Nabemono dish Part I: Sukiyaki
I like dish that is cooked and shared at the table. People sit around the dish to enjoy eating and talking. One dish that may come to your mind maybe "Fondue". Did you know its origin is Swiss? According to wikipedia, term "fondue" derivered from French word "fondre" which means "to melt" ? The past tense of the word "fondre" is "fondu" meaning "melted".
In Japan, there are several kinds of Nabemono dish. Nabemono dish is type of the dish cooked and shared at the table just like fondue. Since it warms up your body, often times, people enjoy this kind of dish winter time more.
One popular nabemono dish is probably "sukiyaki". Some people may have heard of the name. When you have sukiyaki, you will see the iron pot or ceramic pot on table. In it, you will find thinly sliced beef, Tofu, Chrysanthemum leaves, Green onion, Shrataki (noodle made from konnyaku), Udon, etc in simmering sauce (mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sake, and mirin) and our family used to have Mochi (rice cake) cooked in there too. You also see a plate that has raw vegetable, raw meat, and other uncooked items along side the pot. Idea is to put those ingredients in the pot as you eat the cooked one in the sauce. You can see picture of the dish at wikipedia here.
In Japan, you will crack an egg in small individual bowl, and beat it up and dip the cooked ingredients in it and eat them. When coming over to the states, I was surprised to know people are not supposed to have a raw egg. Maybe eggs in Japan and eggs in US have different standard to be sold and used to consumers?
Since I learned raw egg is no, no here in US, I serve no raw beaten egg to dip meat, vegetable etc and eat just as is.
Best part is next day. Next day, the dish has more flavor and my mother used to make risotto-like thing out of it. And that was delicious. What she did was just to put leftover rice into sukiyaki dish and heat through.
Sukiyaki is easy to make and it is a great dish to share and enjoy with family. You maybe wondering how to make sukiyaki dish. Here is how. I will omit unique ingredients.
1.prepare ingredients on plate to go in to the pot.
Beef- slice thin
green onion/leek- slice diagonally
onion-slice to about 1/4" thickness
Nappa cabbage (hakusai)- cut to about 1" chunks
Tofu-cut to about 1" dice
Udon-cut the bag into half.This gets you to have shorter noodle in a dish rather than long noodle. Usually Udon require only a few min to cook in the pot.
2. To 100ml water, add 100ml of mirin, 100ml of soy sauce, 2 tbs white table sugar and simmer
3. If you had iron pot at home, you can bring the pot to the table, cook the green onion/leek and beef in it, pour the mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, water over and add ingredients as you like from prepared plate.
** If you did not have iron pot, you can make it as one pot dish that will be shared at the table.
Here is how you can do it. After preparing vegetable and all other ingredients you like to have in a dish, in one pot, make the sauce (water,soy sauce,mirin,sugar as I have described in step#2). Then, you can cook leek and beef in a bit of oil in sauce pan and add the ingredients you want in dish, and add the sauce. Cook through and you can put the pan on table and family can have bowl of rice and pick what they like to eat from the pan.
Next day, you can put leftover rice to the pot, heat through and eat as sukiyaki risotto like my mother used to.
Here is a tip for you. Be careful not to over cook the beef. Especially red meat tend to become tough when simmer/cook too long.
There are some more dishes that can be categorized under Nabemono dish. I will introduce them next time. For now, enjoy sukiyaki!
In Japan, there are several kinds of Nabemono dish. Nabemono dish is type of the dish cooked and shared at the table just like fondue. Since it warms up your body, often times, people enjoy this kind of dish winter time more.
One popular nabemono dish is probably "sukiyaki". Some people may have heard of the name. When you have sukiyaki, you will see the iron pot or ceramic pot on table. In it, you will find thinly sliced beef, Tofu, Chrysanthemum leaves, Green onion, Shrataki (noodle made from konnyaku), Udon, etc in simmering sauce (mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sake, and mirin) and our family used to have Mochi (rice cake) cooked in there too. You also see a plate that has raw vegetable, raw meat, and other uncooked items along side the pot. Idea is to put those ingredients in the pot as you eat the cooked one in the sauce. You can see picture of the dish at wikipedia here.
In Japan, you will crack an egg in small individual bowl, and beat it up and dip the cooked ingredients in it and eat them. When coming over to the states, I was surprised to know people are not supposed to have a raw egg. Maybe eggs in Japan and eggs in US have different standard to be sold and used to consumers?
Since I learned raw egg is no, no here in US, I serve no raw beaten egg to dip meat, vegetable etc and eat just as is.
Best part is next day. Next day, the dish has more flavor and my mother used to make risotto-like thing out of it. And that was delicious. What she did was just to put leftover rice into sukiyaki dish and heat through.
Sukiyaki is easy to make and it is a great dish to share and enjoy with family. You maybe wondering how to make sukiyaki dish. Here is how. I will omit unique ingredients.
1.prepare ingredients on plate to go in to the pot.
Beef- slice thin
green onion/leek- slice diagonally
onion-slice to about 1/4" thickness
Nappa cabbage (hakusai)- cut to about 1" chunks
Tofu-cut to about 1" dice
Udon-cut the bag into half.This gets you to have shorter noodle in a dish rather than long noodle. Usually Udon require only a few min to cook in the pot.
2. To 100ml water, add 100ml of mirin, 100ml of soy sauce, 2 tbs white table sugar and simmer
3. If you had iron pot at home, you can bring the pot to the table, cook the green onion/leek and beef in it, pour the mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, water over and add ingredients as you like from prepared plate.
** If you did not have iron pot, you can make it as one pot dish that will be shared at the table.
Here is how you can do it. After preparing vegetable and all other ingredients you like to have in a dish, in one pot, make the sauce (water,soy sauce,mirin,sugar as I have described in step#2). Then, you can cook leek and beef in a bit of oil in sauce pan and add the ingredients you want in dish, and add the sauce. Cook through and you can put the pan on table and family can have bowl of rice and pick what they like to eat from the pan.
Next day, you can put leftover rice to the pot, heat through and eat as sukiyaki risotto like my mother used to.
Here is a tip for you. Be careful not to over cook the beef. Especially red meat tend to become tough when simmer/cook too long.
There are some more dishes that can be categorized under Nabemono dish. I will introduce them next time. For now, enjoy sukiyaki!
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