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Tag Archives: Liquid shio-koji

Simmered Egg-Drop Chicken & Asparagus with Sansho Berries

Tori Asparagus Tamago-toji

This dish is a variation of Chicken & Tofu Hot Pot with Egg dish, and this dish is less soupy and the broth plays a role more as a seasoning for the ingredients. The combination of chicken, egg, and asparagus almost never go wrong, especially when asparagus is in high season in the spring time. The dish is topped with Salt-Pickled Sansho Berries, which bring such beautiful accent to the dish, but if you don’t have them, you can sprinkle some Sansho Powder, and it’s also very good for this dish.


Shio-koji Salmon over Butter Sweet Potatoes

Shio-Koji Sake to Satsuma-Imo no Mushi-Yaki

This dish is something I like to whip up especially on a busy day.  While marinating the salmon in shio-koji, I I can prepare all the other ingredients, then just pile them up and let the donabe do all the work. I love the slightly caramelized sweet potato in the bottom, while the salmon is perfectly cooked medium-rare (or you can cook it longer if you like the salmon to be well-done).


Tomato Ginger Rice

Tomato to Shoga no Takikomi Gohan

Half-cut tomatoes are cooked together with rice in the donabe and becomes an extremely luscious dish. Tomatoes break so easily with a rice paddle and once you gently mix the contents, the beautiful red color coats the rice and imparts the sweet aroma of tomatoes and ginger. While this dish is completely vegan, even my meat-loving friends go crazy over it. (And, they fight over Naosco, the Yuzu-Kosho flavored hot sauce I make as a condiment for this dish.)

I love making this dish while the tomatoes are in season during summer. But, tomatoes don’t have to be very ripe to make this dish, so you can enjoy making this dish any time of the year.


Salmon, Shiitake and Watercress in Smokey Garlic Black Vinegar Sauce

With just three main ingredients (salmon, shiitake mushrooms, and watercress) and simple preparation, this sizzling dish makes a very satisfying meal. The garlic black vinegar flavor is further enhanced with smoked soy sauce, but if you don’t have it, you can make it with regular high quality soy sauce, too. Make sure to drink up any remaining sauce, or dip some freshly-cooked donabe rice, as it’s so tasty.


Sansho Hummus

I served this dish with donabe-steamed vegetables during a Summer Festival at the shop and it was such a big hit among the guests. You can (literally) just whip it up with all the high quality pantry ingredients to create this creamy, high-protein dip with rich sesame flavors and aromatic kick from the Stone-Ground Sansho Powder. Besides the steamed vegetables, this dip is also great with sandwiches, steaks, or simply with crackers.


Smoked Chinese-style Cold Noodle

Smoked Hiyashi Chuka

Smoked toppings give such a tasty and unique upgrade to the popular summer dish. This dish has not only been a summer hit at my home, but I actually like to make it whenever I want all year round. The yuzu-flavored broth is so refreshing and creates a nice balance with the smoked toppings. For me, Yuzu-Kosho is an essential addition to add a nice kick to this dish, but it’s totally optional for those who prefer a less spicy flavor.


Make Your Own Steamed Chicken Pho

Inspired by a popular Vietnamese noodle dish, this is my Japanese version of it and the dish totally takes advantage of the unique versatility of the donabe steamer, Mushi Nabe. I can do steaming and simmering in one pot, and it makes a great presentation at the table, too. I also love serving it hot pot style, so you can cook a small batch of noodles to serve at a time and continue to cook and serve until done. Then, you can choose and enjoy different toppings for every batch, if you like. You can be creative and serve with a wider variety of toppings, too. The broth has layers of umami flavors with the dashi, reserved chicken juice and Ayu fish sauce. This dish is always so comforting and fun at the same time. Instead of serving with a sliced lemon, you can also try with a splash of Pure Hon-Daidai Citrus Juice. The bright aroma of the daidai citrus will completely upgrade the dish to another level!


Chicken, Kabocha & Mochi Mugi Stew in Shio-Koji Broth

This hearty stew is so nourishing and tasty. The only seasoning is basically Liquid Shio-Koji, and this magical seasoning makes the chicken extra tender. With the addition of kabocha and Mochi Mugi barley, this dish tastes so complete and makes an ideal one pot meal. My body always feels so great after eating a big bowl of this stew. For this dish, I like making dashi (soup stock) with kombu and dried shiitake by soaking them in water for a few hours (to over night) in advance. They not only make the soup taste wonderful but also they can be sliced and added to cook in the stew to enjoy. But, you can also make this dish with chicken stock or vegetable stock and it will be delicious, too.


Braised Chicken in Black Vinegar Sauce

Tori No Kurozu-ni

The main ingredients of this dish are just chicken and shiitake mushrooms, yet this dish can make such a hearty meal. The meat is so succulent and falls off the bone easily even with chopsticks. The special black vinegar from Kyoto gives the umami-packed layer of flavors to this easy one-pot dish.


Japanese Chicken Stock

Tori Dashi

Relatively inexpensive chicken wings can make really rich and flavorful stock, as the wings have a lot of bones and joints where the richest flavors are released from. In just 20 minutes of simmering plus resting time, the rich tori dashi is ready. I usually make a large amount, so I can use it for a couple of different dishes, but if your donabe is medium or smaller size, you can adjust the recipe about by cutting by half or so. The bonus of making this stock is the leftover chicken. It’s still flavorful, so I like to make a side dish with it.


Steam-roasted Purple Sweet Potatoes

Yaki-Imo

Simplicity at its best, when a sweet potato is steam-roasted in Fukkura-san, the texture becomes rich and creamy, and the flavor becomes so sweet. The glaze in the lid gives the effective FIR (Far-Infrared Rays…same effect as how a glowing charcoal heats to the core of ingredients) and moisture from the lid gives the perfect steam effect. I used purple sweet potatoes in this recipe, but you can use Satsuma-Imo (Japanese sweet potato with pale color interior) or other types of sweet potatoes or yams. Serve with simple sea salt & butter, or Shio-koji Mascarpone Dipping Sauce, suggested in this recipe below.




Steamed Pork Belly Shabu Shabu

Mushi Buta Shabu Shabu

It takes very little time for prepping and you can make such a satisfying complete one pot dish. If you can’t find thinly-sliced pork belly from a market, you can just buy a block and slice it into thin pieces. For a leaner choice, pork loin is also good. I like to marinade the meat in Liquid Shio-Koji for a short time because it further tenderize the meat and enhances the flavor. But, you can omit this process and the dish will still taste great. If you are cooking for a larger group, increase the recipe amount and cook multiple batches at the table!


Chicken Wings & Daikon Hot Pot

Teba Daikon Nabe

Chicken wings and daikon are a classic combination in Japanese cooking. By pan-frying these ingredients before adding to the broth, the flavor of this simple dish enhances dramatically. Because the chicken is already marinated in shio-koji, this dish doesn’t require much more seasoning. Feel free to use fingers to savor the wings, as it’s part of the fun of this dish!


Nao Man Gai (Chicken Over Rice)

Naoko-style Asian Chicken Rice

This dish is inspired by kao man ghai, a very popular Thai-style chicken rice dish, (or the Singapore-style is known as Hainanese chicken rice), and I made it in my donabe Japanese version with mostly Japanese ingredients. So, I call it Nao Man Gai! The rice is cooked with rich Japanese chicken stock with chicken on top, so the rice tastes really special even on its own. The chicken is sliced and served on top of the rice along with two kinds of special sauces. Don’t forget to make non-boiled “boiled eggs” by placing eggs on the inner lid of Kamado-san when cooking the rice. The eggs are ready when the rice is ready, and they taste so good with the dish!


Steam-fry Shio-Koji Chicken, Green Beans, and Cherry Tomatoes

Chicken is quickly sautéed first, then steam-fried together with vegetables in Fukkura-san. Shio-koji marinated chicken has extra rich flavor with succulent texture. Drizzle some soy sauce and squeeze a generous amount of lemon as soon as the heat is turned off and the donabe is brought to the table, so they will sizzle with the residual heat in the skillet and becomes so aromatic.


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