A nabe is both a large clay hotpot and also the name of a dish. Tori-no-Mizutakiz is a chicken hotpot with chicken thigh meat with bone, chicken meatballs, tofu, shiitake, and vegetables served with ponzu dipping sauce.
We enjoy nabe with warm sake during our freezing winter months.
Eating nabe creates intimacy because family and close friends get together and share the feast.
When: Please go to Zoom Cooking Classes page of this website.
Ingredients Serve 4
Broth (nabe-tsuyu): 2 litres water, 20g kombu
Dipping Sauce (yuzu ponzu): 100ml soy sauce, 100ml yuzu juice (or lemon juice)
Yakumi, herb & spice: 50g grated daikon (white radish), chilli powder as needed, 4 tablespoons asatsuki Negi (or green onions)
Tsukune, chicken meatballs: 400g minced chicken thigh meat, a pinch of salt, 30g Yamato potato (or 1 tablespoon cornflour)
Zousui, rice porridge in chicken hotpot broth: 200g boiled rice or leftover-rice, 4 eggs, 4 tablespoon finely cut green onions, salt as needed
60g kuzukiri (dried noodles made from Yoshino-Kuzu arrowroot powder, if available)
2 chicken drumsticks with skin (Chop into large bite-size pieces)
carrot as needed (cut into 5mm medallions)
100g daikon (white radish peeled and cut into 5mm medallions and cut half)
200g cabbage (cut into large bite-size)
1 packet tofu (momen tofu or hard tofu is recommended, if available)
4 shiitake mushrooms (cut to remove stems)
6 Negi, or large green onion stems and leaves or leeks
1 bunch shungiku (chrysanthemums leaves) or Bok choy
Method
Put the minced chicken meat in a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt and mix well with a spatula. Grind the Yamato potato (skin peeled) on the inside wall of a Japanese mortar and add it to the chicken meat. With a spatula, put the chicken meat paste onto a serving plate.
Boil the kuzukiri for about 5 minutes or as instructed on a packet, and dunk them into cold water and drain.
Cut the carrot into 5 mm medallions.
Cut the white radish into 5mm medallions and then cut into the half-moon shapes.
Cut the cabbage and tofu into bite-size pieces.
Remove the stems from the shiitake.
Cut the green onions diagonally into 2-inch long pieces.
In a water basin, wash the chrysanthemum leaves with running water to remove the dirt.
Cut tofu into large bite-size cubes.
Arrange all the above on a large serving plate.
How to enjoy the Chicken Nabe.
In a large clay pot or saucepan, add 2 litres of water and 20g kombu, half the chopped chicken thigh drumsticks, and the daikon radish and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and keep cooking the meat.
Put (B) the grated white radish, the chilli powder mixture, and the finely chopped green onions into the dipping sauce. When the chicken meat is cooked, start eating them with the dipping sauce.
Yuzu-Ponzu dipping sauce is perfect match with the chicken thigh meat with bone.
Next, start cooking the minced chicken meat by scooping with a spoon and dropping the meatballs into the boiling hotpot broth. When the chicken meatballs come to the surface, keep cooking them for a few minutes on medium heat. Try pinching them firmly with chopsticks. If they are firm, they are cooked and ready to eat.
Third, after enjoying the perfectly boiled chicken meatballs, add the remaining chicken meat, all the rest of vegetables and tofu on the large plate to the boiling Nabe and cook with the lid on. When it boils again, remove the lid and enjoy the rest of the Nabe feast.
How to make zousui (雑炊 rice porridge cooked in nabe broth)
Scoop and remove the remaining meat and vegetables if any from the Nabe. Taste the broth and add salt if needed.
Rinse the cooked rice (or leftover rice) in cold running water to remove the excess starch and drain it well, then add the rice to the boiling nabe broth, put the lid on. Remove the lid as it starts to boil again, pour in the beaten eggs and put the chopped green onions on top and cover it. Turn the heat off and wait for one minute. Enjoy the rice porridge with the tasty chicken nabe broth. Be careful, it is boiling hot!
You may also add udon noodles into your Nabe if you wish.