I made the quick vegetarian pot-au-feu with my soup and stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe".
This is my lovely Miso-shiru Nabe. What I love so much about this donabe is it does the braising so nicely. With the thick body of porous Iga clay (the region Iga used to be the lake bed about 400 million years ago), once it builds the heat, it cooks each ingredient to the core evenly. Also, the inside glaze contains radium minerals, which releases natural "negative ions" during cooking. Negative ions are considered to give the softening effect to the flavors.
I basically cut all the leftover vegetables from the fridge and added to the donabe with the dashi broth. There were cabbage wedges, large potato cubes, sliced carrot, sliced konbu (leftover from making dashi stock).
After about 10 minutes, I added the sake, mirin, and white miso. Then, to finish, I added the mizuna and yuzu rinds. That's really it! Then, the wonderful hearty Japanese-style pot-au-feu was ready. Because of this soup & stew donabe, the vegetables were perfectly cooked and had such nice natural "sweet" flavors. The humble ingredients turned to a top-quality dish, thanks to this donabe!
Here's my quick miso pot-au-feu recipe.
Vegetable Miso Pot-au-feu
(for the large-size Soup & Stew Donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe")
Ingredients
1/2 small cabbage, cut into rough wedges
1 potato, peeled and cut into large cubes
4-5 shiitake mushrooms, cut if necessary
1/2 medium carrot, peeled and sliced into disks
1 used kombu piece from making dashi, sliced into thin strips
1.5 dashi stock
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon mirin
1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 to 1.5 tablespoons white miso
some mizuna, bottom end removed and cut into 2" length
some yuzu rind, thinly sliced
Procedure
1. In the donabe, combine the first 6 ingredients (up to dashi stock). Bring over medium-high heat.
2. Once the broth starts boiling, reduce the heat down to simmer. Line the surface with a pice of parchment paper or foil. Close with the lid and simmer for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.
3. Add the sake, mirin, soy sauce, and miso. Stir and simmer for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the mizuna and yuzu rind. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 1-2 minutes.
To serve with the pot-au-feu, I made multi-grain donabe rice (with the donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san"), and also made the donabe smoked Gouda cheese and chicken (with the donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin").
Everything was made under 60 minutes. How fun and delicious my donabe life is!
