Shizuoka Oden (静岡おでん)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large donabe or heavy soup pot
• •Fine-mesh strainer lined with a clean cloth
• •Bamboo skewers
• •Wooden drop-lid (otoshibuta), or a circle of parchment cut to fit the pot
• •Small suribachi or spice grinder for homemade dashi-ko, optional

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dashi

   Wipe the konbu with a damp cloth, but don't wash it. Put it in the cold water and bring it up slowly over low heat. Pull the konbu when the water trembles and small bubbles climb the sides, before it boils. Add the katsuobushi all at once, take the pot off the heat, and leave it alone for two or three minutes. Strain through a cloth and let it drip without squeezing.

   Boiled konbu can turn the stock bitter and slick. Squeezed bonito flakes give up strong, oily flavors. Guard the clear dashi now, because the black broth still needs a clean foundation.
2. 2

   Blanch the tendon

   Put the beef tendon in a clean pot, cover with cold water, and bring it to a boil. Simmer for five minutes, then drain, rinse the tendon well, and wash the pot. Cut the tendon into 1 1/2-inch pieces. This isn't fussiness. Blood and scum left on the meat make the broth taste muddy, and Shizuoka's darkness should be clean.

3. 3

   Build the broth

   Return the dashi to the pot with the blanched tendon, shōyu, sake, mirin, and sugar. Bring it just to a simmer, skim the first foam that rises, then keep it at a quiet bubble for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The broth will turn black-brown and the tendon should yield when pressed with chopsticks. Add a little hot water if the liquid falls too low.

   A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and tightens the tendon before it has softened. Quiet simmering gives body without roughness.
4. 4

   Pre-cook the daikon

   While the tendon simmers, put the daikon in a separate pot and cover with water, or rice-rinsing water if you have it. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges look slightly translucent, then drain. Daikon drinks seasoning better after this first cooking, and its peppery edge won't take over the oden broth.

5. 5

   Prepare egg and konnyaku

   Boil the eggs for 9 minutes, chill them in cold water, and peel them. Score the konnyaku lightly on both sides, cut it into triangles, and boil it in plain water for 3 minutes. The egg needs to be peeled before it can take on color, and konnyaku's first boil removes its alkaline smell so the broth stays honest.

6. 6

   Skewer the pieces

   Thread the tendon, daikon, konnyaku, kuro hanpen, chikuwa, satsuma-age, and ganmodoki onto bamboo skewers, keeping one kind of ingredient on each skewer. Use a thin skewer for eggs, or leave them loose if they begin to split. The skewer isn't a trick for show. It lets each piece cook whole and be lifted from the pot without rummaging.

7. 7

   Simmer sturdy items

   Add the daikon, konnyaku, eggs, and tendon skewers to the broth. Rest a wooden drop-lid (otoshibuta) on the surface, or use a circle of parchment with a hole cut in the center. Simmer quietly for 35 to 45 minutes. The drop-lid keeps everything under the broth so the seasoning enters evenly without stirring, which would only bruise the tender pieces.

8. 8

   Add fish cakes

   Add the kuro hanpen, chikuwa, satsuma-age, and ganmodoki for the final 15 to 20 minutes. These are already cooked, so they need seasoning, not punishment. If they simmer too long, they swell, then collapse, and the texture goes dull.

9. 9

   Rest the oden

   Turn off the heat and let the oden rest in the broth for at least 30 minutes. Better still, cool it and refrigerate it overnight. Oden seasons most as it cools, when the broth moves into the daikon, eggs, and fish cakes. Rewarm it gently before serving, keeping the pot below a hard boil.

10. 10

    Finish Shizuoka style

    Lift a few skewers into a shallow bowl or onto a small plate with a spoonful of the black broth. Sprinkle with dashi-ko and aonori, and serve karashi on the side. The dashi-ko is not instant dashi; it is the dry finishing powder that clings to the wet surface of the skewers and marks this as Shizuoka oden.

Chef Tips

• •Kuro hanpen is the ingredient that says Shizuoka most plainly. If you can't get it, use the freshest oden fish cakes you can find and make the dish anyway, but don't pretend the character is unchanged. Honmono starts with telling the truth.
• •Dashi-ko is a finish, not a shortcut stock. If you can't buy it, pulse a little katsuobushi with niboshi, dried baby sardines, until sandy, then mix it with aonori at the table.
• •Keep the pot crowded enough that the skewers stand together, but not so crowded that the broth can't move around them. A stew still needs space to do its work.
• •Taste the broth after the long simmer, not before. Beef tendon and fish cakes give salt and body back to the pot, so early correction is how a cook talks himself into an over-salted dinner.
• •Oden is often better the next day. This is not kitchen magic, only cooling and reheating: the broth enters the daikon and egg while the pot rests.

Advance Preparation

• •The dashi can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Keep it covered and reheat gently before building the broth.
• •The beef tendon broth can be made a day ahead, chilled, and skimmed. This gives a cleaner pot and saves time on the serving day.
• •Fully cooked oden keeps for two days refrigerated in its broth. Rewarm slowly and add a splash of hot water if the broth has concentrated too much.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 490g)