Tofailles, tofaie, tofaye… whatever the name is the solid treat from the Lorraine Vosges mountain area. Ideal for cold or chilly days, so it was served year round in farms. They all made their own bacon surely.
It’s potatoes. Bacon. Onion. White wine. Some add this or that… And the main ingredient is time. Forget it hours on the wood (or induction) stove :
It’s so soft and nicely caramelized under.
A camelia bud, still Winter but blossom season is arriving…
Let’s eat this miso hot pot with ginger chicken gyoza…
You have everything ready (details here).
1. fill 2/3 of the pot with hot water, add the kombu seaweed, let simmer a few minutes. You can put the lid if you want to speed up.
2. add a part of the miso, at your taste. It’s very salty. You want the water drizzle slightly, just enough to poach and cook the ingredients. The “don’t let boil” advice for miso soup can’t apply here.
3. when the level of broth goes down, complete with hot water. When you get near the end of the meal, you can let the broth thicken.
4. add small amounts of the ingredients and pick them out as soon as they are cooked. The cooking time differ slightly. Here, the kabocha is the longest, I put some in first, then gyoza, then mochi and I like my cabbage and sprouts very crunchy so they need only a quick dip.
While the kabocha cooks, you have the time to form a few gyoza dumplings :
Inside the gyoza : meat, ginger and a little miso. Wet the outer circle and fold in 2, try to push out all air from inside and shape in little bags. They cook in about 5 minutes. You can see the change of shape and color.
FINAL ROUND :
At the end, everything that is left, the rest of miso, of veggies, the unused dumpling skins and the big block of mochi. The kombu seaweed has become much softer and it can be eaten. I cut it in ribbon and let it in.
When the mochi melts, serve the soup.
Other nabe hotpots :
Japanese miso hot pot with Winter crab
Nikomi Udon, noodle nabe
Duck and veggie nabe
sukiyaki, beef , sake and soy sauce
A cool… no hot nabe Japanese hotpot with ginger flavored chicken gyoza dumplings. A meal to cook directly on the table and relax longly, and enjoy season food. It’s very popular for parties and all gathering, but you can start at one. Preparing takes less time than reading this post.
gas + donabe
Material :
-a stove you can place on your table. They make convenient and cheap gas ones (in any Chinatown). I also have a small induction one. A brasero is too slow for a big pot, but for one or two, that works.
-a nabe (pot). That can be any thick bottom pot. There are beautiful ones in black cast iron (kuro tetsu), or in pottery (donabe). It’s better to use one that seems too small than too big for the number of guests. The goal is to cook progressively and eat immediately each bite, so you want to cook in many small batches.
-a pot with hot water not far away
A bit of dashi kombu, the seaweed. That’s the base for the broth.
Chunky koji miso. How much ? I’d say a good spoonful per person for a full meal. Then that depends if you like your food salty.
Some mochi. It’s the full season as we are so close to New Year. I had square kiri-mochi. We can buy any size here. They sell thinly cuts ready for hot pots, but slicing yours is not difficult. I slice some, I keep some whole for the final.
Dumpling skins that you can make yourself. I bought them this time. Well, some buy the gyoza ready, but that’s not funny.
DIY gyoza
For the filling : ground chicken meat and diced fresh ginger. That’s all. The ground meat could go bad if it stayed too long unrefrigerated, so take it from the fridge at the last minute. If you are many, bring one a bowl and refill later as you go.
Season veggies that you like.
The greens of hakusai (napa cabbage). Bean sprouts. And yukikesho kabocha, sliced finely, if possible. The rind of kabocha is edible.
That’s ready. Jump to step 2 (here).
Let’s open the pot :
Patates rôties, like this classic. The twist is I’ve added some beetroot.
We had 2 ways to eat them in my family. The easy one is with fromage blanc (French unsalted cottage cheese)… But no, I didn’t have that. That’s tofu. It’s different, but I like it too.
The true amateurs will want a raw egg.
It curds if the potatoes and the plate are hot enough.
Creaminess and sweetness.
The meat of this retro Summer stew is of an extreme tenderness. Slow infusion of flavors and gentle cooking are the secrets.
White meat (big cubes of pork filet), milk and Awaji Island’s mellow onion, that could even be boring if green rosemary didn’t take the lead. I threw in a few mini favas (broad beans, well not broad here). Two more items as I had started with the rosemary :
A few more févettes in olive oil for an aperitif snack.
On bread, again.
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 