It’s always good to come home and sleep in your own bed after a long and uncomfortable trans-Atlantic flight and awakening at 4:45 a.m. to a gentle, cleansing rain made it even better It’s clear and sunny now, but when the days become chilly and damp, I often crave a warming bowl of udon or soba noodles from Ebisu Ramen, a Japanese noodle house here in Huntington Beach. During our last rainy spell I thought about one of my favorite childhood dishes:  Sukiyaki (Japanese: 鋤焼 or more commonly すき焼き), a Japanese dish in the nabemono (Japanese Hot pot) style.

Similar to shabu shabu, sukiyaki consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef) slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten eggs.

Growing up in northwest Arkansas we raised most of our family’s food but there was nothing in the way of ethnic markets, so my mom’s Sukiyaki was an Americanized version made without many of the traditional Japanese ingredients in a cast iron pan on the stove top, but delicious and fondly remembered just the same.

My Sukiyaki

The Japanese are very fond of sugar and salt in their cooking and after years of eliminating as much sugar and salt from my diet as possible, I find that sukiyaki in restaurants is often too sweet for me. This recipe contains about half of the sugar and soy sauce that’s commonly used and much less sodium because of the low sodium soy sauce.  You can buy mirin and beef specially cut for sukiyaki at Japanese markets. All the other ingredients are available at most grocery stores.

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/2 cup sake or mirin*

3 tablespoons sugar**

1 cup water

1/2 lb. sliced sukiyaki beef (thinly sliced rib eye steak)

1 pkg shitake mushrooms

1/2 pkg broiled tofu (9 oz.), cut in half and cubed

1 small Napa cabbage, thinly sliced crosswise

3-4 green onions, sliced lengthwise into 1 inch pieces

2 -6 oz. pkgs shiratake noodles (yam noodles)

For stovetop preparation: combine the soy sauce, mirin or sake, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in vegetables and tofu. Ladle mixture over noodles in bowls. Quickly sear beef in a skillet and add to soup or simply add to the hot broth if you prefer your beef on the rare side.

Serves 2  | Enjoy

* Mirin is sweet rice wine.

** Traditionally granulated sugar is used, I used organic Sucanat

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Post tags: Japanese food, main dish soups, shiratake noodles, Soups, sukiyaki, tofu

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Have loved you for so long!  Fragrant dumplings, velvety with broth, tastebuds trigger faint memories of crisp winter nights growing up in the boonies pastoral beauty of the Ozarks.

Chix and Dumplings

(adapted from Comme C̹a via Tasting Table)

For the soup:

2 T. butter

1 T. canola oil

3 carrots, chopped *

2 celery stalks, chopped

½ onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ c. Wondra flour

2 quarts organic, free-range chicken broth

2 c. frozen peas*

2 c. cooked chicken breast, chopped into bite-size pieces

¼ c. heavy cream *

* Changes I made: We like lots of peas & carrots, so quantity here is double the original recipe. I eliminated the cream – gave it up in my home cooking a long time ago (the flour in the dumplings will thicken the soup a bit).

Heat the butter and oil n a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, and onion and cook until soft, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, cook for another minute. Stir in the flour until it coats the vegetables, stirring continuously, about 2-3 minutes until the roux is golden-brown.

Add the broth a cup at a time, stirring. Add the peas and chicken, bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer until the soup is slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, in a glass bowl, combine all the ingredients for the dumplings:

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1 t. salt

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 c. buttermilk

1 t. dried thyme or ¼ c. fresh thyme leaves   *Chop some fresh parsley with the dried thyme – doing this  ”refreshes” dried herbs.

Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the soup and cook for 6-8 minutes, until light and fluffy looking. To serve, scoop out a few dumplings and top with soup. Then, drop more spoonfuls of batter in the remaining soup for another batch of deliciousness!

Enjoy

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© Priscilla for She's Cookin' | from the heart, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken and dumplings, chicken recipes, comfort food, main dish soups

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