Nothing beats a Nabe in winter!
What is a “nabe”?
I love to eat “nabe” in winter! Japanese often eat it at home or in Izakaya in winter. “Nabe” is a Japanese hot pot, it’s a one-pot dish with a variety of vegetables and fishes, beef, or chickens. It’s very easy to cook. You pour water and dashi(Japanese soup stock) or soup and other ingredients into a pot and boil them. Nabe is like stews. Japanese often have a “nabe party ” with friends at home. They sit around the hot pot and enjoy eating it together.
Japanese finish the nabe with noodles or rice. It is called “shime(締め)”. And they often prepare from the nabe’s leftovers and make rice porridge(like risotto)or noodle dishes (udon or pasta). Actually, I added rice to the nabe and ate yesterday.
You can enjoy various kinds of tastes in a nabe!
A good point of a nabe is what you can enjoy various tastes! You can make the soup by mixing seasoning. Or you can buy it in a supermarket. Recently a nabe soup cube for one person becomes popular. You can adjust the amount according to the number of people to eat. It’s very convenient!
I introduce soup tastes I ate in this winter.
①soy milk (豆乳鍋, tonyunabe)
A hot pot made with soy milk and dashi. It is creamy and mild taste. You can make the soup from soy milk and seasonings, but I bought the soup in a supermarket this time.
I used this soup. ↓
※If you click this picture, you will jump to Amazon.co.jp, a Japanese website.
ingredients ex.: porks, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, deep‐fried tofu, udon(shime).
②tomato (トマト鍋)
A hot pot made with tomato. As I had many tomatoes recently that I got from an acquaintance, I cooked it a few times. There are many ways to cook.
For example, I cooked as follows.
western style: use tomato juice and a soup cube of consomme.
Japanese style: use canned tomatoes and mentsuyu(noodle soup base)and mirin.
ingredients ex.: onions, Chinese cabbages, mushrooms, Vienna sausage, chickens, cheese, rice, or pasta(shime).
③kimchi(キムチ鍋)
A hot pot made with kimchi. Kimchi is Korean food, but the Japanese like it and often eat. It is hot and spicy. When you eat kimchi nabe, you will warm the body in the cold winter. Kimchi nabe is the most popular in my family. I often buy soup in a supermarket.
I used this soup. ↓
※If you click this picture, you will jump to Amazon.co.jp, a Japanese website.
ingredients ex.: pork, Chinese cabbages, Japanese green onions, mushrooms, Chinese chives, bean sprouts, tofu, ramen(shime).
Other nabes
There are lots of tastes besides the above. (soy sauce, salt, miso, chicken, etc.) Of course, sukiyaki is one of the most popular nabes.
But beef is not cheap, I cannot eat so much…lol. When I was a child, I ate sukiyaki with my family on a special day.
I sometimes use a luxury dashi. This is made by a soup stock specialty store I like. (“Kayanoya(茅乃舎)”)It has an elegant flavor, but not cheap(^^;
Nothing beats a Nabe in the winter time in Japan! If you can get ingredients, please try to cook a nabe!
Japanese OL. (OL means “office lady”. Women who work in offices.)
I was born in a rural part of the Kanto area in the latter half of the 1980s. I live and work in Tokyo now. I live with my husband. I study English by writing this blog!
