Motsunabe

Cleaned offal simmered in a garlic broth under a dome of cabbage and chives that is not stirred.

Beef, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish.

Ingredients

the broth

• 1.2 litres dashi
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 1 tablespoon miso
• 8 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

the pot

• 600 g beef offal, cleaned as for horumonyaki
• 500 g white cabbage, in large pieces
• 150 g garlic chives, in lengths
• 2 dried red chillies, sliced
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 200 g champon noodles, to finish

Method

1. CLEANED EXACTLY AS ON THE HORUMONYAKI PAGE -- rubbed with flour and salt through four or five changes of water until it runs clear, then boiled 40 minutes with ginger and leek and that water thrown away. That is not repeated here because it has not changed, and it is still the step that decides whether this is worth eating.
2. A POT, NOT A GRILL. Horumonyaki chars the same offal over fire and renders the fat into the flames; here the fat goes into the broth and is the whole point of it. Nothing about the two methods transfers except the cleaning.
3. PILED INTO A DOME AND NOT STIRRED. Cabbage goes in first, then the offal, then the chives heaped high over the top until the lid will barely close. It collapses as it cooks. Stirred, the chives overcook in a minute and the cabbage releases its water all at once.
4. The chives are added raw at the top and steam rather than boil, which keeps them green and sharp.
5. Broth: dashi, soy, mirin, sake and the sliced garlic simmered 10 minutes, then the miso worked in off the heat and the sesame oil stirred through.
6. A GREAT DEAL OF GARLIC, whole cloves sliced. It is the flavour that carries offal and eight is a starting figure.
7. Build the pot, lid on, and simmer 12 to 15 minutes without lifting it.
8. Chillies and sesame seeds scattered over at the table.
9. Eat from the pot as it keeps simmering gently.
10. FINISH WITH CHAMPON NOODLES in what is left. The broth by then has all the fat and garlic in it and that last course is the reason the pot exists.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes