← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 1 l Dashi powder or stock
• 60 ml Sake
• 60 ml Mirin
• 60 ml light (usukuchi) soy sauce
• ½ tsp Salt
• 12 Clams, scrubbed and soaked in salted water
• 8 raw prawns, deveined, shells on
• 400 g cod or other firm white fish, cut into large chunks
• 150 g Chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
• ½ Napa (Chinese) cabbage, cut into 5 cm pieces, stems and leaves apart
• 1 Carrot, sliced into rounds
• 1 Japanese long onion or leek, sliced on the diagonal
• 4 Shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
• 150 g enoki or shimeji mushrooms
• 400 g medium-firm tofu, cut into cubes
• 1 bunch shungiku (chrysanthemum greens) or spinach
• shichimi togarashi, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Mix the broth ingredients in a donabe or wide casserole and bring to a simmer on the hob.
2. Add the chicken, carrot and cabbage stems first and simmer for 5 min.
3. Arrange the fish, clams, prawns, tofu, mushrooms, leek and cabbage leaves in neat sections around the pot. Cover and simmer for 5–7 min until the clams open, the fish is opaque and the chicken is cooked through (75°C / 165°F). Throw away any clams that stay shut.
4. Lay the greens on top for the last minute so they just wilt.
5. Take the pot to the table (on a portable burner if you have one) and let everyone help themselves, ladling broth into their bowls. Add more ingredients as the pot empties.

Tips

• Finish with udon, or rice and a beaten egg stirred into the broth for zosui.
• Soak the clams in salted water for 30 minutes before cooking so they spit out their grit.

Sources

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

Just One Cookbook RecipeTin Japan