Yesterday was great. Jeff is off this whole week on vacation time so we’re getting to spend a lot of time together and go do fun things that we never have time for. We had a kind of full-scale asian adventure yesterday in that we went shopping at a Japanese market, had coffee at a Korean coffee shop, bought shochu at one of the only places in town to carry it, and then came home and made a delicious hot pot dinner.

It all started at Tomato, a Japanese food market off of Peachtree Industrial Blvd. that we’ve been meaning to check out for a while. Just look at all the cute mural paintings lining the entrance!

I think the whole montage told some kind of story, but I had no clue what was going on, just looked like a bunch of spazzed-out rabbits and wailing tomatoes to me. Lost in translation?

We spent at least a half hour perusing the shelves in Tomato; they had a really great selection even though I didn’t find everything I was hoping to. I’ll go ahead and show you the haul…

We got fried yuba (tofu skin), niboshi (dried anchovies for making dashi), udon noodles, mochi rice flour, sweetened azuki beans, enoki mushrooms, noritamago furikake (seaweed and egg rice seasoning), matcha powder, wakame salad, and some Meiji strawberry chocolate. We got the bottle of shochu at a liquor store, I’ll tell you more about it later though.

After that we were right next to White Windmill, a Korean-run cafe and bakery that I just adore, so we stopped in for a few warm beverages and a snack.

They are just overflowing with specialty baked goods in typical asian flavors like green tea, pandan, black sesame, and red azuki bean.

Jeff got a green tea and I got a hazelnut coffee…

We split this red bean bun…

Ahhh….now this is a flavor I miss!  We had coffee and red bean buns for breakfast nearly every day in Japan. So sweet and thick and creamy, a great accompaniment to a warm cup of coffee.

After that it was getting late in the afternoon and I still needed to hit up the farmers market so we rushed over there and got our shopping finished before heading home.

I got right to work chopping vegetables for the monkfish nabe I was making, an experience made really fun with the help of this gorgeous new toy of mine…

This is my new Shun Santoku knife that I got for Christmas from my lovely husband! I have another one being shipped to me soon once it comes in stock, a mini-cleaver type knife used for vegetables. I will tell you all about these in another post because they are simply amazing to work with.

Anyway, into the donabe went a bed of yo choy sum followed by enoki mushrooms and sticks of daikon.

Then shiitakes and slices of the fried yuba…

I then grated on some fresh ginger…

And placed the hunks of monkfish on last.

Here it is topped with sliced scallions…

Beautiful, isn’t it? And of course you make this with any vegetables you like and have available, don’t feel pressured into hunting down fried yuba, make it your own!

Now for the liquid. I used some fish stock that I made yesterday by boiling a leftover yellowtail head and skeleton that I’ve kept in the freezer after making sushi with it a while back. It simmered with a few strips of kombu for awhile before I strained it and added bonito flake and miso.

When I went to use it for the nabe I discovered that it had turned into gelatin from all the rich collagen in the fish! Now, obviously you do not have to make your own stock, prepared fish or vegetable stock with some miso stirred in would be just fine.

I spooned some of it into the donabe and added some water. Since I don’t have a gas stove, and it took forever to try to heat the donabe in the oven when I sealed it, I used an old chipped frying pan over the electric eye to more evenly disperse the heat and cooked right on top of that.

It still took a while to get it up to temperature though. I think I’ll eventually get a portable gas tabletop burner, like the ones you use for camping.

Well, when it was finally done it looked like this…

Mmmmmm….warm soup.

The broth ended up being too light in flavor, I added way too much water, but it was still really, really good!

While we were slurping up our soup I put some udon noodles in the leftover broth and added some seasonings to amp up the flavor.

By the time we’d finished our fish and vegetables the udon was cooked and the broth had gotten more rich and concentrated. We each slurped up a bowl of udon and were super full.

Not bad for my first nabe in a traditional clay pot. Next time I’ll definitely be sure to make a richer broth, but I’m really proud of how this one turned out.

After dinner we broke out the shochu. This Nadeshiko shochu is distilled from both rice and barley.

We actually heard about this brand at JapanFest from some of the guys that import it. It’s really tasty, nice and sweet and not too harsh. We drank it chilled with rocks, literally, we don’t have an ice-maker so we use these cold stones for cocktails.

Yep, that is definitely not Jack Daniels in there!

Sipping that sweet shochu was the perfect way to end a day of explorations in Japanese cooking. Cheers, to many more delicious nabe to come!

Check out my masterpiece…

Awesome lunch! This pita was stuffed with whole grain mustard, arugula, bleu cheese, and sauteed onions and vegetarian sausage.

These were Field Roast grain sausages. I think the flavor was apple and sage or something like that, I threw away the packaging and their website doesn’t seem to list flavors.

I cut up a link and sauteed it with about a quarter of an onion (I’ve told you I love onions right?)

It was quick and simple. I just stuffed everything in a whole wheat pita pocket and dug in!

Love it!

Properly fueled to face the cold for more Christmas shopping. 😛

So you’ve got a handle on making donburis now right? You know, make rice, put stuff on top of it? Yeah, that.

Time to graduate to the next level, which involves cooking by simmering some or all of the ingredients in a flavorful liquid. It’s easy, trust me.

Here’s a simple method to making the Japanese classic, gyudon (beef bowl.)

Like so many dinners I make, it started with sauteing an onion and a red pepper in sesame oil.

While those were softening up, I got to work on making a stock to simmer the beef in. I put one small piece of kombu seaweed in a pan with enough water to cover. Kombu is the seaweed you use to make dashi stock, and while I haven’t seen it at any of the major grocery stores, it’s pretty accessible in any health food store, asian market, and I think I’ve even seen it at Whole Foods before. It’s ok if you don’t wanna track it down though, I’ve found that a small handful of dulse works pretty well and is more widely available, but you can do without seaweed entirely and still make a tasty dish.

I let that come up to a simmer for a few minutes before removing it. Don’t ever boil kombu, it makes the broth really slimy if it gets too hot. Just gently steep it like you’re making tea.

Next, I flavored it with miso.  This “red” miso, as opposed to your standard “white” or “mellow” miso, is just what I happened to have on hand.  Any kind you can get your hands on is fine.

I added a big dollop like this…

…and whisked it into the hot liquid.

It’s like a lava lamp watching the miso roil away in the hot broth.

At that point I took some strips of flank steak that had been marinating for a few hours in soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar, and swirled them around in the broth to partially cook.

This is the fun part. Turn up the heat on both pans to medium high. As the beef gets cooked through, start transferring it to the veggie pan along with a ladle-full of the broth. As the pan of broth boils away getting more and more concentrated, your veggies are soaking up their own broth and quickly about to start burning on the pan. Add another ladle of broth and wait for the meat and veggies to soak it all up before doing it again. When everything is cooked through and coated in a sweet glaze made by the concentrated broth, cut the heat and serve it up!

You can serve this over sushi rice or plain white rice. Don’t forget to spoon over some more of the delicious cooking liquid and garnish with sesame seeds!

Whatever you do, don’t throw out the remaining broth. It makes a delicious soup base to add mushrooms, scallions, and noodles to. I’ve got some in my freezer right now saved up for a rainy day.

This was one of those dishes that had us saying “Mmmm” the whole time we were eating it. Definitely one for the “make over and over again” file!