How to cook Miso Salmon Hotpot 🍲 〜石狩鍋〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make Ishikari Nabe, or miso-based salmon hotpot. So traditionally this came from Hokkaido, which is the most northern part of Japan, because they can catch a lot of salmon there. But I think nowadays it's just kind of spread out throughout Japan, and a lot of people make this at home in different regions. This is very easy, and it's just a perfect dish to make on a cold winter's day. So this is also another great dish to make after you get hold of miso, but you don't know what to make other than miso soup, then you can try this out. Then, let's get started. Here are the ingredients for Ishikari Nabe, or miso-based salmon hotpot. We usually make this dish with salmon, but of course you can use other fish if you can't get hold of salmon. And here I have so-called shirataki. We call in Japan shirataki, or ito konnyaku, which means string konnyaku. So konnyaku is very difficult to explain, I'll probably make another video on that, but it's a yam-based, jello-y, gelatin-y ingredient. And then I have here, firm tofu, I have spine sprouts, napa cabbage, or Chinese cabbage, and then here I also have enoki mushroom. These are very delicious. Some Asian stores have these, and if you don't have these, you can use pretty much any mushroom except for those western mushroom, shiitake mushroom, oyster mushroom, and what not. And then for the broth, we're gonna use kombu. If you don't have kombu, then you can go without it. Salmon is going to give some broth, so don't worry too much about that. And then for the seasoning, we're gonna use miso, mirin, and sake. If you don't have mirin or sake, mirin can be easily substituted with sugar, and sake, you don't necessarily have to have it. And today we're gonna use a pot like this. This is a quite typical Japanese hot pot that we use for nabe. Let's start preparing the ingredients. So we're gonna first make the broth. This kombu is a little bit too big, so I'm gonna cut it in half, and then put it in there, and we're gonna use that for the broth. So ideally, you want to soak this in water for about an hour. Today, I don't quite have that much time, and this preparation is gonna take much less than an hour. So I'm gonna use the hot water to speed up the process. So this is about two cups of water. So with hot water, kombu is going to give the broth much faster. Then we're gonna leave it at that. Then let's prepare the salmon. So this salmon has scales. I'm gonna take these scales off. So if you have a tool to take off the scale, then great. If not, then you can just use a regular knife, and then run it against the direction of the scales. And what I usually try to do is go not perpendicular to the scale, but rather a little bit diagonal like this. And I think you can take off the scale much faster and efficiently if you're working with a knife. And then we're just gonna cut the salmon in bite-sized pieces. I find it easier to cut the salmon not from the skin side, from the meat, then it goes... Then you can cut the skin much easier, I think. And then just kind of bite-sized pieces. There's no really set rule for this. Just finish preparing the salmon. Then let's prepare the other vegetables. So I'm just gonna take out a couple leaves of the napa cabbage. I think that'll be enough. And then I'm just gonna cut these also in bite-sized pieces. And the enoki mushroom. You want to open from this side. Oh, this is kind of coming apart. So mushrooms, you don't really want to wash them. Just want to take the end off. Now I'd say I'd use half of it for today. Just kind of want to separate them into bite-sized kind of pieces. Now let's prepare the tofu. There's not much to prepare. Just need to cut these into also bite-sized pieces. I'm gonna throw this water away. And use a third of this for today. I'm gonna cut these also in bite-sized pieces, I'd say. Like that. So let's prepare the shirataki or noodle konnyaku. So this is usually floating in water. So I'm gonna have to open this up and drain the water. And then we're gonna lightly boil it. I'm gonna give a little light wash to this. This is much more than I thought, so I'm gonna use just half of it. And then I'm gonna kind of cut in half because it's gonna be a little bit difficult to eat once too long. And then we're gonna lightly boil this in order to get the kind of unwanted odor of the konnyaku. It's also gonna help later that it's gonna soak up the flavor of the soup. I put in here. So once this comes to a boil, then it's finished. Turn off the heat. Then we're gonna drain the water again. So this is finished. Then we're gonna very lightly wash the bean sprouts. And by doing this, you kind of sometimes find kind of rotten parts or bad parts. And you want to make sure that there's no bad parts. Where it's kind of darker, then you can kind of throw these away. Make sure they're all good. These go bad pretty fast. So you want to eat this in like the first couple days after purchasing. So all the ingredients are set up and prepared. Let's start cooking. So let's see. See that the kombu has grown, soaked up the water. I'm gonna turn the heat to high. So right before this has come to a boil, I'm gonna take away the kombu. And then here we're gonna put in some ingredients. I'm gonna put in the stem part of the napa cabbage. And a couple tofu. And also some salmon. Then here I'm gonna put in one tablespoon of sake. One or two tablespoons of mirin. I like it sweeter, so I'm gonna put in two. If you don't like it sweet, then you can just put in one tablespoon. And if you don't have mirin, then one or two teaspoons of sugar. Then here I'm gonna put in two tablespoons of regular miso. So if you're gonna make miso soup or anything with miso base, it's easier to use some small strainer like this. Then once this comes to boil again, I'm gonna put in some other ingredients. Shirataki and the enoki mushroom. Then some bean sprouts. Then also the leaf part of the cabbage. Once this has come to a boil, this is finished. Let's eat. Okay, let's eat. Itadakimasu. Oh, this looks so good. So this is a very typical thing that we have in Japan for cooking hot pot. I would assume almost every household would have a table cooker like this. And here, this is fueled usually with gas, like a butane gas. And then we just kind of put it in here. Push it in like this. Close, and then... And you see. So we can cook on the table like this. Then let's eat. I'm gonna have the salmon. Shirataki. Oh, look at the color of the shirataki. So this has soaked up the good juice of the soup. So it's gonna taste delicious. Start with the salmon. Oh, salmon and miso, they go really well together. Oh, it's so delicious. I love this napa cabbage. So napa cabbage has this really fine sweetness to it when it gets cooked. It's just so delicious. So savory. And this miso flavor is kind of rounding up everything. Oh, this is so good. And this is the enoki mushroom. I don't know if you can hear. It's got this crunchy chewiness to it. And this is the shirataki noodle or the konnyaku noodle. So if you don't like the sound of slurping, then skip a couple seconds. So this konnyaku doesn't really have flavor. And therefore, it just kind of soaks up all the good flavor of the soup. It's just so delicious. So this is the firm tofu. For nabe, I personally like firm tofu because they don't break that easily. Tofu and miso just goes hand in hand. Probably because they're both made from soybeans. This is so good. I'm gonna have some soup. So I apologize beforehand for the slurping. This is so savory. So once this is empty, I'm gonna put in the second batch to it. More salmon in it. Then we're gonna turn the heat to high. And this is how we usually eat nabe. Usually with more people. It's more delicious to eat with more people. Oh, totally delicious. Oh, this is just a perfect dish for a cold winter's day like today. Turn the heat to medium. So actually, in Japan, holding a bowl like this is not polite. You're actually supposed to hold the bowl like this. But unfortunately, western bowls don't have a leg here. When I hold it like this, my fingers here get too hot. So I have to hold it like this. If you go to Japan, you might notice that it has a little leg. Kind of like this. So that even if you hold the bowl like this from the bottom, you won't touch the hot soup directly. So please excuse me for holding a bowl improperly and in this way. But know that in Japan, you're supposed to hold your bowl like this. Oh, this miso and the rice is also perfect. So I think the second round is ready. I'm gonna turn the heat to low. And get some of the veggies and the salmon. Oh, this looks good. Oh, it's kind of breaking apart. So the second round. So delicious. So savory. Oh, the salmon and miso, they were just so great. Oh, this is so delicious. So savory. That was yet another delicious meal. So as you saw, making Ishikari nabe or miso-based salmon hotpot is really easy. You just need to just cut up the ingredients and put in a pot and cook it in front of you. So I hope this video is informative for you. I hope it gave you some little new idea for what to make with Japanese food. Or especially if you got miso. If you like what you saw, please hit that like button. And feel free to write anything in the comments below. I'm always happy to hear your feedbacks. Otherwise, I look forward to see you in the next video. Bye.