recipe-ozoni/ New Year’s is a major holiday in Japan and has been for centuries. Shogatsu, as the Japanese New Year’s is known, retains many traditions from former times which are still alive today and a fixture in modern New Year’s happenings. These traditions can be small, intimate ceremonies practiced with the family or in private. For three days the Japanese celebrate the New Year and enjoy traditional New Year’s foods, osechi ryori, aka osechi, which have been prepared or purchased before the festivities.
Rae’s Ozoni
Some of the foods eaten include nimono (simmered vegetables), kazunoko (herring roe), kurikinton (mashed chestnuts and sweet potatoes), datemaki (sweetened omelet roll), kamaboko (fish cake) and konnyaku (gelatinous yam cake). But the one dish which is famous as New Year’s food is ozoni.

The morning of the first day of New Year’s, people will drink sake and eat ozoni, the traditional soup of New Year’s. This soup has many variations and no one can agree on any one ozoni recipe as the “official” ozoni recipe. However, no matter what’s added, subtracted or left out of an ozoni recipe, the one thing which makes ozoni, ozoni, is mochi.

Mochi is another celebrated New Year’s food and is even featured as a New Year’s decoration, the kagami mochi. Pieces of toasted mochi cake are added to ozoni as part of a hearty meal.

I decided to make ozoni this year and have listed what I used in my own rendition of this traditional soup. I’ve listed ingredient variations so you can personalize ozoni for your own New Year’s celebrations.

Rae’s Ozoni

  • 6 cups dashi or veggie stock
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 8 shitake, fresh
  • 2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
  • konnyaku
  • kamaboko, sliced
  • nappa cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 8 shrimp balls
  • 1 cup shrimp, cooked
  • 4 mochi, sliced into thirds
  • green onions, finely sliced

1. Boil the dashi, or stock, and soy sauce in a large pot. Remove stems from the shitake and add them to the dashi. Simmer on low for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the shitake stems.
2. Add carrots and shitake caps to stock. Simmer on low for 10 minutes.
3. Slice konnyaku into strips, or for a decorative effect, slice a strip of konnyaku in the center and pull one end of the konnyaku through the slit. Add to stock and boil for an additional 10 minutes.
4. Toast mocho thirds in the oven on broil till they’re puffy and golden brown. Set aside.
5. In bottom of a bowl, add shrimp balls, shrimp, nappa cabbage, and 2 mochi thirds. Carefully ladle broth and simmered vegetables into the bowl. Top with green onions. Serve immediately.

Variant Ingredients

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