TUNA HOT POT

And now for something completely different, some Japanese food: I am joining Foodalogue’s Culinary Tour Around the World, with a traditional Old Tokyo Tuna-Belly Hot Pot recipe.

My source/inspiration/starting point is this awesome cookbook. Its awesomeness may be not so evident at first sight, as all those soups might somewhat look rather unglamorous, and certainly the ingredients are not always browser friendly - names like itokonniyaku, yuzu koshu, negi et cetera can be intimidating for non-experts of Japanese food. However if you read the book properly, taking the time to go through the introduction and having more than a cursory look at the glossary, you will be rewarded with a fascinating glimpse into centuries old traditions.

The hot pot is the physical center around which the meal is orchestrated. Since hot pots are often prepared directly at the table using portable burners, we could say that the act of cooking is actually part of the meal, there is no marked separation between cooking and eating. Not only that, but the diners participate rather actively in the cooking part: they sometimes place raw portions of their food in the boiling pot, and cook them as long as they see fit; or they take broth from the pot and use it to flavor their shime, a bowl of rice or noodles that is traditionally the closing part of a hot pot meal. A dinner like this can last quite long, and the authors talk fondly of epic evenings when they cooked oysters, then pork belly, then rib eye in the same broth.

So the recipe is basically just the starting point, and recreating this sort of food sharing social event is half the fun. Keeping this in mind, I decided to try the Tuna Belly Hot Pot recipe for a very practical reason: I don't have a portable burner, and this dish allows at least some sort of tableside cooking even without it.

Timing:

1 hour for the broth to be ready, then maybe 20 mins for the preparation of the actual hot pot.

Ingredients for 4:

(note that if you are in Madrid you can get pretty much all the special seasonings you need at Tokyo-ya)

*20cl mirin - a sweet cooking liquid brewed from rice. I also saw it at El Club del Gourmet.

*20cl soy sauce

*2 pieces of kombu - this a kind of dried kelp, or algae. Can also be found at El Corte Inglés supermarket.

*40g  hanakatsuo or kezurikatsuo - shaved bonito flakes. This is used to prepare the base broth, it is maybe the only thing really hard to find, and it is very expensive here: you might easily spend more than 10 euros at Tokyo-ya for such a small quantity. Personally I think some shrimp heads and shells would be an acceptable replacement, as you can use them to prepare a light fish stock. Not the same, but not bad either. Or you can use this.

*150g noodles - I used rice ones.

*2 scallions, with most of the green leaves

*200g napa cabbage - called col china (Chinese cabbage) around here. Found at the supermarket.

*100g tofu - again found at the supermarket.

*500g tuna belly - in Spain the season for ventresca is the summer, so I just replaced it with "plain" sushi-grade tuna, works very well.

How to:

Put 2 liters of water in a pot; throw in the kombu and let it rest for half an hour. Then place the pot on medium heat, and as soon as the water boils remove and discard the kombu. Add a couple tablespoons of water, throw in the bonito flakes and stir only once. Let the liquid simmer for 5 minutes, removing any foam that forms on the surface, then turn off the heat and leave the pot to rest for another 15 minutes. After that, filter the broth through a fine sieve, without squeezing the bonito flakes. Discard them, add mirin and soy sauce to the broth, reserve.

(as I was saying, I think you can basically replace the bonito flakes with shrimp head and shells, you will get something more similar to a traditional fish stock. In that case you will have to boil the broth for longer, probably half an hour. Make sure you are left with at least 1 liter of liquid before adding mirin and soy sauce; if not just add some extra water. Also, if you want to replicate at least partially the smoked aroma of hanakatsuo/kezurikatsuo, you might throw in a pinch of smoked salt)

While the broth is boiling you can start preparing the veggies: wash the cabbage and the scallions, then cut them in bite size pieces. If you want to do it properly, cut them on a sharp diagonal, as per Japanese tradition; this way the pieces will absorb more flavor and will also look nicer.

Wash the tuna, then cut it in small (around 2cm) cubes. If you already know your guests will like it, sprinkle them with some seasoning like pepper and/or shichimi togarashi.

Place cabbage, scallions and tofu in a pot, arranging them in separate neat bunches and leaving some space on a side. Pour in the reserved broth, bring to a boil, then add a bunch of noodles where you have space. Don’t stir, the ingredients should stay separate. Once the cooking time of the noodles have passed, turn off the heat.

Now you can throw in the tuna cubes, which will be cooked to medium-rare in maybe 2 or 3 minutes, then serve the ingredients with the broth in small bowls. Or, for a more interesting alternative, if you can find some way to keep the soup hot (for example with a candle and something simple like a fondue kit) you can serve the raw fish in a separate plate, and place the hot pot at the center of the table; then your guests can just help themselves, grabbing some fish and cooking it to their liking.

You can also cut the pieces more finely, sashimi style, so it is ready more quickly. Or you can throw in some variety, and serve sushi-grade salmon along with the tuna.

Itadakimasu!