It's getting cold. It's the season when you start to miss hotpot. This time, I'd like to suggest a hotpot using "Furusato Nabe". It's fun to cook it on the gas stove at the dinner table, but we have small children in our house, so it's dangerous, so we often finish cooking in the kitchen and bring it to the dinner table. With a Nambu ironware pot, you can enjoy it slowly because it retains heat. It also heats up quickly, so you don't have to wait long for it to be ready.
The season for Pacific saury is coming to an end, but why not try cooking the Pacific saury that was a big hit on your dinner table during the season in a hotpot? The Pacific saury gives off a lot of broth, so it's delicious to finish off the hotpot with a rice porridge.
◎Sanma fish meatball hotpot (serves about four)
<Ingredients>
-
-
Fish balls
- 4 Pacific saury fish
- 2 plum pieces
- 1 green onion
- 1 teaspoon sake
- 1 teaspoon mirin
- 3 tablespoons potato starch
-
• soup stock
- kelp
- Pickled plum seeds
- Alcohol
- salt
- • Japanese white radish
- Deep - fried tofu (or ganmodoki)
- • Tofu
- • Green onion (white part)
- Shiitake mushrooms
- • Enoki mushrooms
- • Mizuna
- ...and plenty of your favorite seasonal vegetables.
- • soy sauce
-
Fish balls
<How to make>
- ① First, the meatballs. Remove the head and innards of the pacific saury, and wash off any blood. Drain off the water, open them by hand, cut them into fairly small pieces, and then start pounding. Once they are finely chopped and sticky, add the finely chopped spring onions and pounded plum flesh, and pound some more. When the mixture is well combined and moist, it's ready. Transfer to a bowl, add the sake, mirin, and potato starch, and mix with your hands. When it comes together and is shiny, it's done. Don't mix too much.
- ② Next, prepare the pot. Once the kelp that you put in the water has spread out, add the umeboshi seeds, sake, salt, and thinly sliced daikon radish and heat it. Once the daikon radish is cooked, add the other ingredients (tofu and mizuna last) in order of how long it takes to cook.
- ③ Once everything is cooked to a certain extent, it's time to add the meatballs. Use two spoons to form them into a rugby ball shape and gently drop them into the pot. If you boil it for too long it will fall apart, so be careful with the heat. Then add the tofu, and once everything is cooked, add the mizuna and it's done. Cook the rice for the porridge to finish off the dish.
Today, to wash it down after eating the hot pot, I have prepared "gakkura," a winter pickle from Iwate (daikon radish pickled in salt and sweet sake), and cream cheese sandwiches made with freshly dried persimmons that have been drying out on the porch.
In the cold of winter, the steam rising from the pot is a treat.
