おでん

After a long trans-Pacific flight, one of the first foods I seek out is a steaming hot bowl of oden [1]. A lightly flavored, slightly sweet broth filled with fried tofu and fish balls, oden is an incredibly comforting soup. Oden first emerged during the Muromachi period in the 14th century, and has remained popular since then, particularly during the winter months. In Japan today, oden can be found year-round, served at restaurants and street food carts which let customers pick and choose which goodies they want in their soup [2]. Fortunately, one does not need to hop on a plane to get a decent bowl of oden—it’s very easy to make at home!

Ingredients

6 cups dashi
2 cups water
8 oz daikon radish
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 oz kombu
12 oz assorted fish balls
6 oz fish tofu
6 oz fried tofu, cut in half
4 oz tofu puffs
2 scallions, chopped
Salt to taste

Like most Japanese soups, oden is built on dashi (だし), a soup stock made from kombu kelp and dried bonito flakes: shavings of dried, fermented, and smoked tuna [3]. Homemade dashi is best for oden, as a good stock can really shine in a recipe with so few other ingredients. In a pinch, however, you can use dashi granules to make instant dashi stock. For this soup, we’re going to fortify the stock with additional kombu. Kombu is generally sold in dried form, so soak the kombu in warm water for 10 minutes before use. In the meantime, peel the daikon radish and chop into ½ inch thick pieces.

In a large pot, combine 6 cups dashi with 2 cups water. Add the kombu and daikon pieces, then season the broth with the soy sauce, sake, mirin, brown sugar, and salt to taste, and bring the pot to a simmer. Simmer the broth for 30 minutes, covered.

While the broth comes together, let’s consider the ingredients we’re going to cook in it. We selected some common oden ingredients for this recipe: an assortment of fish balls and fish cakes, fish tofu, fried tofu blocks, and tofu puffs. You should consider the selection we used as a rough guideline—we want to have some fish balls/cakes and some form of fried tofu in the soup, but the details are really up to you. There are countless types of fish balls and cakes—some firmer, some softer, some spicy, some made with shrimp, some stuffed with bits of pork, vegetables, or squid. Find what you like! In Asian supermarkets, you can usually find “Oden packs” of fish balls in the frozen aisle, which contain an assortment of different kinds of fish balls. Some markets even have a mix-and-match frozen cabinet of fish balls and cakes for you to choose from.

When the broth has simmered for half an hour, taste for seasoning and then add the fish balls and tofu to the pot. Continue to simmer the soup, covered and stirring occasionally, for at least 30 minutes more and up to an hour. Once everything is cooked through to your liking and the tofu has absorbed the broth, we’re done! You can serve the oden in bowls, or optionally, transfer the soup to either a hot pot or a pot on a hot plate on the table. This presentation allows diners to pick the fish balls they want out of the soup. Serve the soup with some karashi (Japanese mustard) for dipping the tofu pieces and fish balls.

Substitutions

Add a carrot to the broth together with the daikon if you’d like a sweeter soup. You can also add a bit of miso to the broth if you want a richer flavor. If you’re looking for additional ingredients to cook in the broth, some common add-ins include shiitake mushrooms, savory mochi, Asian chicken or pork meatballs, soy sauce eggs, seafood such as octopus or squid, rice-based blood puddings, and bean curd knots.

[1] Oden can be commonly found at street stalls and convenience stores like 7-11 not just in Japan, but also in Taiwan and South Korea, a culinary fingerprint left over from Imperial Japanese occupation of those countries in the decades prior to the Second World War.

[2] The best of these restaurants often keep their oden broth simmering for years, letting the broth absorb the flavor of the many ingredients cooked in it and increase in complexity.

[3] To make bonito flakes, or katsuobushi, the fish are sun-dried, inoculated with the mold (Aspergillus glaucus) to aid fermentation, and then smoked. The intense umami flavor of bonito flakes comes from the high concentration of inosinic acid developed during the fermentation process.

Recipe

Prep Time: 10 min Cook Time: 1 hr Total Time: 1 hr 10 min

Difficulty: 1/5

Heat Sources: 1 burner

Equipment: pot, hot pot or hot plate (optional)

Servings: 8

Ingredients

6 cups dashi
2 cups water
8 oz daikon radish
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 oz kombu
12 oz assorted fish balls
6 oz fish tofu
6 oz fried tofu, cut in half
4 oz tofu puffs
2 scallions, chopped
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Rehydrate the kombu by soaking it in warm water for 10 minutes. Peel the daikon and chop it into ½ inch slices.

2. Add 6 cups dashi and 2 cups water to a large pot, together with the kombu and daikon. Season with soy sauce, sake, mirin, brown sugar, and salt to taste. Simmer the broth for 30 minutes, covered.

3. Add the fish balls, fish tofu, fried tofu, and tofu puffs to the broth. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

4. Top with chopped scallions and serve the soup hot. Optionally, transfer the soup to either a hot pot or a pot on a hot plate on the table.