Oden, 2 Ways (Instant and Homemade)

Posted by Judy | Bebe Love Okazu on July 6, 2010 in Blog, Japanese Cuisine Favorites | 22 comments

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful extended 4th of July weekend! We had a fun-filled weekend, but a busy one!  Bebe E’s friend celebrated her 1st birthday, we went to two BBQ’s on the 4th, we finally rented and watched The Blind Side, and I went out with a few girlfriends to see Eclipse on Saturday night (a rare night out past 9 PM without my family) and I’m still hurting from getting home much too late. Does that date me?!?

Some of you might be disappointed to discover that I have read ALL the books in the Twilight series. Let’s blame this on the fact that I was on bed rest for several months and had nothing better to do and was curious to find out what all the hype was about. Unfortunately, I am very critical of the author’s writing, and I am even more critical of the first two movies of the series and the talent of the actors but I’m addicted in some sick way. I rented the first two movies through Redbox for only $1.00 each, and I wouldn’t have wanted to pay any more than that! Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed watching Eclipse and I didn’t feel like I wasted my money! I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I am looking forward to seeing the next movie in the series!

Let’s change the subject!

One of my latest projects is cleaning out our freezer by cooking everything that’s in there (and I should mention that I’m refraining from buying more until it’s mostly all gone). Unfortunately, Bebe Dada will attest to the fact that I probably have at least 7 – 8 different “projects” going on at once, all of which I officially announce to him with a psuedo level of urgency. Most all of my projects revolve around organization and cleaning which is likely an unfortunate result of my neat-freak-gene.

Anyway, one of the items I came across in our freezer was an assorted fish cake pack that I bought a while back when I had a craving for oden, but I never got around to making it. For some reason, my dad’s been making oden pretty regularly (he cooks quite a bit now that he’s retired), and it just so happened that the few times I thought about making oden, we happened to visit my parents and my dad ended up making it so I never used the fish cake pack that I had at home! While my mom was visiting recently, I was evaluating our frozen assets (as I do most every day), and I asked my mom if she’d be interested in eating oden and surprisingly she said, OK”. I was certain she would be tired of having eaten it so much while my dad was on his oden-kick, but I was thankful that she wasn’t. One less item in our freezer!

I’ve never thought of oden as a hot-pot dish, perhaps because my mom always cooks this in a large stew pot and not in the nabe, but according to About.com, it is indeed considered a Japanese hot-pot dish commonly served in the cold winter months. I’m not sure what’s going on with our Southern California weather, but it’s July, and it still feels very much like June Gloom. It’s actually DRIZZLING this morning! It turns out that my post for winter oden isn’t so ridiculous on this cold, drizzly morning.

My mom’s oden consists of an assortment of simmered fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, konnyaku, potatoes, carrots, and chicken. Oden is yet another Japanese dish that we ate regularly when we were growing up (even in the summer) and it’s definitely comfort food. Long ago when I asked my mom how she makes her oden broth, I was very surprised to learn that she doesn’t make it from scratch. She said in Japanese, “It’s SO easy! Just buy the packaged oden seasoning at Mitsuwa or Marukai.” Hmmm, for so many years I thought my mom made the oden broth from scratch. I never knew they even sold packaged oden broth, but that is what I used the night I prepared our oden. For anyone who is interested, I have also included a homemade recipe for oden broth from a cookbook I borrowed from my BFF, Practical Japanese Cooking by Tsuji and Hata.

Mom’s Oden

• 4 – 5 hard-boiled eggs
• 1 pink kamaboko (fish cake)
• 1 block konnyaku (yam cake)
• 1 package assorted fish cake
• 1/2 Japanese daikon (radish)
• 3 carrots, rough chopped
• 1 potato
• 3 – 4 skinless, boneless chicken legs or breast meat
• 10 – 12 cups of water, or just enough to cover all of the ingredients
• Splash of mirin
• 1 package oden seasoning

for homemade oden broth if you are not going to use the oden seasoning package:

• 2 quarts chicken stock (the stock replaces the water in the above recipe)
• 1 cup light soy sauce
• 7 tablespoons sake
• 7 tablespoons mirin
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

1)  In a medium pot, bring water to boil and hard boil eggs. I usually boil 1 – 2 eggs per person. Let the eggs cool, then peel the shell off.  Cut chicken into large pieces. Next, Slice konnyaku into large triangular pieces. Then slice triangles in half, once more.

2) Slice pink kamaboko (the package actually says red kamaboko but it’s pink) into 3/4-inch thick pieces. Make sure you separate the kamaboko from the wooden board first, by slicing horizontally between the board and the kamaboko to which it’s attached. Next, slice daikon into round 1-inch thick pieces, and finally rough chop carrots and potato.

3) Slice larger pieces of fish cake from the assorted fish cake package in half, or medium size pieces. The two pouches tied with daikon “ribbon” are inari (fried tofu) with mochi (rice cake) inside. You’ll also find a type of fish cake at the bottom called, hanpen. Slice this in half, otherwise you’ll have one huge puffy white square when your oden is done. ;)

4) Add all of the oden ingredients into a large stock pot, including chicken. Add enough water, about 10 – 12 cups, to cover all of the ingredients at least 1-inch above the ingredients. Once the water comes to a boil, skim foam and residue from the chicken. Add 1 oden seasoning pack and pour a splash of mirin.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. Once the eggs absorb the color of the broth and the fish cakes “puff-up” and expand to absorb the broth, the oden is ready to serve.

Oden is best served with ample broth and karashi, or Japanese hot mustard. I didn’t add much broth in my bowl pictured below, but the karashi mixed into the broth tastes really yummy.

Clockwise from top: hard-boiled egg, kamaboko, inari-mochi pouch, chicken, konnyaku, carrot, and assorted fish cakes.

Happy Summer!

Judy | bebe mama