amature oden

I was informed on Sunday that I would be in charge of dinner all week due to A's busy evening schedule. And on top of that, I was going to be going grocery shopping by myself("I don't care if we just eat sandwiches every night." -A). OK. So I needed to come up with a game plan because when I try to shop and cook according to what normally does in the kitchen six types of hell break loose and it's never pretty. So I decide I'll go into uncharted territory. I had read about the asian "hotpot" (every asian country seems to have their own variation) meal. Basically, you have a pot of broth that you get simmering and you throw in all kinds of everything. The differences between regional hotpots seems to be the specific types of ingredients and how you eat it. In some you add everything and then you simmer for a looooong time, in others you get your basic broth a bubblin with just a few key flavoring ingredients and then you have all of your other ingredients chopped and ready in bowls. You then toss in whichever ingredients you like and they cook up quickly. This usually means things like fish, pork, chicken, tofu, veggies, etc. You throw it in, was a minute, and pull it out. You then eat your cooked items with various dipping sauces. That's the chinese style, as I understand it.

Well, I decided to try Oden, which is the Japanese variation. This is the kind where you add your ingredients early on and simmer for hours. Traditionally you make oden using your basic dashi (broth of either konbu, shiitake, niboshi [sardine], or bonito flakes) and then adding your ingredients, all of them, and then just let that puppy simmer, adding water and shoyu as necessary. Also, you can keep adding ingredients as necessary. So I made my shopping list and picked up several basic items for making an oden. If it worked out well, we would have a new easy to make dish in our repertoire, and if it was a flop, hey, I took a risk. Oh, and also oden is considered a "winter dish" that is warming and filling.

So last night I made a double batch of konbu dashi (8 cups water, 2 pieces of konbu[plankton/seaweed/sea vegetable]) which gives somewhere between 6 and 7 cups of broth. Tonight I had A start the broth simmering as I was leaving from work. I only had her use 5 cups because I didn't want to use all of it and I didn't want it to be 8 cups of flop if it flopped. Well, I get home to the smell of...mmmmm...simmering seaweed. It actually smells nice for a while because it gives the feel of being near the ocean. It is only after an hour of simmering without adding anything else that it starts to smell too much like low tide. Well, the co-op we shop at has a semi-respectable ethnic/gourmet selection so I was able to get certain things like konbu, dried shiitake, and of course produce. Unfortunately they didn't have daikon raddish but I substituted black raddish. And they didn't have yam starch cakes or fish cakes or any of those truly "oriental" ingredients, which is fine, I didn't want to try this with seafood the first time...too much risk of things going wrong and being inedible. I picked up some produce that I thought would compliment the black raddish and broth, like green onion, leaks, potatoes. The recipe I was following also included boiled eggs. Well, I can do that.

So tonight I got home from work to the simmering broth. After it had been simmering for almost a hour and getting quite strong, I chopped the raddish, leaks, shalots, carrots, potatoes, and beef (I had picked up a pack of stirfry-ready beef strips). Keep in mind, when you do an oden with meat, you really should try to get the best cut of meat available and you should have it very thinly sliced. Since I was putting together the first-time low-budget oden, and since the butcher at the co-op did not have a deli slicer, I opted for pre-cut meat of relatively low quality. No biggie. Worst case scenario is I end up firing up the wok. Ok, so I've added all my ingredients and walked away. The idea is to let it simmer for at least 2 hours, making sure to add more broth, water, and shoyu to keep it liquid and from getting too heavy.

And, as i chopped stuff and added stuff I did a very cheffly thing and kept taking little tastes of everything before putting it in (not potato, of course, but everything else) and kept tasting the oden as is simmered along. Now, remember, I wasn't using any seafood or fish, but mostly pretty standard ingredients for your basic stew. I started to get a little disappointed when my japanese experiment started to taste like "basic beef and vegetable stew". Hrm. Well, after a couple hours of adding water and shoyu, I decided it was time to actually dig in and have myself a bowl.

DELICIOUS. Granted, the ingredients I used were not traditional japanese, but more traditional american, but damn....good stuff. The first bowl I had was just straight up stew. YUM. Half-way through it I added buckwheat soba noodles and more stew. WOW, even better! The second bowl was more noodles, more stew. DELISH! Now I decided that I wanted to dress it up a bit before Andrea had her first bowl, so I rehydrated a handful of shiitake, added the resulting shiitake broth (only about a teaspoon work, unfortunately) and the rinsed and chopped mushrooms.

Ok, keep in mind also that I'd been sampling and eating this stew all night for a couple hours now, and each time you just add more water, more soy sauce, and if you get low on other stuff, add more of it! I started out with a lot of veggies and stuff so I've not really had to add any more, just more liquid. It is nice and warming. Now, next time I'll try to go the extra steps to use some more authentic ingredients, and of course, the traditional way of eating it is to put karashi (hot mustard) on each bit before you eat it...but all in all, while not the most authentic, it is certainly a delicious tasting, hearty, homey, warming meal. I think I'll have this stuff for lunch tomorrow too. It'll go great with a sandwich. I can hardly wait! Finally, a meal that is better the longer you cook it!!!! no more over-cooking!