Thursday, October 04, 2007

Shabu Shabu



I often make shabu-shabu as a quick and easy dinner- the only important bit is having all the ingredients you want in your fridge! At home, in the Japanese culture every family and home has their own favorites as to what they put in their shabu. Firstly- a shabu is a soup, or hotpot cooked on a gas cooker at the table. This way your family can add the raw ingredients as they like and eat them while they cook. So you start with a soup base- which consists of dashi, soya sauce (just a drop), and cooking sake. I like to add mirin for sweetness. This gets boiled up on the stove and transferred to the pan on the little cooker. Next you have raw ingredients, which you put in plates around the cooker. The main staple at all shabus is the paper-thin shaved beef. You can get this at most korean or japanese grocery stores in the freezer section. Don't thaw, because it only takes about 5 minutes to become room temperature. Then I add english spinach cut into 1-inch pieces, same with the long onions, Big hunks of silken tofu, re-hydrated sliced mushrooms (don't try for the whole mushrooms they take forever!) I like to add these but their not typical shabu- fish tubes, sliced fish cake, chopped red chilli, sliced garlic, and sometimes pickles. Experiment with what you love to eat in soups. I served this with bowls of rice and dipping sauces- one soy based and the other sesame based. In japan they have sukiyaki as well, which is served with a raw egg for dipping. Really, the only time it takes is to boil the broth, put the rice cooker on and chop ingredients - which has never taken me more than 20 min all together.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If Fred Flintstone was Japanese I’m sure he would instinctively yell…. Shabu Dabbu Do…….. Man I love this stuff. My first Shabu Shabu experience came a few months ago and now I want to Shabu-cise everything I eat…………

FINE PRINT

All images are copyright, if you want to use one just ask!