Let's taste Oden(hot pot)_one of the Japanese winter tradition

If you come to Japan in winter, you should eat Oden (hot pot).

Oden is a traditional Japanese winter dish which consists of several ingredients.
It is stewed in a soy-flavored dashi (broth) in a big pot.

Each family or area uses different types of ingredients. (It depends on their custom or preference.)

As an example, satuma-age (deep fried fish paste), gobo-maki (burdock roll), konnyakyu (pase made from konjyaku flour), chikuwa (tube-shaped fish paste), daikon (radish), egg, atu-age (thick fried tofu).

You can choose what you like at an Oden shop or convenience store in winter season.

You can buy packaged Oden in retort pouches containing simmered ingredients together with a soup at supermarket,too.

The canned Oden is also sold in vending machines in Akihabara ( It has become a boom since the late 1990s.) and in Osaka Nippon-bashi. Nowadays you can buy it in the internet.

I’ll introduce how to cook Oden in my house. If you are interested, please read.

The preparation of Oden is time consuming. But after that, just simmer for a long time.

Ingredients:( 3-4servings)
No.1 大根　1/2 daikon radish
No.9 こんにゃく　1 block konnnyaku
No.2 厚揚げ　1 block atsu-age
No.3 ごぼう天　1 bag of gobo-maki(=gobo-ten)
No.4 ひら天(=さつま揚げ）1 bag of hira-ten(satuma-age)
No.7 卵　4 eggs
No.8 もち　2 cut mochi (rice cake) 　※Photo is 1cut mochi.

No.5 油揚げ　2 pieces of age(=deep fried tofu) 　※2 pieces of age is in a bag.　
No.6 牛すじ　1 block cow line meat (about 200-300g)

Soup broth about 1200ml※
Karashi paste (Japanese mustard), as needed

※I usually use after adding water to concentrated Mentsuyu which is a Japanese flavoring sauce made mainly from soup stock, soy sauce, mirin(sweet sake=Japanese liqur for cooking) or sake itself and sugar.

If you don’t have, mix Japanese style soup stock (1200ml), sake (100ml), mirin(45ml), soy sauce (30ml), salt (5ml).

Daikon radish:
Peel it and cut it into 2-3 cm thick. And parboil it with water and uncooked 15ml rice to remove strong odor

Atsu-age:
Cut triangle 8 equal parts and put it on the colander and pour hot water to remove oil.

Konnyaku:
Rub the salt in the surface of Konnyaku and pat it. If you don’t have a wooden pestle, clenched fist is OK. And slightly boil it.

Cow line meat:
Cut it into small pieces, boil slightly, and rinse it in cold water to remove oil.

Egg:
Boil them and peel.

Put the soup broth into a pot and add ingredients above.

When it comes to a boil, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for about 2 hours. (Consecutive time is not necessary. For example, simmer 50minutes, and let them cool down and simmer 30minutes again is OK. Because when let them cool, the taste soak into the ingredients.)

Satuma-age and Gobo-ten:
Put them on the colander and pour hot water to remove oil. And add them into a pot simmer about 20 minutes. (If you simmer fried fish paste for a long time, taste fall out.)

Age and cut Mochi: (These are not necessary. And if you need them, you can also buy processed one at Japanese supermarket.)

Pour hot water Age to remove oil. Cut Age and Mochi two equal parts each.