おでん ・ Oden ・ 関東煮

My eyes were wandering on the shelves at the Korean and Japanese supermarket today wondering what I should eat for dinner and inspiration struck that it would be nice to have something relatively easy to prepare, fast, light and soupy - Oden!

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Oden (おでん) is a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household. Karashi (Japanese mustard) is often used as a condiment.

Oden was originally what is now commonly called misodengaku or simply dengaku; konnyaku or tofu was boiled and one ate them with miso. Later, instead of using miso, ingredients were cooked in dashi and oden became popular.

Unlike most one pot dishes, ingredients can be added at any time. Oden is often sold from food carts, and most Japanese convenience stores have simmering oden pots in winter. Many different kinds of oden are sold, with single-ingredient varieties as cheap as 50 yen.

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This is purely an idea on the spot and acting on the spur of the moment, I filled up the beancurd skin with welsh onions & some spicy fish cake, sealing them up with satay sticks. Surprisingly, it turned out really really really!! tasty in the end. =)

There were daikon (white radish), carrots and I added this konbu (seaweed) soya sauce & some mirin (Japanese cooking sake) into the broth which once again, I'm amazed at my cooking instincts how nice it turned out! LoL!

Placing everything into my trusty rice cooker since I wanted somewhere enclosed delivering relatively low, consistent heat.
Ingredients include: Beancurd skin with fillings, fresh scallops, Japanese fishcake, tofu, mushrooms, rolled cabbage with fillings & a handful of glass noodles.

The final product which is already excellent when eaten on its own (which I did today) or you could supplement with a bowl of rice in view of its rich broth.