We normally cook oden on a table-top gas stove like this one on a snowy evening.
Assorted Oden fish cakes made from fish paste mixed with prawns, shellfish, seaweed, shiitake, gobo-burdock root and the list goes on and on. They normally come with the oden broth like this one.
Oden is one of the most popular foods enjoyed by Japanese people throughout the year. You will find oden at Izakaya (Japanese pub-restaurants), convenience stores, and at home. We crave oden during winter months because it makes you warm inside out and goes nice with warm sake on a snowy evening.
Surprisingly, the quality of Japanese reconstituted foods we cook in oden such as fish cakes is very good.
Fish cakes add extra flavour to the oden broth. We will also beef up the broth with the boiled beef tendons during our oden cooking class. You should boil the beef tendons prior to the cooking class and save the broth as well. If you prefer the broth without the beef-tendon broth, you can do so. It is still nice with the kombu, fish cake and root-vegetable broth.
If imported Japanese oden ingredients are not available in your town, you can use potatoes, cabbage, sausages, daikon, and carrots. You might want to add some boiled oxtails to your oden hotpot. That would make a very tasty broth. I think you could say that oden is a Japanese version of the French beef stew called pot-au-feu. We use plenty of seafood-based reconstituted food instead of beef though.
Ingredients
400g beef tendons
2 green onions
Water as needed
2 litres water
3 tablespoons soy sauce, or as needed (preferably usukuchi soy sauce)
20g kombu
200g daikon, white radish
200g satoimo, Japanese taro potatoes (potatoes can be substituted)
4 hard boiled eggs (peeled)
Assorted oden fish cakes
Karashi, mustard or ichimi, chilli powder as you like.
Boil beef the tendons with green onions for one hour or boil them in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes then let them rest for 10 minutes. Cut the tendons into bite-size pieces. Save the boiled water to add to the kombu broth.
Hida-Wagyu Beef tendons, green onions and water in a pressure cooker, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
2. In a large hotpot, or nabe (a Japanese clay hotpot), add 2 litres water and 20g kombu.
3. Peel the daikon and cut it into 2cm medallions then cut the medallions in half. Put the daikon in a saucepan and add water and boil on medium heat until the daikon is soft. Dunk the daikon into cold water then drain it.
4. Peel the satoimo and cut them into 1cm medallions and boil until soft. Remove from the boiling water.
5. Add the boiled beef tendons and the beef broth and all of the other oden ingredients to the hotpot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer. Keep simmering the oden for at least half an hour. When the daikon is cooked add the soy sauce. Turn off the heat and let the oden cool so as to infuse the food with the tasty broth.
6. Reheat the oden before eating. Dish out the oden pieces of your choice and serve with mustard or chilli powder.
