Kimchi Nabe

You may already have come across our last night of Nabe action…

 http://cook-japan.blogspot.com/2009/09/nabe-japanese-one-pot-stew.html

…but for those of you who missed out that particular delicacy, nabe is a one-pot Japanese dish consisting of various ingredients which is cooked in (obviously) one –pot in the centre of the table and shared by who ever has the good fortune to be dining with you.

In this case, it was the kids, but once they’d had their fill/got bored of the hassle we pumped up the volume so to speak and chucked in a pile of kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) and gochujang (fermented chilli sauce) to give it some kick…and a distinctive redder look…



Cooked over a camping stove in the middle of the table, this is a wonderful dish as the weather closes in the nights get longer.  In this case, we had the tofu, shiitake mushrooms, prawns, chunks of white fish, dumplings, pork mince balls, udon noodles and a range of Japanese green vegetables we were fortunate to receive today from a friend with a farm specialising in Japanese produce – but you could get away with some Chinese cabbage and rocket.   



What makes it yummy is the chilli from the kimchi and gochujang.. definitely a cold-boosting dish and a great meal to share with friends (especially if you have a fridge of cold beers on hand)…

…one of the great things about nabe is that as the pot is kept warm on a portable stove in the middle of the table diners can pick what they want and generally graze.  Eating together from a shared pot is considered as an important feature of nabemono; the belief is that eating from one pot makes for closer relationships. The Japanese thus say, Nabe (w)o kakomu (鍋を囲む、"sitting around the pot"), implying that sharing nabemono will create warm relations between the diners who eat together from the shared pot…
 

Mabo Dofu with a twist…

…well i say its a twist, but actually its just a sweet romano pepper, although having said that some do have a kind of twisty shape to them (not convincing ground i know but hey…)  Oh, and a few lily flowers so i guess that’s not to common so counts as kind of twisted…anyway, enough about food contortions its extremely tasty…

Mabo Dofu is a very popular Chinese dish cooked in Japan – originally from the Szechuan province of China, the Japanese equivalent lacks some of the spice, heat and thick sauce of the Chinese dish, but still provides plenty of flavour,  In essence its a dish of tofu, chilli and minced meat (typically pork or beef).

This is one of my favourite dishes and has become a traditional on my birthday – today’s variation had some finely chopped cabbage, rehydrated lily flowers and sweet peppers thrown in for added flavour along with the meat/tofu staple ingredients.  The Japanese version tends to use miso paste rather than chilli paste, but either way its incredibly delicious served on a bed of rice (come on you didn’t really think I’d go through an entire blog without mentioning the wonders of our Cook Japan rice cooker did you?)….

 

Chilli-con-Carne in the Rice Cooker

Still very cold, so after soup yesterday and with family round for dinner we figured a nice bowl of chilli would go down well with everyone.   Rather than messing about with pots, pans and keeping an eye of stuff as well the chilli was cooked in the rice cooker in the early afternoon with us safe in the knowledge we could just leave it to one side on “Keep Warm” to let the flavours build and develop until we were ready to eat…



So how was this enterprising dish made in our trusty Cook Japan rice cooker…
…first, using the “Braise” mode we cooked the onions and garlic…



…then in went the mince and some of left over ox cheeks we had from yesterday that didn’t make it into the soup…

                 

…with the meat nicely browned, in went some tomatoes, kidney beans, cheeky grating of chocolate, a glug of wine, salt and pepper, and some good old chillies and seasoning to give it that nice kick you want on a cold evening.



The rice cooker kicked into “keep warm” and it was left like this for about 5-hours until we were ready to eat dinner.  All that was left to do was make some rice in our other rice cooker (yes, we have 2 of these divine appliances), get out the bowls and chow down…



…with a couple of cold beers, what more could you want on a cold evening…



…and the best part is there’s a good healthy portion left for tomorrow when the flavours will be even richer – time set the rice cooker for a quick 10-15 minute cook cycle and then leave it on “keep warm” until ready to eat at lunch…