2 Japanese hot pot: nabe

when it’s really cold outside and not much warmer inside your house, there is one perfect thing which can warm you up.

nabe – a Japanese ‘hot pot’ dish.

So what do you need to make that heavenly dish? Not much, actually. Nabe is awesome for at least few reasons: it’s easy to make, cheap, healthy and delicious. Tastes the best when eaten with friends ^^

INGREDIENTS: 

300g chicken legs (without bones)
sausage (as much as you like)
1/4 Chinese cabbage
1/2 leek
1 package of tofu
mushrooms (we used enoki and bunashimeji, Japanese mushrooms but I guess you can use some Western mushrooms, too)
nabe broth (if you can’t buy it you can just use soy sauce or make your own broth)
udon noodles

but actually you can add whatever you like, no rules! ^^

HOW TO MAKE:

1. Cut the vegetables, rather big pieces.

2. Cut the meat and tofu. We didn’t cut sausage because it was small enough.

3. Put the nabe broth in the pot and boil it.

4. When the broth is boiling, add all the ingredients into the pot. Usually you do it two or three times. When it’s ready you eat it and then boil the broth which is left and add the rest of the ingredients. Depends on how much broth you have you can do it two or three times ^^

5. Boil for about 5-10 minutes, depends on what kind of ingredients you used. It’s done when the meat is cooked.

6. How to eat?

So, put the pot on the table, prepare small bowls, chopsticks and a ladle. Pick some pieces from the pot and put them in your bowl. Then pour some soup. Done!
The sauce on the picture is called ponzu ポン酢. You can use it with almost everything and Tensai said that nabe tastes awesome with it ^^

….one more little thing!

beer, of course! There is no better thing than beer&nabe. seriously!
Kirin Ichiban Shibori is our favourite beer, you can buy it in Europe, I’m sure. It’s definitely worth taking some effort to find it ;)

POST SCRIPTUM

About nabe broth: nowadays everybody buys nabe broth. It’s just more convenient and quicker way. But I guess it might be quite difficult to buy it in Europe. That is why, we’re gonna tell you how to make nabe broth.

Basic Nabe Broth

8 cups of dashi
2 table spoon sake
1 table spoon Mirin, optional
1/3 cup soy sauce

Mix it all with about 1,5L of water and bring it to a simmer. Done!

Enjoy your winter! ^^

aho&tensai