The PERFECT Japanese Hot Pot Recipe | Oden

Hi guys, welcome to Champ's Japanese Kitchen. Let's make the perfect recipe for the winter, Oden. Oden is a traditional Japanese hot pot dish made by simmering different ingredients in a dashi broth. You can find ingredients ranging from beef and sausages to mochi and fish cakes. This kind of hot pot is very popular, especially on cold and rainy days. Okay, so this recipe is a little late, but like they say, better late than never. And for people in the southern hemisphere, it's recommended for the coming season. Oden is one of my favorite hot pot dishes, so I picked up something special to pair with it. Ta-da! It feels kind of lonely to only have Oden, so I ordered this delicious sake from tixu.com. So this is a sake from Kochi prefecture named suigei or drunken whale. It pairs perfectly with any dish and it's very versatile. In summer, you can slightly chill it to get a mild umami flavor. And in winter, drinking slightly warmed suigei is my favorite way to stay warm and cozy. It gives a richer flavor with a long aftertaste. Each bottle of sake that you order from tixu.com comes with an information card with a brief explanation of sake brewing company and the region where it's produced, along with suggested pairings and the recommended temperatures for drinking. They also have some food recipes to pair with your sake. Sushi lover's sake. Hmm, I didn't know about that. If you are cooking Japanese dish, don't forget to pair it with sake from tixu.com. Okay, guys. So let's get cooking. Today, we're going to be using these ingredients, some of which might be hard to recognize. First, chikuwa and hanpen, which are types of fish cakes. Then some chicken wings. Satsumaage, which we'll be making from scratch. And some sausages. Beef tendon. Konnyaku jelly. And finally, some daikon radish. There are so many different ingredients in oden, but these are some of my favorites. First, let's start off by making the dashi. Dashi is the most important part of oden and most Japanese cooking. Usually, we use a donabe, a Japanese clay pot, to make oden. But don't worry, any stew pot will do. I showed how to make dashi in depth in my nimono video. Link in the description. On this occasion, we will use one liter of water and three grams of kombu kelp and remove the kelp just before it boils. Then add 10 grams of bonito flakes. This time, we want to make the dashi more thicker. So we will boil it over low heat for about two minutes. Don't forget to put the lid on to prevent it from evaporating. Remove the lid and smell that ocean umami aroma. Using a sieve, take out the bonito flakes and then move on to our seasonings. To add even more punch to your dashi broth, add in one teaspoon or five grams of sugar, 50 milliliters of your favorite soy sauce, and 50 milliliters of mirin, sweet cooking sake, or rice wine. Turn on the heat until it starts boiling and don't forget to check the taste. Now we're going to make the satsuma-age, which are fish cakes originating from Kagoshima. We're going to prepare some cod. Sprinkle some salt on both sides of the cod to remove the excess moisture and any strong smell. Set that aside for 10 minutes. In the meantime, let's remove the veins from the shrimp. Make a slight cut along the back of the shrimp and remove the vein and any excess dirt using a paper towel. Now 10 minutes have passed and we're back to the cod. Pat it dry to remove the excess moisture and take the skin off. Using a paper towel to hold the skin and slide the knife between the skin and the flesh. Top tip, be sure to use a sharp knife. Then cut the cod into small pieces. Next, add the shrimp and cod to a food mixer and blend until it forms a paste. Add the paste to a mortar along with a dash of sake, half a teaspoon of sugar, a dash of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, one teaspoon of potato starch, and 10 grams of grated mountain yam. I recommend rubbing some sesame oil on the pestle so the paste won't stick. Then start mashing till it forms all come together. It should look something like this. Now it's time to prepare the vegetables for the satsuma-age. Add half a teaspoon of dashi stock into 200 milliliters of water. Finely sliced burdock root and carrots to a pot. Simmer them along with the red pickled ginger. Once they're ready, drain the veggies and pat them dry to remove any excess moisture. Add the veggies to the fish paste and mix well with your hands. It's easier if you rub your hands with a dash of sesame oil to keep the paste from sticking. After mixing, make them into four patties around this size. Now we're gonna deep fry the patties. Heat your oil in a pot to 170 degrees Celsius. I recommend you use a skimmer to slowly put them in the oil and this way they will keep their shape. After three minutes, turn them over and fry for another three minutes. They should be a beautiful golden brown color like this. Next, let's prepare the other vegetables. Peel the daikon radish and cut it into around half a centimeter thick slices. This will help cook the daikon quicker. Next, pat the konnyaku jelly and try to heat it to make it tender. Uh, maybe I did it a little too hard this time. Anyway, cut the konnyaku jelly into slices like this. I like to make a cut down the middle and turn it in itself to make a nice braid like so. I pre-cooked the beef tendons beforehand to save some time. Now we have everything for our oden. Bring the dashi up to a boil and turn down to a medium heat. We'll start with the chicken and daikon as they take the longest to cook. Then, add the sausages and the konnyaku jelly. Next, the chikuwa in a hot pan. After, our homemade satsuma-age and the beef tendons cures. If the daikon floats to the top, push it back down with some chopsticks. Finally, add two boiled eggs. Bring it back up to a boil and skim off any scum. Then, turn down to low heat, cover, and gently simmer for 30 minutes. Take off the lid and be amazed at all your hard work. It looks amazing and smells just as good. Good job, guys. Okay, guys. Oden is done. Mmm, delicious smell. I wish you could smell this. So, let's give it a try. Itadakimasu. Okay. So, let's try our homemade satsuma-age. This one really look like store-bought satsuma-age. Oishisou. Puri-puri. And this is very important point. Let's look at this daikon here. Usually, oden takes hours. But today, I cut daikon thin like this. So, you need only 30 minutes to cook. Let's give it a try. And perfect with oden is sake, nihonshu. This is one of my favorite suigei. Itadakimasu. If you make this oden at home and try tipsy sake, you will definitely heat up. Gochisousama deshita.