Daizu nimono
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Ingredients
- 5 cups soy beans
- Konbu seaweed (10cm x 5cm) (substitute with Japanese soup powder or chicken soup powder)
- 5 shiitake mushrooms (This can be substituted by mushrooms at local food stores.)
- konnyaku (optional) available at Japanese food stores
- aburaage (thin, deep-fried tofu - optional) available at Japanese food stores
- burdock (optional) available at Asian food stores
- 0.5 cup mirin (sweetened sake) (or sake and sugar mix)
- 0.5 cup soy sauce
Ingredients
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Instructions
- You can skip some very Japanese ingredients, but, In case you found some of the Japanese ingredients, let me show how to prepare them.
- For burdock, scrape off the peel with a kitchen knife and put it in water right away. Or the burdock will become brown instantly. Cut it in small dices and put them back in water immediately. Adding drops of vinegar can stop burdock from changing color.
- Cut aburaage into small squares. Aburaage comes in this kind of pack and sits in a fridge at Japanese food stores.
- Next, cut konnyaku into small cubes, which is also in a fridge at Japanese food stores. Some meticulous Japanese chefs boil konnyaku before cooking, but let’s skip that process. I haven’t found any real difference between the meticulous way and my easy-going way.
- Soak shiitake mushrooms in warm water for about 5 minutes and cut them in a small size. The shape doesn’t matter. Keep the water the shiitake was soaked in.
- Cut the carrot into small cubes.
- If you have Konbu, put it in three cups of water and turn the heat on. When the konbu becomes soft, take it out, and cut it into small squares. If you don’t have konbu, mix Japanese soup powder into the water. Japanese soup powder comes in this box and is available at Asian and Japanese food stores.
- Add soy beans. The soup doesn’t have to be boiling at this moment.
- Put the konbu back in. Put the carrot and shiitake in. Then add konnyaku. Actually the order doesn’t really matter. Easy-going cooking! Burdock, aburaage. Mix all lightly, add shiitake water.
- Put a lid on. A lid that is smaller in diameter should work well.
- Wait till the whole thing boils, and pour in the mirin or sake and sugar mix.
- Put the lid back on and let this boil on medium heat for about 20~30 minutes. When you see most of the broth is gone, add soy sauce. When we use sugar and soy sauce for Japanese cooking, sugar comes first and soy sauce last. That is a golden rule.
- Turn the heat up to high, keep this boiling for about 5 minutes.
- Mix this occasionally or the beans may be stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Taste the beans, when you think this is ready, Yum!, this is ready!