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Spicy Miso Butter Ramen

I love making this simple ramen dish for a quick one pot meal for one (or sometimes two). The broth is rich, spicy, yet not too heavy like you would experience at some ramen restaurants. I use Japanese dashi, but you can make it with chicken stock or any stock you like. A slice of butter is added to serve and elevates the flavor nicely. I like to make it so simple that my choice of toppings are rapini (broccoli rabe) and soft boiled egg. So, my dish is vegetarian, but you can enjoy with meat or any toppings you like.


Baked Foil-Wrapped Seafood

Kaisen Hoiru-Yaki

Foil-baked seafood is such an easy-prepping and delicious dish. It also requires basically no cleaning of the cooking equipment. I always make it in my tagine-style donabe , Fukkura-san, as not only it distributes the heat perfectly without getting the bottom burned quickly but also it makes a very nice presentation at the table. The dish is flavored simply with sake, butter, and a drizzle of soy sauce and it’s so perfect! When the foil is gently cut open and the dish is revealed, it brings so much excitement, and also the aroma of butter-sake infused ingredients is so irresistible. Smoked soy sauce makes the dish so special but a regular soy sauce can work just fine, too.


Miso Butter Hot Pot with Salmon and Pork

Ishikari Nabe

I’ve made this hot pot many times this season, both for myself and many other people. And, many of them asked me to share the recipe so they can make it home. The miso broth has two kinds of miso for complexity. The addition of butter at the end gives the beautiful depth in flavor.

Ishikari Nabe is originally a regional dish from Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan), and to me, the must “rule” to be called Ishikari Nabe is that the dish has to have salmon and potato in the miso broth. They taste so good together (especially with the butter added at the end)! That being said, the broth can go well with just about anything, so you can change around the ingredients to cook in it. When I cook for my vegan friends, I use kombu and shiitake dashi, and make it with tofu and different kinds of mushrooms (and no butter).

You can make the miso base (mixture of the miso, sake, mirin and soy sauce) in advance, and when it’s ready to serve, you can simply combine the miso base with dashi, and start cooking the ingredients in it at the table (or at in the kitchen stove and serve at the table).

For “shime” (finishing course), I love making ojiya (soupy porridge) in the remaining broth. Ramen is also great, too.


Smokey Shoyu Corn Hijiki Rice

This rice dish has been a big hit throughout this summer, and I made it many times. As long as you have nice sweet fresh corn, this dish can almost never fail. Corn and hijiki seaweed go so well together (I also like to make a salad dish featuring these two ingredients), and they blend in with the rice nicely. 

The butter and Smoked Soy Sauce are added after the rice is made, so they keep the really fresh flavors. The aroma is quite irresistible. If you don’t have the Smoked Soy Sauce, you can use a regular soy sauce for a non-smokey version.


Salmon and Daikon in Garlic Butter Miso Sauce

Garlic, miso, and butter…they make a brilliant combination of flavors. The main ingredients to cook in the sauce are salmon (or you can use your choice of high quality rich flavor fish) and daikon, and they are piled up with a few other ingredients and quickly simmered in the sauce. The dish has a nice rich flavor with refreshing accent with the yuzu juice. I used cilantro and daikon sprouts as a garnish for this recipe, but dill is also a nice alternative.


Bottarga and Matsutake Rice

Karasumi Matsutake Gohan

When I’m lucky enough to have these special ingredients at the same time, I love making this dish. The earthy perfumy aroma of matsutake mushroom is so elegant and there is nothing equivalent to it. The umami-packed and slightly chewy character of karasumi (cured mullet roe, a Japanese delicacy, and it’s also a famous Italian ingredient, called bottarga in Italian.) You can substitute matsutake mushroom with a different kind of mushroom such as shimeji (although the aroma is very different, it’s still tasty) when matsutake is out of season. For karasumi, instead of slicing it, you can grate it to mix in the rice, too.

The dish shown in this photo is made in 1 rice-cup size Kamado-san.


Smoky Shoyu-Flavored Corn & Bacon Rice

Here’s another version of my corn rice; this one has a big, bold flavor with the addition of rendered bacon, Smoked Soy Sauce, and butter. This is a great dish to serve at a summer party, too. When I made this dish at an outdoor BBQ dinner one day, everybody went crazy and it was gone so quickly! Corn is so sweet and savory at the same time, with its nice smokey and nutty flavor. Although this addition is highly recommended, if you would like to omit the 16 Multi Mixed Grains, you can reduce the amount of the dashi by a tablespoon or so.


Lemon Butter Yellowtail and Daikon

Lemon Butter Buri Daikon

This dish is my unique donabe version of popular Japanese dish, buri daikon (simmered yellowtail and daikon in soy based broth). Daikon is first sautéed in butter, then, once the yellowtail is added along with the lemon and mushrooms, they were steamed with sake and Ayu Fish Sauce. All made in one donabe, and this versatile Fukkura-san donabe effectively steam-fry the ingredients. The result is so aromatic, savory, and delicious. If yellowtail is not available, this dish can be made with other rich-flavor fish such as cod or sea bass. Ayu fish sauce gives the elegantly rich umami flavor, but it can be substituted with regular soy sauce, too.


Pork Keema Curry

I’ve been making this dish for years and I receive requests to make it over and over from my family and friends. There are a few “secret” ingredients to make this dish taste so delicious although it’s a simple recipe. They are ketchup, Japanese black vinegar, and Japanese fish sauce. This curry is perfect with donabe Turmeric Rice and eggs (they are both cooked in Kamado-san at the same time), or plain rice.


Salt Butter Chanko Hot Pot

Shio Butter Chanko Nabe

Japanese sumo wrestlers cook and eat chanko nabe at their stable every day. That’s the source of their strength. While chanko nabe refers to any types of hot pot eaten by sumo wrestlers, the most typical style is chicken as a main protein and cooked in chicken broth. It’s because chicken stands on two legs like human beings, so it is considered to bring good luck (in sumo, you lose if your hands touch the ground). Chanko nabe typically makes a very nutritious and balanced meal, as you cook a wide variety of healthy ingredients in one pot. The sumo wrestlers are big, because they eat so much of it every meal! In my version, I cook chicken meatballs and vegetables in simple salt-flavored chicken broth, and add butter cubes right before serving. The aroma is so irresistible and the flavor is superb. As a shime (finishing course), I suggest ramen noodles to cook in the remaining broth.


Matcha & Salt Madeleine

Matcha Moshio Madeleine

This one-pot donabe madeleine is always so tasty and it’s hard to stop eating it. I make it with Bistro Donabe, as its extra thick body and the flat bottom allow the heat to distribute gently and also make a nice presentation when it’s sliced. The authentic matcha flavor is complemented with the mineral-rich moshio sea salt. When I serve this with freshly-whisked matcha, I’m in heaven.


Make Your Own Shoyu Ramen Hot Pot

Okonomi Shoyu Ramen Nabe

Making ramen is easy and fun, especially if you cook and serve as donabe hot pot right at the table. I like adding the chopped nira (garlic chives) to the ramen right before serving, but if you can’t find nira, you can substitute with thinly-sliced green onion and serve as a topping, instead. Enjoy with a couple of simple toppings or a make a platter of a wide selection of toppings to choose from for fun.


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