Are you excited to explore Japanese cuisine and all the things it has to offer? One of the easiest and the most heartwarming dishes I’ve experimented when it comes to Japanese recipes is an Oden recipe.
Made from fish broth and vegetables, it is a great beginner option for those looking to broaden their perspective on flavors and techniques.
The first step starts with the selection of fresh ingredients, while the last step is taking that perfect oden bite.
In this excerpt below we will be giving you a step-by-step guide on making your oden recipe pot in the comfort of your home kitchen.
Contents
What is Oden?
Oden is a customary hearty winter stew of Japanese cooking, normally liked during the cold seasons. It is also called a nabemono, which means pot food.
Which automatically brings the coziness of soup season nature in mind. Therefore, it is a real comfort food!
Coming to its elemental point, oden is a one-pot dish of eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and fishcakes cooked in a light dashi broth.
Every one of the ingredients in the broth is not only to provide the sweet flavor of the stock soup but also to give a sense of the symphony of texture and taste.
At those places, people eat it not only to be conscious of their stomachs but also to experience oden-related cultural phenomena. It is also a means to socialize in pubs and on the street.
Where a communal soup pot serves as an attraction. What makes Oden so nice is its easy preparation and variety, which will agree with all tastes.
Oden Recipe – The Smile in The Heart
There’s a kind of feeling that comes with the homemade-oden process for me.
Gathering the ingredients, carrying them to the stove, and placing each one slowly and carefully on the pot makes you feel like you’re composing something healthy.
Homemade oden not only allows you to determine the ingredients yourself and create the dish of your liking but also brings a certain level of satisfaction in knowing that you have created the entire dish yourself.
It’s time to take it easy and accept cooking as a pleasurable task so something delectable and comforting will result.
For many, making oden at home is a comforting ritual that embodies the essence of home cooking: to nourish the body and let the souls come alive.
Basic Ingredients For an Oden Recipe
These are some of the recipees you will need to make an oden recipe.
- Two liters of Dashi: Save on a premium food product or, even better, if you can, make one yourself from scratch.
- One large Daikon radish: I’d advise a person to take around 500 grams. As far as you are concerned, alongside dashi you will all the fruit and vegetables in your nearest supermarket.
- 4 Eggs: The best part about eggs is that they can be hard-boiled to perfection, or dropped in the broth. They add an extra flavor to the
- Two hundred grams (about 7.05 oz) of Konnyaku: It is one kind of jelly-like meat found in local Asian markets. Unlike other ingredients, it might be strange to hear about it for the first time, but it will add an unusual texture to your oden.
- Eight pieces of Chikuwa: These are a kind of processed fish meal that shapped as a tube. They are so creamy and delicious, and perfect to add in any broth. They comfortably soak up that broth.
- Small Potatoes: Because you can’t make a stew without potatoes, it’s not only right but survival.
Optional Ingredients for your Oden Recipe
Negi: This is Naga-nori or Japanese leeks, a long, slender vegetable type. Now for the onions – slice this trifle into thick rounds, and you’ll get some onion goodness as an after taste.
Cabbage Rolls: Wow your pals with a new version of a traditional favorite by adding ground pork to some cabbage leaves for a fun and tasty detour.
Chicken: For protein lovers, you can sauté some chicken breast pieces ahead of time and add them to the soup to suit your taste.
Tofu: To make a vegan oden recipe, you can always add some tofu to add richness to your broth.
For the Broth
100 ml (about 3.38 oz) of Soy sauce: The multi-layered flavor of oden is achieved by this, contributing to the dish’s saltiness. Looking at this, I have nothing more to say than always investing in first-rate goods.
60 ml of Mirin: Can you add a teaspoon of sugar to our recipe for that little sweet touch? Just try it; I can assure you that this is what matters.
Three tablespoons of Sugar: Hearty soups of any kind can taste great with a little more sweetness.
It’s noteworthy, however, that these are just indications. Sometimes, you may desire to change these measures based on personal preferences.
Step-by-Step Oden Recipe Preparation
To start your oden preparation, follow these simple steps:
- A good practice is to peel daikon radish and cut it into thick slices first. Coat these cuts with parboiled water to remove the bitterness and so set aside.
- Prepare the dashi broth. If you are preparing from scratch, diligently simmer water and kelp, then look closely into bonito flakes with care not to boil vigorously as this might affect the flavor.
- After the dashi is filled with aroma, remove all solids and add soy sauce, mirin, and a little sugar to the liquid. This is what brings that characteristic brothy dimension. You have your main characteristic of a good broth.
- Finally, add daikon slices to the broth. Let them simmer for a while. This serves as a mechanism for the radish to soak up the flavor and become somewhat soft.
- Start cooking by slowly adding the first ingredients, like boiled eggs, fish cakes, konnyaku, and tofu products, to the pot.
- Place the odon in a pot or broth and simmer on low heat; then, the ingredients will be cooked, and the flavors will be combined.
- While skimming to remove scums that gather on the surface, maintain a nice color and an aromatic flavor of the broth. The following actions become the ground to build a wonderful oden drink.
How Can I Spice Up My Oden Broth
Oden is a soup whose broth is its most vital part. First, it is important to use good quality dashi for the broth to show its richness.
To start with its essential ingredient, dashi, a homemade one is preferred. However, readily available high-quality can also work if you are short on time.
Slowly simmer the ingredients in a way that helps to extract their taste without boiling them. This makes the broth cloudy and overpowering.
Ever heard of the saying “everything in moderation“?
You should achieve that balance, so be careful when adding seasonings. Salted soy sauce creates umami, and rich mirin is a critical element of a Japanese soup.
I would rather take less and add more as the taste gradually increases in the stock. That is when the ingredients will release their flavors. Please taste the broth every once in a while, and change the seasonings to match your taste preference.
However, patience is a virtue, especially when making an oden, you wait until the food is ready. You will need a longer time for advanced flavors, so do not rush this process. Slower and lower cooking will result in the result that you want.
Making the Dashi
We need to take an important detour from making an oden. Yes, we need to learn how to make the very essence of Oden.
The Dashi soups!
When making a perfect broth for your oden, making a fresh batch of dashi is always very exciting.
So, here’s a simple guide on how to make homemade dashi for your oden:
Ingredients
- 20 grams of Seaweed Version (Dried kelp)
- 30 g Katsuobushi (Dried fish of bonito).
- 2 liters of water
Procedure
Put the kombu in a pot with water, about 2 liters. Cook it for about 30 minutes. This process would start discovering the savory notes of the kombu.
Once you’ve soaked it, position it on medium heat. Spray the dashi water with the kombu just before it starts to boil, then take it out and throw it away. While boiling the water, if you add kombu and leave without removing it, your stock might become too bitter.
Once you remove the kombu after the water in the pot starts boiling, add katsuobushi to that pot.
Let the water simmer at the same height for about 5 minutes, then switch off the heat to low and let the broth simmer.
Strain the broth using a sieve and put it into a clean pot or a large bowl. This is important because now you have your dashi (stock)!
You can easily make a second batch until the stock is gone. Make yourself another perfect “nikan dashi” (second dashi) bowl. It will be lighter but still a tasty broth that you can use in other recipes.
The dashi-making process is a trial & error. Through this process itself, you can get the tastiest batch. You do not have to strive for top-level perfection.
Adjust the amount of both kombu and katsuobushi to get the desired taste. The dashi strength preference varies per person. One person may like it stronger and fishier; another might prefer it lighter.
Once you master the art of making a dashi, making other Japanese recipes like chawanmushi, and udon noodles will also become easier.
The Perfect Cooking Timetable for Oden Recipe
The ideal cooking time for Oden would not be more than one and a half hours.
A shorter cooking time will make the ingredients less tender and may render the stock oily for longer. It is all about simmering but never boiling, so all that good tastes can infuse properly.
First, the root vegetables, such as the daikon, will take the longest to cook. So, place them in the pot at the beginning. When the bean sprouts are tender, add proteins like the egg sticks or drops.
A longer cooking period removes the flavors and leaves a strong broth base. However, you don’t want to boil away everything for too long. This can make your food mushy.
Some ingredients, like vegetables or tofu, are better mixed in later. The most important thing to remember when any oden is cooking: the pot needs constant monitoring. Plus, a regular set of taste buds will be needed to verify each flavor.
The longer it takes for Oden to cook at low heat, the more delicious your bowl of Oden will be.
Troubleshooting Common Cooking Issues
Truthfully, even the easiest recipes can sometimes be a problem, and Oden might be just an example.
- If you notice that the broth becomes too salty in the process of cooking, try adding a little more water or unsalted dashi to mellow down the taste.
- When the flavor of your broth is too bland, lightly increase the amount of soy sauce or add a pinch of salt.
- If, after boiling, the daikon radish doesn’t get as tender as you wish for, make sure it is simmering at a steady low temperature. Keep stirring from time to time to let it cook a bit longer.
- On the contrary, if your tofu continues to break down, it has been cooked for too long or at a very high temperature. Next time, maybe add them during the last stages or the remaining cooking process.
- If the broth gets cloudy, either you are boiling it too long or not simmering it enough. We will obtain a clear broth through a steady, gentle simmer without wearing it out. This will also help to look for impurities that may rise.
Hopefully, the above hints will clarify any difficulties and help you get plain oden without problems.
Preparation Instructions and Choices of Sides
Nowadays it is gourmet to serve hot or chilled oden with different extra dishes. Therefore, we must incorporate these in our oden recipe.
To begin with, you can add a small bowl of Japanese mustard to the broth’s soothing flavors. Plus, the sharpness of any side dish can help create a whole new experience.
The extra ingredient could be something like that: a sprinkling of shichimi togarashi or a Japanese spice blend.
Regarding the dish, steamed rice is always at the top. It is just so good and goes so well with the soupy flavor. You could also think of having a quick side dish of sliced pickled vegetables to provide the crunch everyone needs. It also does the job of making the mains easily digestible.
A bowl of thicker udon noodles is ideal for people who want something more substantial. Adding it to the bottom of the oden pot at the end of the cooking process means its fibers will soak up all the delicious broth, fill you up even more, and make the dish very satisfying!
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