What a beautiful sunny Saturday it has been today. We had a great time hosting a donabe & Japanese cooking class earlier today.
The theme was "Earthy One Pot Dishes". 3 out of 4 dishes we made were one-pot dishes by using 3 different types of donabe pots.
This was the only "non-donabe" dish we made. It was Wilted Mizuna & Wasabi Brie "Ae-mono". This is a unique combination of blanched mizuna, olive oil, apple, lemon juice, soy sauce, wasabi paste, and some brie cheese. Brie was quickly marinated in soy-wasabi mixture and tossed with the rest of the ingredients.
Then, we had Mixed Mushrooms & Tofu Steam-fry in Miso Sauce. They were steam-fried with my homemade miso and sake mixture in the tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". Then, served at the table with homemade la-yu and scallions.
The rice dish was very earthy Gobo Gohan (Burdock root rice). Brown rice was cooked with coarsely minced burdock root, abura-age (fried tofu pouch), etc. in the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". Kabu (Japanese turnip) green was sauteed and topped on the finished rice.
The main course was Sake-kasu Nabe (monk fish and vegetables hot pot in sake lees broth). We made the aromatic broth with sake lees in the classic-style donabe, "Hakeme", and the ingredients were cooked at the table in the broth. Sake lees has not only wonderful flavor, but also has great healthy benefit. It's considered to help lowering your cholesterol level and also make your skin beautiful! The hot pot was especially nice with today's wine selection: "The Supernatural" Sauvignon Blanc from Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.
(*Oops, I just realized I forgot shiitake mushrooms for this dish...I left them in the fridge. Sorry!)
I also made Sake-kasu pound cake! The cake had the wonderful sake aroma.
We had the wonderful and enthusiastic guests today, and I was so glad everybody enjoyed these very healthy donabe dishes!
Happy donabe life.
