Here's another rustic shojin (Buddhist-style vegan) dish. It's donabe-cooked sato-imo (taro) in sato-imo and miso sauce. The key is that after cooking sato-imo, I take a few of them out and make the sauce with miso. "tomo-ae" can be roughly translated as, "mixed with the same ingredient".
This rustic dish is so comforting and elegant flavor. Soup & Stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe" is the perfect donabe to make this dish.
Here's my recipe:
Sato-imo "tomo-ae"
Ingredients
1 pound medium-size sato-imo (taro), peeled and cut into half. Blanched for 2 minutes.
1/4 cup shojin dashi stock
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon raw brown sugar
1 tablespoon light-color soy sauce ("usukuchi shoyu")
salt to taste
2 tablespoons Saikyo miso (sweet white miso)
some thinly-sliced yuzu rind
Procedure
1. In Miso-shiru Nabe, combine the blanched sato-imo, dashi, sake, mirin, and sugar. Bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer. Line the surface with a piece of parchment paper or foil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the soy sauce. Add some salt to adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Continue to simmer for 10 more minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
3. Transfer 3-4 pieces of especially soft sato-imo out of the donabe into Japanese mortar and pestle. Mash until smooth.
4. Add 3 tablespoons of the broth (from the donabe), Saikyo miso, and some yuzu rind to the mashed sato-imo. Stir until smooth. Add more broth if necessary.
5. Drain the broth from the donabe (you can save it for another use). Add the sato-imo miso sauce and toss with the cooked sato-imo in the donabe.
This dish makes a wonderful appetizer. It's a light dish, while the flavor is rich. You can serve into small plates at the table.
Happy donabe life.
