Oden is a traditional Japanese one-bowl meal made up of various nutritional items, including boiled potatoes, eggs, tofu, daikon, and kelp, cooked in a miso fish broth called dashi. It can be customized with different ingredients, including fishcakes, pockets made from tofu, and gyusuji. Oden is often served with pickles, white rice, and mustard sauce.
Many Japanese people regularly partake in a traditional dish called oden, which is a one-bowl meal made up of several different and nutritional items. A popular winter recipe, diners can choose from a pre-prepared pot at the store or roadside stand, or they can choose their items from a list of ingredients on a menu. These are then tossed into a bowl with a familiar miso fish broth called dashi to create a stew full of new tastes.
This recipe is an offshoot of another Japanese favorite, misodengaku, which is a tofu-laden miso soup. some chefs have started making this dish with tofu and a different type of soup, dashi. This one combines a quick fish broth with seaweed and soy sauce. A miso, in contrast, is made from various grains and lentils, before undergoing a fermentation process before being used in a soup, usually as a store-bought cube or paste. Both soups have common added ingredients, such as sake, garlic, mushrooms, ginger, and even sugar.
Some restaurants or booths have menus that allow customers to choose their favorite combinations. According to the Bento website, common items, however, are boiled potatoes and eggs, fried or grilled tofu, white radishes known as daikon, and konbu, which is kelp boiling in fish stock. These pieces are usually tied into neat little bows.
While the broth simmers with seaweed, potatoes, daikon, tofu and soybeans, other ingredients are arranged in the bowl. When the potatoes and other ingredients are cooked through, they are then poured into the bowl. The broth makes the dish a soup, but it really becomes the sauce for different items that have been cooked by other methods such as grilling or baking.
This is just the basis of potential ingredients for the medley – the snack version. For more money, diners can feast on fishcakes made from shark or pollack, pockets made from tofu stuffed with noodles and mushrooms, and even gyusuji – the tendons of a cow, stewed in broth. Whole pieces of fish can be added, as well as skewers of tentacled seafood like squid and octopus.
Oden is often served with pickles and white rice and mustard sauce. Also commonly available is konnyaku, a tuber that is coagulated into clear jelly-like cubes, as well as fried dumplings filled with shumai pork. These are coated in broth or served on the side.
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