Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Classic Donabe Recipe...Niku Dango Nabe (pork meatball hot pot)


Since I was in a mood some pork meatballs, I decided to make a simple pork meatball hot pot, Niku Dango Nabe for dinner the other night. I went to McCall's Meat and Fish to pick up the ground pork, as they have the best quality you can find in LA. Their ground pork is rich in flavor and has just the good amount of fat.

While this recipe can be made with any classic-style donabe (medium-size or larger), my pick of the night was Kyoto-style shallow classic-style donabe, "Kyoto Ame-yu". This donabe has the shallow bowl with wider surface area, the meatballs are cooked beautifully in one layer.

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I used my homemade Japanese-style chicken stock this time, but you can use instant Asian chicken stock powder (make sure there is no MSG if possible) or dashi stock works perfectly, too. Napa cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and meatballs are cooked together in the broth first, then bean thread (cellphone noodles) and nira (garlic chives) are added to finish.

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As a variation, you can add some grated daikon right before serving. Really nice.

You can find the full recipe in toiro kitchen's website. So, please check it out.

Happy donabe life.