Hot Pot, Salmon - (Ishikari Nabe)

This specialty from Hokkaido is full of different types of fish — if you enjoy seafood, you certainly won’t be disappointed with this nabe that is overflowing with shellfish and salmon, nestled amongst potatoes, tofu, and other vegetables. All of it is simmered in a miso broth that infuses the fish with umami goodness.

Ingredients

• 200g/7.1oz salmon fillet , cut into large bite size pieces (note 1)
• 1 potato (medium size)
• 70g/2.5oz daikon (white radish)
• 50g/1.8oz carrot
• ½ pack of tied shirataki (konnyaku noodles) (note 2)
• 100g/3.5oz chrysanthemum leaves (note 3)
• 2 shiitake mushrooms (medium size)
• 2 shallots/scallions

Hot Pot Broth

• 10 x 10cm/4” konbu (dried kelp), cut into 4 strips
• 800ml/1.7pt dashi stock
• 50g/1.8oz miso (note 4)
• 1 tbsp mirin

Directions

1. Cut potato in half lengthwise, then slice each piece perpendicular to the first cut to 1-1.5cm/3/8-5/8” thick. Cut daikon in half vertically, then slice each piece horizontally to 7-8mm/¼” thick. Slice carrot diagonally to about 5mm/3/16” thick. If you are cooking hot pot at a table and eat as you cook, parboil potato, daikon and carrot slices.
2. Place shirataki in a sieve and pour boiling water over to rinse. If you are not using tied shirataki, spread the shirataki noodles on a cutting board and cut them in half.
3. If the bunch of chrysanthemum is more than 15cm/6” long, cut in half to shorten the length.
4. Cut mushrooms in half. I cut it diagonally to reduce the thickness of each piece.
5. Cut shallots diagonally to 6-7cm/ 2 3/8-2 3/4” long.

Cook at table and eat as you cook

1. Mix miso and mirin in a large bowl or a pot (capacity of about 1000ml/2.1pt) to soften the miso, then gradually add dashi stock mixing well. Add konbu strips.
2. Place all the ingredients in a cooking pot (donabe if you have one or a shallow pot), clustering each ingredient together.
3. Gently add the miso broth to the cooking pot and bring it to a boil over high heat.
4. Reduce heat to minimum and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until root vegetables are cooked through.
5. Provide a small eating bowl to each diner to pick up and eat cooked food from the hot pot while simmering.

Cook on stove and serve at table

1. Add konbu and dashi stock to a large pot (note 5) and bring it to a boil over high heat.
2. Mix miso and mirin in a bowl to soften the miso, then add to the pot.
3. Add potato, daikon and carrot to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Add salmon to the pot and cook for a minute or so.
5. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and cook until shiitake mushrooms are cooked though.
6. Serve with small eating bowls for individual to take food from the pot. The cooked ingredients should be eaten with miso flavoured broth.
7. . I sometimes get chrysanthemum leaves with thick stems that I can’t use. I remove the leaves from the stems and discard the thick stringy portion of the stems before weighing.
8. The majority of Ishikari Nabe use brown miso but you can use other types of miso. If using white miso, replace mirin with sake as the white miso is sweeter than brown miso.
9. As you can see in the photos, I made hot pot in two individual donabe (clay pot to cook hot pot) by dividing the ingredients but you can of course cook all in a large pot.
10. The remaining broth is packed with great flavours, particularly from the salmon. Why don’t you make Zōsui (also called Ojiya) – Japanese Rice Soup using this broth? Simply add cooked rice to the broth, bring it to a boil, then add beaten eggs. It’s so delicious. You can find how to make Zōsui in my post Zosui (Japanese Rice Soup – Ojiya). The recipe shows how to make it from the broth leftover from Yosenabe but you can replace the broth with the miso broth from today’s recipe.
11. Nutrition per serving. It assumes that the broth is all consumed so the sodium is quite high.

Notes

1. You can also use salmon cutlet/steak with or without bone. I cut the fillet into 8 pieces.