Oden represents the very best of wintertime meals in Japan. This traditional stew options an assortment of fish truffles simmered in a soy sauce-based dashi broth. Served household fashion in a donabe clay pot, it‘s a comforting dinner to share with household and pals when the climate turns chilly.
There are lots of alternatives for household and pals to get collectively in the course of the year-end vacation season. How a couple of recipe that represents the very best of wintertime meals in Japan?
Oden (おでん) or Japanese fish cake stew is a heat and comforting dinner to share with household and pals when the climate turns chilly. It may be made in giant portions directly so it’s an ideal dish for gatherings. Though there are regional variations in every space of Japan, let me introduce a easy, traditional oden at present.
What’s Oden?
Oden is a one-pot dish, which is a bit of bit completely different from stew or scorching pot. It’s extra like a simmered dish, wherein you will discover assorted fish truffles, daikon radish, atsuage (deep-fried tofu), hard-boiled eggs, konnyaku, kombu, and mochi-filled fried tofu pockets gently cooked in a soy sauce-based broth.
You’ll be able to eat oden at specialty eating places (see above) and izakaya-style eating places all 12 months spherical.
When it’s winter, you begin to see oden bought at supermarkets, depa-chika (division retailer’s underground meals flooring), and konbini (Japanese comfort shops). Should you’re fortunate, you may even see road stalls that promote oden.
If you’re acquainted with Japanese dramas or cartoons, you will have most likely seen scenes of salarymen consuming oden and consuming sake at a meals stand at evening with their coworkers after a day of labor.
This particular dish has even unfold to different Asian nations. Once I visited Taiwan, I used to be stunned to search out that the 7-Elevens promote oden (關東煮).
Transient Historical past of Oden
The origin of oden began from a unique dish known as dengaku (additionally known as Miso Dengaku), with skewered tofu or konnyaku (konjac) boiled and eaten with miso. Later, as a substitute of utilizing miso, completely different elements had been cooked in dashi broth, and this grew to become oden that we take pleasure in at present.
Regardless of its largely brownish look from the fish truffles, oden is brimming with consolation. Partaking in a pot of oden is about having fun with every juicy, chewy, and textural chunk of the elements. When you attempt it, you’ll certainly fall in love with this winter meal.
Substances for Traditional Oden
The next are the fundamental oden elements.
- Broth: Awase Dashi (Japanese soup inventory made with kombu and katsuobushi), sake, mirin, soy sauce, and salt.
- Assorted fish truffles and fish balls (nerimono) – see the subsequent part for more information.
- Daikon radish
- Konnyaku (Konjac)
- Boiled eggs – Begin cooking the eggs in water. As soon as boiling, prepare dinner for 8 minutes. Drain, cool instantly, and peel.
- Knotted kombu: Should you can’t discover this, hydrate a big piece of kombu, minimize it into particular person strips, and tie a knot in every; if the hydrated kombu may be very thick and never pliable, minimize it into smaller strips or squares and skip tying the knots.
Different Oden Substances (elective):
Relying on the area, the elements utilized in oden might be vastly completely different (see this reference; really interesting!). Be at liberty so as to add your favorites in addition to what’s listed above.
- Potatoes – I like to recommend utilizing Yukon gold potatoes as a substitute of Russet potatoes so the form of the potatoes stay after simmering
- Satoimo (Japanese taros)
- Boiled octopus or squid
- Gyusuji (beef tendon)
- Hen wings
- Pork offal
- Spareribs
- Sausages
- Shirataki noodles
- Cabbage rolls
- Bean sprouts, and extra!
Learn how to Make the Greatest Oden at House
- Reduce the daikon into thick rounds and prepare dinner for 20 minutes. Drain and put aside.
- Reduce the konnyaku block into triangle-shaped items and blanch for 3 minutes. Drain and put aside.
- Blanch the deep-fried fish truffles in boiling water for 15-30 seconds to take away extra oil.
- Make the oden broth in a big pot or donabe (Japanese clay pot).
- Add the daikon, konnyaku, and boiled eggs to the broth. As soon as simmering, prepare dinner for 20 minutes.
- Add fish truffles to the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the hanpen and mochi kinchaku and simmer for 3 minutes. Serve oden with karashi mustard.
What’s Nerimono (Japanese Fish Truffles and Fish Balls)
Nerimono (練り物) is a blanket time period for fish truffles and fish balls which can be product of surimi (すり身 “floor flesh”). It’s possible you’ll be extra acquainted with particular person nerimono names equivalent to kamaboko, chikuwa, hanpen, and satsuma-age.
Surimi is product of white fish—usually Alaska pollock and Pacific whiting—that’s pulverized right into a thick paste and blended with seasonings and different elements. Then, the paste is fashioned into numerous shapes, equivalent to balls, sticks, tubes, and truffles, in several sizes. Relying on the range, the fish truffles and fish balls are steamed, grilled, boiled, or deep-fried.
Since oden is a well-liked dish, you should purchase a spread pack of standard nerimono choices, which we name “Oden Set.” This assorted set accommodates 10-12 varieties of nerimono. It’s good for cooking oden at house!
Ideas for Shopping for Oden Set:
- These packages normally embody a packet of concentrated broth, however make your personal oden broth to keep away from preservatives and chemical components.
- I normally purchase one “oden set” and several other small packages of particular person nerimono of our household’s favorites to create extra selection.
- Consider the flavors and textures if you select several types of nerimono. You need to embody deep-fried ones (usually brown) and steamed or boiled ones (lighter shade).
The place to Purchase Nerimono
Japanese grocery shops and well-stocked Asian grocery shops carry several types of nerimono, usually within the freezer part.
Completely different Sorts of Nerimono
There are such a lot of sorts of nerimono (check this out), however listed below are some standard ones.
- Atsuage – Deep-fried thick tofu
- Chikuwa – Grilled fish cake tube
- Ganmodoki or Ganmo for brief – Fried tofu fritters with chopped greens, shiitake mushrooms, and hijiki seaweed
- Gobo-maki – Deep-fried fish cake stick full of gobo within the heart
- Hanpen – Steamed pounded fish truffles that are available in sq. form
- Ika-maki – Deep-fried fish cake stick full of squid within the heart
- Mochi kinchaku – Deep-fried tofu pockets that include mochi
- Satsuma age – Deep-fried fish truffles that are available in flat rectangular/spherical/ form or balls
- Tsumire – Fish ball constituted of sardines
- Vegetable Tempura – Deep-fried fish cake with greens that are available in flat rectangular/spherical/ form
You probably have a tough time discovering the oden set or numerous fish truffles in your space, you could possibly get fish truffles which can be extra standard outdoors of Japan equivalent to:
- Kamaboko (fish cake)
- Naruto-maki (white fish cake with a crimson swirl sample)
- Kanikama (imitation crab meat)
You possibly can add completely different elements in addition to nerimono to make oden.
Oden Cooking Ideas
Tip #1: Select numerous fish truffles and fish balls
Although the fish truffles and fish balls all look considerably related, they’re product of several types of fish and elements, yielding contrasting flavors and textures. You’d wish to use a wide range of nerimono so as to add a enjoyable and attention-grabbing ingredient to your oden.
Tip #2: Make good dashi (Japanese soup inventory)
The bottom of the oden broth is dashi. It’s what provides the elements like fish truffles, fish balls, daikon, boiled eggs, and fried tofu all of the scrumptious taste. Subsequently, it’s necessary to make actually good dashi for oden.
The most typical sort of dashi used for oden is Awase Dashi, a mix of kombu and katsuobushi. You’ll be able to make it from scratch, which takes 20 minutes, or use a convenient dashi packet that takes 3 minutes.
Tip #3: Don’t skip the daikon and konnyaku prep
On a busy day when I’ve to organize a meal shortly, I’ll skip some extra prepping steps when they don’t seem to be essential for the ultimate outcome. Nonetheless, in Japanese cooking, there are some necessary steps you shouldn’t skip.
Whenever you make the oden recipe, it’s essential to prep the daikon and konnyaku as a result of they’re tough for the flavour to permeate.
- Daikon radish: Thick rounds of the daikon take a very long time to soak up the flavors of the broth. When the daikon doesn’t take in sufficient flavors, it’s bland and tasteless. Subsequently, eradicating the sharp fringe of the daikon items, scoring the flat floor of the daikon, and boiling it first earlier than simmering it within the oden broth are all necessary preps you shouldn’t skip.
- Konnyaku: As you’re most likely conscious, konnyaku has a novel odor and it’s greatest to get rid most of it by boiling earlier than simmering it within the oden broth.
Whenever you’re able to prepare dinner oden, make certain to start out cooking the daikon, konnyaku, and boiled eggs for 20 minutes within the oden broth earlier than including fish truffles and fish balls.
Tip #4: Blanch the fish truffles and fish balls
Why will we blanch fish truffles and fish balls first? This step helps eliminate the surplus deep-frying oil from manufacturing facility processing and retains the oden broth clear.
Some recipes could recommend simply pouring scorching water over them, however I discover submerging and blanching the entire fish truffles and fish balls in boiling water for 15-30 seconds yield a greater outcome.
Tip #5: Concentrate on Nerimono cooking time
Overcooking the nerimono is a giant no-no! The fish truffles and fish balls will change into too tender and break simply, leading to a cloudy broth. The nerimono ought to have a springy texture, so the whole simmering time must be 10-Quarter-hour!
Add all of the nerimono to the oden broth, apart from mochi kinchaku and hanpen, and simmer for 10 minutes. Then, add the final two elements and prepare dinner for 3 minutes.
Vital tip: Simmer the oden on light warmth; NEVER boil, or else the broth will change into cloudy.
Tip #6: Take pleasure in Oden the Subsequent Day!
Final however not least, I need to point out that we actually benefit from the well-seasoned, day-old oden! All of the elements take in extra flavors from the broth whereas it cools down and rests in a single day. Simply watch out to not overcook whereas reheating. Some individuals favor a firmer texture of nerimono whereas others (like us) could not trouble an excessive amount of.
I usually make oden forward of time. I serve the oden as a facet dish on Day 1 and as a most important dish on Day 2.
Learn how to Eat Oden
When oden is completed simmering, switch the massive pot to the eating desk and maintain it scorching. Oden may be very a lot a communal, social meal that we share, prepare dinner, and revel in from the center of the eating desk, similar to different scorching pot dishes.
We’d serve it with a bit of little bit of karashi (Japanese scorching mustard) on the facet. I included methods to put together it within the recipe card.
Should you serve oden in a donabe (Japanese clay pot), the meals stays heat in it for a very long time attributable to its unbelievable heat-retention potential. You may as well reheat it on a portable butane gas stove whereas consuming, however make certain to maintain it on a mild simmer.
Sake Pairing with Oden
Oden is a enjoyable meals to share with family and friends in the course of the winter. With an assortment of fish truffles and different elements, it’s a festive feast that’s simple to organize. We prefer to pair oden with sake because it’s one of the vital versatile drinks to go together with numerous varieties of Japanese meals.
Through the holidays or scorching days, one in all our favourite sake to pair with oden is Sho Chiku Bai Shirakabegura MIO Sparkling Sake. This distinctive glowing sake has a refreshing fruity aroma and is surprisingly simple to pair with savory foods. Because the refreshing bubbles hit your mouth, you’ll be able to style the slight sweetness and delicate fruity notes. The sake itself is easy and creamy and the glowing texture affords a pleasant crispy end.
It’s a unbelievable technique to refresh your palate between several types of oden. Our pals who we’ve launched MIO to are all the time stunned by how scrumptious it’s. Plus its low ABV (5%) permits gentle drinkers to take pleasure in it as properly.
The place to Purchase a Donabe (Japanese Clay Pot)
You’ll be able to prepare dinner and serve oden in a Dutch oven, however should you take pleasure in making all types of scorching pot dishes, I extremely suggest getting a donabe, a standard Japanese clay pot.
🛒 Store at MTC Kitchen – Use JOC10 to get 10% off.
Japanese scorching pots, nabemono (鍋物), are a mandatory treatment for chilly climate. Learn my publish on Japanese Hot Pot 101: All About Nabemono to be taught the fundamentals on methods to put together nabemono and 13 scrumptious recipes to make at house.
Want to be taught extra about Japanese cooking? Join our free newsletter to obtain cooking suggestions & recipe updates! And keep in contact with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Oden (Japanese Fish Cake Stew)
Oden represents the very best of wintertime meals in Japan. This traditional stew options an assortment of fish truffles simmered in a soy sauce-based dashi broth. Served household fashion in a donabe clay pot, it‘s a comforting dinner to share with household and pals when the climate turns chilly.
Substances
Stop your display from going darkish
Directions
-
Collect all of the elements. Should you can‘t discover dried knotted kombu, hydrate a big piece of kombu, minimize it into particular person strips, and tie a knot in every. If the hydrated kombu may be very thick and never pliable, skip tying the knots and as a substitute minimize it into smaller strips or squares.
To Put together the Daikon
-
Utilizing a vegetable peeler, take away the outer pores and skin from 4 inches daikon radish. Then, slice the daikon into spherical items 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick.
-
With the knife, take away the sharp edges of the daikon slices to easy them out. This method is named mentori. The rounded corners and edges will stop the daikon from breaking and shield its form. Subsequent, rating a cross on one flat facet of the daikon slices, about ¼ inch deep, so they’ll take in extra flavors.
-
If you’re going to serve rice with the Oden, reserve the cloudy water from rinsing the rice. Fill a medium pot with this chilly, cloudy water.
-
Add the daikon to the pot. Activate the range to medium warmth and prepare dinner, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Drain and rinse the daikon in operating water. Put aside. Tip: This technique helps eliminate the daikon‘s bitterness and odor and makes the daikon a stupendous white shade. Ensure that to prepare dinner the daikon beginning with chilly water. This enables the middle of the daikon to prepare dinner slowly earlier than the water reaches a boil and that can assist prepare dinner the daikon evenly.
To Take away the Extra Oil from the Oden Set
-
Put water in a donabe (Japanese clay pot) or a big, shallow pot and convey it to a boil. Add 1 package deal oden set (assorted Japanese fish truffles and fish balls)—we name them nerimono—to the boiling water for 15–30 seconds. Tip: This really helpful step removes the surplus deep-frying oil from manufacturing facility processing.
-
Take away the fish truffles and fish balls from the boiling water and switch them to a plate or tray. Let cool. Preserve the boiling water within the pot, if you’re going to make mochi kinchaku (elective). In any other case, drain the water and rinse the pot.
To Make the Mochi Kinchaku (elective)
To Put together the Broth
-
To the rinsed donabe or giant pot, add 6 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock), 2 Tbsp usukuchi (light-colored) soy sauce, 1 Tbsp sake, 2 Tbsp mirin, and ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Combine properly collectively.
To Cook dinner the Oden
-
Put the daikon, konnyaku, and 4 hard-boiled eggs (peeled) within the donabe or pot. Deliver it to a boil.
-
As soon as boiling, scale back the warmth to low or medium low to take care of a simmer. Cook dinner, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
-
In the meantime, minimize the massive items of fish truffles within the oden set in half or quarters so they’re a handy dimension to select up with chopsticks. Right here, I minimize the bigger Satsuma age (spherical fried fish truffles) into quarters and the chikuwa (baked fish truffles) diagonally in half.
-
I minimize the gobo-maki (burdock fish cake rolls) and fish balls in half.
-
I minimize the medium-sized Satsuma age in half. I minimize the items of 1 package deal deep-fried agency tofu cutlet (atsuage) in half crosswise after which minimize each bit in half once more diagonally.
-
For the small fish balls, you’ll be able to thread two items onto a skewer to maintain them collectively. Diagonally minimize 1 package deal hanpen (fish cake) in quarters.
-
After 20 minutes, examine your oden pot. If there‘s a lot broth that your oden pot will overflow if you add the oden set and different fish truffles, switch some broth to a measuring cup (or bowl) and put aside. You’ll be able to add this reserved broth to the pot later, as wanted.
-
Now, add the oden set, different fish truffles (apart from the hanpen), atsuage, and 4 items dried knotted kombu to the pot. Cook dinner for 10 minutes.
-
After 10 minutes, add the hanpen and the mochi kinchaku (elective). Cook dinner for 3 minutes. Now, your oden is able to serve. Alternatively, you’ll be able to flip off the warmth and let it cool on the countertop. Tip: Identical to different Japanese simmered meals (nimono), letting oden cool within the broth permits the flavors of the savory dashi to soak into the elements.
To Preserve
-
You’ll be able to maintain the leftovers in an hermetic container and maintain them for 3 days within the fridge or for as much as a month within the freezer (don’t freeze eggs and konnyaku). Reheat earlier than serving, however don’t overcook it.
Diet
Diet Info
Oden (Japanese Fish Cake Stew)
Quantity per Serving
% Each day Worth*
* % Each day Values are primarily based on a 2000 calorie weight loss plan.
Editor’s Be aware: This publish was initially printed on January 19, 2012. It’s been republished on December 4, 2022, with the revised recipe, new photographs, and up to date content material with extra data.
