I feel more strongly lately that the fresh quality ingredients tend to taste best when they are prepared very simply (with minimum manipulation).
My wonderful donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe", is one of the best tools to achieve the simple yet really delicious dishes. You can also make a multi-course meal with this one donabe at a dining table. Also, with the natural FIR (Far-Infrared Radiation) effect of this authentic Iga-yaki donabe steamer, each ingredient can fully cook faster while keeping all the flavors inside.
Our first course of the night was simple steamed summer vegetables. We simply steamed them over the table-top burner...ingredients were added one after another depending on the required cooking time of each. Fingerling potatoes were placed on the steam grate first, followed by the eggplants (from our garden) and corn after 5 minutes, then the rest of the ingredients joined after 2 minutes. In another 2-3 minutes, all the ingredients were ready.
The simple steamed vegetables were served with different kinds of condiments, such as plum salt, lemon, miso dip, and la-yu (hot sesame oil). The vegetables were so tasty and so fresh.
The next course was thinly sliced Kurobuta pork butt, cabbage, and shiitake mushrooms. They were piled on the steam greate and cooked together. It took only 3-4 minutes for them to cook, and they were served with my salt ponzu and sliced scallion. The pork was so juicy and the cabbage was so sweet.
I want to do more summer donabe steaming.
You can find donabe steaming recipes on toiro's website.
Happy donabe life.
