Ode to Oden

My son’s partner made us Oden for New Year’s Day dinner and it was fabulous. I forgot to get her recipe recorded – they were pretty busy getting ready to go to Spain (lucky ducks)…so this recipe is based on Just One Cookbooks’ recipe for Oden. There was a lot of ingredients that I didn’t have (and was too lazy to get) so this is the “lazy person’s” version of Oden (still pretty delicious).

Ingredients

• At least 4″ of daikon radish, peeled, cut in 1/2″ slices and chamfered (see prep and parboiling instructions from Cook & Meshiagare here).
• 6 cups Dashi – homemade if you have the time and energy or:  6 cups water with 2 packets Dashino-moto (Shimaya brand), and 1-2 tsp of Dasida (Korean beef stock powder) – I have no idea whether you are “supposed” to mix these two or not. But I did, and it was good and I’d do it again.
• 1 package frozen oden set of your choice (aka assorted Japanese fish cases and fish balls, I got mine at Kingston Asian Supermarket (KSA) in Kingston but any Asian grocery store will likely have them in the freezer section. Or you can try making your own shrimp balls from this Oden with Homemade Shrimp Balls recipe from NYT Cooking.
• 4″ napa cabbage cut in two big pieces
• 4 hard boiled eggs (boil for 8 minutes from cold, cool and peel, set aside)
• 1 package Shirataki yam noodles (Heiwa brand was good and tied in little bundles that are easy to manage chop sticks) – you need to drain and rinse the noodles a couple of times and drain again before you use them.
• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce (or use what you have, no one will report you)
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• 1 Tbsp Sake (if you have it).
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

For serving the recipe recommends Japanese karash hot mustard but I didn’t have any when I made this so I used garlic chili crunch and that was delish.

I have since found S&B Oriental Hot Mustard at J&K Supermarket – they have a tonne of interesting products that I plan to explore.

Method

1. Prep the boiled eggs, these go back into the broth later.
2. Prep the daikon and set it aside to cool, you’ll add it back into the broth once it’s simmering. Basically, use the middle section of the daikon, peel the tough skin from the edges, cut into slices and remove the sharp edges (chamfer), then lightly put a cross into one side of the daikon (this makes it easier to break up with chop sticks once cooked and also helps it to absorb the flavour from the broth. Wash rice and save the startchy water to parboil the diakon. Once soft, drain, rinse and let cool. Again this will be added back to the broth later.
3. Blanch your oden set to remove excess cooking oil (boil water, add the fish cake and balls for about 45 seconds, drain and let cool).
4. Make the broth (Dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and salt), bring to a simmer (don’t let it boil)
5. Add the parboiled daikon and boiled eggs to the broth and bring it to a boil the reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
6. Cut the fish set into bite size pieces if need be and add to the pot, cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Add the shiritaki yam noodles and the napa cabbage and let that wilt in the broth.
8. You can make this ahead and let the broth cool to allow the dashi to soak into the ingredients and then gently reheat before serving hot.
9. Ladle broth into deep bowl, add a piece of daikon, boiled egg, cabbage and a variety of fish cakes and balls (or let people choose their favourite).

Serve with whatever sides you like.

Serves 6 people.