Japanese Oden - Simmered Hot Pot Recipe
Warm up with a steaming bowl of Japanese oden! This easy nabemono (one pot) stew is so filling and tasty, featuring a simple oden broth and lots of delicious ingredient ideas from daikon to fish cakes to enjoy.
Servings 4 Serves
Calories 1207kcal
Cost $15
Ingredients
For the daikon
- 1 daikon radish around 500 g / 1 lb
- 3 cups water
- 1 tbsp rice sushi rice works best
For the hot pot base
- 4 cups dashi stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp cooking sake
For the ingredients
- 2 eggs boiled and shelled
- ¼ cup edamame beans
- 4 fried tofu puffs 50 g / 1.76 oz
- 3 chikuwa sliced diagonally
- 250 g oden set store bought, includes fish balls, flat fish cake and fish sticks
More Ingredient Ideas
- ganmodoki boiled
- konjac / Konnyaku blocks sliced into a large triangle shape
- shirataki noodles
- wiener sausages - sub with Frankfurts
- bok choy
- carrot
- mushrooms enoki, shimeji or shiitake work best
- tsukune meatballs
- assorted fish cakes / surimi shapes or satsuma-age
- atsuage or aburaage
- boneless chicken thighs
- pork belly slices
- tsumire meatballs
Instructions
For the daikon
- Peel the daikon and cut into thick 2 cm / 1 in chunks. Then peel the top and bottom edges of each piece (this will prevent them breaking while cooking).1 daikon radish
- Make two cross slits in each daikon piece around a third / half way through. Then place each piece (cross side down) into a medium saucepan with the rice and cover with water. Note: You can sub the water and rice for washed rice water if you're making rice at the same time. Cooking the daikon with rice water takes away the bitterness of the vegetable and pre-cooks it for the oden.3 cups water, 1 tbsp rice
- Drain the daikon, discarding the water and rice.
Prepare your oden ingredients
- While the daikon is cooking, prepare your oden ingredients. For example, if you've bought an oden set that includes fish cakes, fish balls and chikuwa, we recommend pouring boiling water over them to remove some of the oil. Drain and optional slice them in half on a diagonal and pop them on wooden skewers. If using edamame beans, place around 5 on each small wooden skewer so you don't lose them in the broth.250 g oden set, ¼ cup edamame beans
- Note: If you're preparing other optional ingredients, now is a good time to peel them, chop them etc and get them ready to go in the base.
For the hot pot base
- Now pour your dashi stock, soy sauce, mirin and cooking sake into a large pot and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.4 cups dashi stock, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp cooking sake
- Add your the daikon and boiled eggs to the broth and continue to simmer for 20 minutes. This will allow the flavours to soak into the "tougher" ingredients.2 eggs, 4 fried tofu puffs, 1 daikon radish
- Now add your remaining oden ingredients such as edamame bean skewers, chikuwa and fish cakes etc and continue to simmer for a further 30 minutes. Note: If you're impatient, you can serve up the hot pot now, but if you want to infuse more flavour, continue on!¼ cup edamame beans, 3 chikuwa, 250 g oden set
- Turn off the heat, and pop a lid on your pot. Allow your oden to stand for an hour so the broth can infuse with the ingredients.
- At this point, once cooled pop it in the fridge and eat it the next day for maximum flavour OR re-heat at a simmer for 15 - 20 minutes to bring back up to temperature and serve with a good dab of Japanese kurashi mustard and shichimi togarashi.
Video
Notes
- Daikon - If you’re including daikon in your oden, make sure to round off the edges of each slice. This helps stop them from falling apart as they simmer in the broth.
- Don’t Boil - Allow plenty of time for the oden to simmer (at least 1 hour) for all those ingredients to soak up the flavours of the broth!
- Add Protein - Add thick slices of pork belly, diced chicken thighs (similar to miso nikomi udon)
- Add Noodles - Bundled shirataki noodles are most common, but you could add udon noodles to your homemade oden if you like. Only add them in the last 10-15 mins of cooking though so they don’t turn to mush in your broth.
- Add Mushrooms - Shiitake, shimeji or enoki (or all three!) are awesome additions to homemade oden!
Nutrition
Calories: 1207kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 211g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 14g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 591mg | Sodium: 4666mg | Potassium: 3042mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 194IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 704mg | Iron: 8mg