← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 200 g boneless chicken thigh, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tbsp sake, for the chicken
• 1 l Dashi powder or stock
• 1 tbsp Sake
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Mirin (optional)
• ½ Carrot, cut into thin rounds (or flower shapes)
• 4 Shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
• 100 g komatsuna or spinach
• 8 slices Kamaboko (Japanese fish cake)
• 4 Kirimochi (dried rice cake blocks)
• 1 strips of yuzu or lemon zest (optional)

Method

1. Toss the chicken with the tablespoon of sake. Blanch the greens in boiling water for 1 minute, cool in cold water, squeeze dry and cut into 4 cm lengths.
2. Bring the dashi to a simmer, add the chicken and carrot and simmer for 8–10 min, skimming off the foam, until the chicken is cooked through (75°C / 165°F).
3. Add the shiitake and kamaboko and season with the sake, soy sauce, salt and mirin. Simmer for 3 min more, then keep warm.
4. Meanwhile, toast the mochi under a hot grill or in a dry non-stick pan over medium-low heat for 6–8 min, turning, until puffed and lightly golden.
5. Put one mochi in each bowl, arrange the chicken, vegetables and fish cake around it and ladle over the hot broth. Finish with greens and a twist of citrus zest.

Tips

• Mochi is very sticky and a real choking hazard: cut it into small pieces for children and older people, and eat it slowly.
• In western Japan the broth is often made with white miso and the mochi are round and boiled.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Just One Cookbook Chopstick Chronicles Japanese Cooking 101