Nabe (Yosenabe/Japanese Hot Pot)
October 13th, 2009 | Japanese Recipes | 24 Comments
(Attend hands-on hot pot workshop in Los Angeles by Harris Salat, the author of Japanese Hot Pots. Classes are available on November 14-15, 2009. Click here to learn more.)
Fall is in the air, even here in Southern California. Days are getting shorter and cooler. These past few days, the sky has been dull and wintry and this morning, it rained.
I start craving foods that keep me warm—soups, hearty stews, and hot pots. To me, nothing tastes quite as invigorating and uplifting than a meal of simmering hot soup or stew. I made nabe, or Japanese hot pot, a delicious medley of ingredients steeped in dashi broth and cooked inside a clay donabe, or nabe pot…(get nabe or Japanese hot pot recipe after the jump)
My friend La Fuji Mama took me shopping at the Japanese market here: kombu and bonito flakes for dashi, cookware, usukushi shoyu (Japanese light soy sauce) and harusame (cellophane noodles). La Fuji Mama lived in Tokyo twice and knows how to pick out the best brands on the shelves. It was great to have someone who knows Japanese to shop with. Thanks so much, Rachael!
The nabe I made is called Yosenabe, or “Anything Goes” Hot Pot according to “Japanese Hot Pots: Comforting One Pot Meals” by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat. (I attended the book launch party in New York recently.) Yosenabe is probably one of the most popular hot pots in Japan; it’s highly versatile when it comes to the ingredients used. Chicken, mushrooms, Napa cabbage, Tokyo negi, tofu, and assortment of seafood of your choice: head-on shrimp, scallops, oysters, fish fillet, clams, etc. The chicken has to stay, according to the cookbook.
How did it taste? Well, I will let my photo gallery above speaks for itself. After the nabe meal, I felt like I might even start to appreciate colder weather as I have fifty (50) recipes from the Japanese Hot Pots cookbook to take me through the gloomy days.
Adapted from “Japanese Hot Pots: Comforting One-Pot Meals”
Ingredients:
Dashi:
8 cups water
2 (6-inch) pieces kombu
1 1/2 oz. dried, shaved bonito
Method:
Add the water and the water kombu to a stock pot and let it steep for 30 minutes.
Place the stockpot over medium heat and bring it to a boil. Remove the kombu and add the bonito and stir it once to mix in. As soon as the liquid boils again, decrease the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove any scum that appears on the surface.
Turn off the heat and let the liquid steep for 15 minutes. Strain it through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Don’t squeeze the bonito flakes because it would make the dashi cloudy. Discard the bonito flakes after use.
Yose Nabe
Ingredients:
4 cups dashi
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup usukushi soy sauce (light soy sauce)
1 chicken leg and thigh, boned, skinned, and cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 lb. napa cabbage, sliced
1 oz. harusame (cellophane noodles), soaked in water for 15 minutes
1/2 package (1/2 lb.) firm tofu, cut into 4 pieces
4 clams
4 head-on shrimp
4 large scallops
1/2 lb. red snapper or sea bass fillet, cut into 1-inch slices
1 negi, sliced on an angle into 2-inch pieces
1 bunch spinach, rinsed and cut into 2-inch bundle
3 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms or enoki mushrooms or oyster mushrooms
1/2 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces, then thinly sliced lengthwise
Method:
Prepare the broth by combining the dashi, mirin, and soy sauce. Set aside.
Place the cabbage on the bottom of the nabe pot. On top of the cabbage, add the harusame, tofu, clams, shrimp, scallops, red snapper, chicken, negi, spinach, mushrooms, and carrot, arranging each ingredient in a neat order. Pour the broth over, cover the hot pot and bring it to boil over high heat until cooked.
Transfer the hot pot to the dining table and serve immediately.
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This looks super yummie! Nothing beats a nice pot of boiling soup on cold winter days, I might have to try this with miso paste instead since Japanese grocery products are so hard to find in the Midwest.
Yes, I think miso-based broth is great, too.
This is perfect for today’s SoCal weather. I wasn’t hungry until I viewed these pics!
Yes, SoCal’s weather is yucky now.
Nabe sounds so good right about now… this really would be a comforting one pot meal.
I really do need to get around to making some kind of soup, its been way too cold in Maryland lately. The pictures are really nice and make me realllllly wish I had some. Going to have to make some this weekend =]
I was just thinking of making nabe as it’s getting cold on the East Coast. Beautiful!
Ninette – it will be great for the East Coast.
I’m so glad we got to go shopping! It was way more fun to have a partner in crime. Your nabe looks absolutely delish–perfection in a pot!
Thanks for taking me.
Tommy – awesome. Yes, it’s great this time of year.
This looks amazing. Send me a bowl!
mmm come and warm my bellay! In the winter, my family has shabu shabu / hot pot every Sunday… my fav time :)
I did not know you used “bonito” in english as well! For me “bonito” has always been the one coming from the Cantabrian sea in North Spain.
The hot pot looks good indeed. Japanese are masters in the art of hot pot, and this is a very good example of it! I guess you use gaz, if you can heat the clay pot without it breaking, it does not work with vitroceramics…
Cheers.
Wow, great photography again.
How do you get your lighting so perfect? Do you use lights, or just natural light?
Great recipe too btw – I always just get so jealous of the photos!
Andy – http://onceuponathyme.wordpress.com/
I use natural light, taken all shots by the window. :)
We always get nabe when we order takeout – what fun to make it at home! We’ll definitely have to give this one a try. ~ Belle
The first time I came across Nabe…I thought it sound like a “bad” word..:O
I don’t get it because nabe doesn’t sound vulgar to me at all. Perhaps it’s only in Singapore? In Hokkien?
Love hot pot especially during freezing weather in London! Yours are very nicely done!!
I bet London is cold now. Make some nabe!
Wow, that looks super yummy! It’s been raining here all day and I’m sure something like that would be just perfect for this weather.
Yes, nabe is great for cold weather. :)
Yours looks great! I always seem to over cook mine… Is there a certain trick to it? I feel like it is in there for only a few minutes and BAM I over cooked the seafood. :( Maybe I should cook it on lower heat? Or not cover it?
Thank you for helping me in advanced!
Hi Yummy – If you are afraid of overcooking the seafood, wait for the broth to start boiling before adding them in. Try it. :)