Broth:
1 TBS instant Dashi (bonito soup stock)
3 TBS white miso paste
3 TBS red miso past
½ sheet of Kelp (optional)
10 cups of water
3 TBS Sake
2 TBS Mirin
Hotpot ingredients:
4-5 boneless skinless chicken thighs, sliced into ½ inch strips
1 carrot sliced at a bias
6 inch piece of daikon sliced in half lengthwise and cut into ¼ inch thick slices
2 Yukon gold potatoes sliced in half and then cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bunch green onions cut in 3-4 inch lengths
1 bunch of Chinese flat chives
8 baby bok choy, sliced in half or 1 regular bok choy, leaves separated and trimmed
8-10 Shiitake mushrooms
1 pkg enoki mushrooms
¼ napa cabbage, remove leaves, and trim the stalk part out and cut into large sections
1 pkg firm or extra firm tofu
1-2 pkg fried tofu quartered (if you can find it frozen in an Asian store – optional)
Japanese Hotpot - (Chanko Nabe Miso Aji)
Directions:
Heat 10 cups of water, add dashi granules and kelp. Bring to a boil, after 10 minutes, remove kelp. Continue to simmer the broth until shortly before you are ready to serve. In a separate bowl, add the miso and then
ladle broth into the miso and whisk to temper the miso. Once mixed, add to the broth and then add the sake and mirin.
If cooking and serving at the table, this works best if you have one person be the “master of ceremony” or “conductor”. He/she should be sitting in front of the hotpot and should make the additions and serve the rest of the people at the table. If you plan on cooking at the table on a hot plate, a fondue pot, electric wok, or butane burner transfer hot broth to the cooking pot if not the original stock pot used to make the broth. If you don’t have the equipment to cook at the table, simply cook in the kitchen and dish it up and bring to the table. We usually do two to three batches, and usually double the recipe if we have more than 4 people.
Bring the broth to a gentle boil, add the chicken, potatoes, and firm tofu first. You will want to cook the chicken a total of approximately 15 minutes, but you don’t want to overcook the other items. After about 10 minutes, add the daikon, carrots, and mushrooms and fried tofu. In the last two minutes, add the green onions, chives, bok choy and cabbage. Serve
This should be a relaxed meal and not rushed. Serving with dumplings or other dim sum type foods is always nice. You can offer soy sauce as an option, but it’s really not necessary. You can add udon noodles at the end to cook in the remaining broth or sticky rice to soak up and enjoy the last of the broth, this is optional, we have done both, but I prefer the rice.
This wonderful miso soup based hotpot was introduced to us a few years ago by some friends that spent some time in Japan. This is known as Sumo soup and normally would have pork belly or pork butt in it. Boneless skinless chicken thigh works very well to make it an AG safe dish. We enjoy having this dish on holidays or events where you are entertaining and intend to sit around the table for quite some time and slowly enjoying the meal and conversation.
Ingredients: