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Tag Archives: Kanzuri

Salmon Stew in Sake Miso Tomato Sauce

This quick donabe dish is packed with umami. The combination of the miso, tomato paste and sake brings rich and aromatic flavors, and kanzuri adds the nice spicy nuance (you can make it without kanzuri if you want it to be more mild). This sauce is very versatile, so you can use it for other protein, etc. The thick-body and compact Roast Donabe is my choice of donabe for this dish (and see how the contents continue to simmer a while after it’s brought to a table) but classic-style donabe or any other donabe with enough capacity can work also.


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.


Tuna Hot Pot

Negi-Ma Nabe

One day, a very good customer of ours stopped by at our shop to give us a block of fresh tuna he just caught from fishing in the Pacific Ocean. How sweet of him! It was super fresh sashimi quality, so we tried some as sashimi with different kinds of soy sauces we have, then for the remaining, I decided to make a donabe hot pot with it. Tuna hot pot in donabe is a popular dish in Japan, and it’s typically made as a combination with negi (Japanese green onion). It’s called Negi-Ma Nabe. The name is short for Negi (green onion) Maguro (tuna) Nabe (hot pot).

This dish is very simple, and all you need is good quality dashi, tuna (obviously!), green onion (for the name’s sake) and any other ingredients you like to add. I like it with my ponzu.

For the shime (finishing course), I like making quick ojiya (porridge) with freshly-cooked donabe rice


Avocado Sashimi

It takes no time to prepare this dish, and this appetizer is quite addictive. Just slice up a ripe avocado, drizzle high quality extra virgin olive oil, and serve with Kanzuri paste and Coarse Nori Crumbles from Ariake Sea. The nori crumbles give such a nice sweet ocean aroma and delicate crunch, but high quality sheet nori can work also, by coarsely breaking it by hand. With this dish and a nice sake, I’m just happy.


Oyster Sauce Flavored Steam-Fry Pork Yakisoba Noodle

Oyster Sauce Buta Yakisoba

Yakisoba (stir-fry noodles) is such a casual tasty dish which almost everybody in Japan loves. While there are so many variations of yakisoba, my all time favorite is the simple oyster sauce flavor with pork and cabbage. This yakisoba makes me feel nostalgic, as it’s similar to what my mom used to make for a quick lunch when I was a child. With the tagine-style donabe, Fukkura-san, the ingredients are steam-fried and the noodles have such a nice bouncy texture, while the meat and cabbage get lightly caramelized. Instead of typical karashi (Japanese hot mustard), I like serving this dish with Kanzuri.

As a variation, you can substitute soy sauce with Smoked Soy Sauce for a nice smokey and robust nuance.


Curry & Tamari Flavored Steam-Fry Vegetable Yakisoba Noodle

Enjoy this one-pot dish made with fresh yakisoba noodles and a lot of vegetables. I’ve been making this dish for years and had so many people turned on to this dish. The curry and tamari soy sauce flavors make a great combination. The noodles become nicely spicy and robust. This is a completely vegan dish with layers of flavors and textures. The sauce and sun-dried tomatoes bring out the rich umami, too.


Steamed Moshio-Salt-Marinated Pork Shoulder

Mushi Moshio-Buta

This dish was inspired by a popular Korean dish, bossam, which I love. In bossam, boiled pork belly block is sliced and served with condiments, and you can make a wrap with a napa cabbage leaf. In my version, I start with a pork shoulder block and marinade it with Moshio (seaweed sea salt) for overnight to a full day. If you don’t have moshio, you can use other kind sea salt, but moshio really makes the flavor so rich and complex, and also tenderize the meat very well. The meat is, then, steamed in donabe, and sliced to serve with lettuce leaves and condiments. You can make it with pork belly, too.

This dish is so simple to make and is also real fun dish to share at a table. All you have to do for cooking is simply put a block of salt-marinated pork shoulder in the Mushi Nabe, and steam for about 30 minutes or until done. When you are entertaining guests, you can pre-cook the meat in advance, and just reheat in the donabe before service. If you slice the meat in front of the guests, it will bring out more excitement. Then, at the table, you can have lettuce and condiments ready, and everybody can make his/ her own wraps. The meat is so tender and flavorful, and it’s pretty hard to stop eating once you start.


Tofu & Spinach Hot Pot

Yu-Dofu

Yu-Dofu (tofu hot pot) is a very simple and popular home dish in Japan. This version has addition of spinach and enoki mushrooms to boost nutrients and flavors. Yu-Dofu‘s best accompaniment is ponzu, and my quick daidai citrus ponzu tastes so refreshing and aromatic. Then, you can top the tofu with a generous amount of freshly-ground toasted sesame seeds in suribachi and surikogi (Japanese mortar and pestle), which is so nutty and aromatic. Kanzuri (chili condiment from Niigata, Japan) is another great condiment.


Kanzuri Yuzu Sauce

Just mix equal parts of the hot and umami-rich Kanzuri and Yuzu Juice, and it becomes a perfect aromatic condiment with a kick. I like it with any rice dish (like my Corn Rice), noodle, or grilled meat (great with yakitori, too).


Corn Rice

Tomorokoshi Gohan

Corn rice is one of my favorite summer dishes to make. It’s simple and full of summer flavors. I like to cook with my cold-infused Kombu and Shiitake Mushroom Dashi, so I just let the dashi infuse half-day to overnight in the fridge and it’s ready to use. This dish is completely vegan, but you can cook with your choice of other stock (kombu & bonito dashi, chicken stock, etc.), too. For this recipe, I also added a packet of 16 Multi Mixed Grains (it’s so good), but if you would like to make it without it, you can reduce the amount of the dashi by a tablespoon or so. To add some kick to the dish, I like adding the Kanzuri Yuzu Sauce to the dish. You can top the rice with a small amount of the sauce or mix it in to the rice to enjoy. It’s quite addictive.


Cold Ramen with Spicy Pork & Sesame Dipping Broth

Tan Tan Tsukemen

Cold ramen noodles with simmering hot and spicy broth with toppings create a wonderful dish to enjoy in the summer or all year round. The dipping broth is especially rich as it’s seasoned with hatcho miso (very dark miso made of 100% soybeans) with tamari soy sauce. But, if you don’t have either, you can simply substitute with quality red miso and dark soy sauce respectively and it would still be very tasty. You can also serve the broth cold, and it will be so refreshing and perfect to enjoy on a hot day.


Basic Smoking with Donabe Smoker, Ibushi Gin

Whether is simple sausages, fresh salmon, or boiled eggs, the Donabe Smoker, Ibushi Gin can make very aromatic smoked dishes in easy steps in a short time. Here’s the basic smoking guideline and tips for using Ibushi Gin large size, and the timing and measurements can be adjusted to your preference depending on what you smoke. The more you use it, the better you become in tweaking the process to best fit you.


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