Nabemono facts for kids
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| Type | Hot pot dishes |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Japan |
| Region or state | East Asia |
| Similar dishes | Jeongol |
Nabemono (鍋物, なべ物), often called simply nabe, is a popular type of Japanese hot pot dish. The word nabe means "cooking pot" and mono means "thing". So, nabemono basically means "things in a pot"! These dishes are also known as one-pot meals.
Contents
What is Nabemono?
Nabemono are like stews or soups that have many different ingredients cooked together. They are always served while still boiling hot. This makes them perfect for cold days or during winter.
In Japan today, nabemono dishes are kept hot right on the dining table. People use special portable stoves for this. The food is often cooked right at the table. Diners can pick the cooked ingredients they want from the pot. You can eat it with the broth, or dip the food in a special sauce. You can also keep adding more ingredients to the pot as you eat.
Types of Nabemono
There are two main kinds of nabemono in Japan:
- Lightly Flavored: These use a simple broth, often made with kombu (a type of seaweed). Examples are yudōfu (湯豆腐) and mizutaki (水炊き). You eat these with a dipping sauce called tare. This lets you really taste the fresh ingredients.
- Strongly Flavored: These broths have a stronger taste, usually from miso, soy sauce, dashi (Japanese soup stock), or sweet soy. Examples include yosenabe (寄鍋), oden (おでん), and sukiyaki (すき焼き). You usually eat these without any extra dipping sauce.
The Pots Used
The pots for nabemono are traditionally made from clay (called donabe) or thick cast iron (called tetsunabe).
- Clay pots can stay warm for a long time after they are taken off the stove.
- Cast iron pots spread heat evenly. They are especially good for sukiyaki.
These pots are usually placed in the middle of the dining table. Everyone shares from the same pot. This is a very friendly and social way to eat with friends and family!
Popular Nabemono Dishes
There are many different kinds of nabemono, each with its own special ingredients and flavors.
- Chankonabe (ちゃんこ鍋): This dish was first made for Sumo wrestlers. Chankonabe has more ingredients than other nabemono. This is because it was designed to help sumo wrestlers gain weight. Many recipes exist, but it often includes meatballs, chicken, vegetables like Napa cabbage, and udon noodles.
- Motsunabe (もつ鍋): This hot pot is made with beef or pork offal (special cuts of meat). It started in Fukuoka but became popular across Japan in the 1990s. It's known for its great taste and good price. Motsunabe usually has fresh cow offal boiled with cabbage and garlic chives. After eating the meat and vegetables, people often cook champon noodles in the leftover soup. The soup base is usually soy sauce or miso.
- Oden: This dish has several ingredients like boiled eggs, daikon radish, konjac, and processed fishcakes. These are all stewed in a light, soy-flavored dashi broth. Karashi (Japanese mustard) is often used as a topping.
- Shabu-shabu: For shabu-shabu, very thin slices of meat and vegetables are boiled in a pot right at the dining table. You then eat them with a dipping sauce.
- Sukiyaki: This dish features thinly sliced beef, tofu, vegetables, and starch noodles. They are all stewed in a sweet soy sauce broth. People often dip the cooked food in a raw egg before eating it.
- Yosenabe: The word Yose (寄) means "putting together." This means that all sorts of ingredients are cooked together in one pot. This can include meat, seafood, egg, tofu, and vegetables. Yosenabe usually has a broth flavored with miso or soy sauce.
- Yudofu: This is a simple dish of tofu simmered in a kombu (seaweed) stock. It is served with ponzu sauce and other toppings.
Regional Nabemono Dishes
Japan has many different regional nabemono dishes. These often use special foods from that area, like salmon in Hokkaidō or oyster in Hiroshima. Here are a few examples:
- Hokkaidō
- Ishikari-nabe: This is a salmon stew cooked in a miso-based broth with vegetables. Common ingredients include daikon radish, tofu, konjac, Chinese cabbage, potato, Welsh onion, shungiku, shiitake mushroom, and butter.
- Tōhoku Region
- Kiritampo-nabe: This dish uses Kiritampo (pounded rice, grilled on a skewer). It's stewed in broth with chicken, burdock, Japanese parsley, Welsh onion, and konjac. It's a special dish from Akita Prefecture.
- Kantō region
- Chūetsu region
- Kansai region
- Udon-suki: This dish has udon noodles stewed in broth with various other ingredients.
- Harihari-nabe: This unique dish uses whale meat and mizuna greens. It's a specialty from Osaka.
- Chūgoku region
- Fugu-chiri: This dish features slices of fugu (pufferfish) stewed in dashi broth. It's cooked with leafy vegetables like shungiku and Chinese cabbage, and eaten with a ponzu dip.
- Dote-nabe: This hot pot has Oysters and other ingredients (like Chinese cabbage, tofu, and shungiku). The inside of the pot is coated with miso paste, which adds flavor to the stew.
- Shikoku region
- Kyūshū region
- Mizutaki: This dish has chicken pieces and vegetables stewed in a simple broth. It's eaten with a dipping sauce like ponzu. Ingredients often include chinese cabbage, Welsh onion, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, shungiku, and shirataki noodles.
Dipping Sauces (Tare)
Nabemono dishes are usually eaten with a sauce called tare, which means "dipping." There are many different kinds of sauces you can use, often with extra spices called yakumi. Common yakumi include grated garlic, butter, red pepper, roasted sesame, or momiji oroshi (a mix of grated daikon radish and red pepper).
- Ponzu: A popular ponzu sauce is made from soy sauce, juice from a bitter orange, sweet sake, and kombu (kelp) stock.
- Gomadare (sesame sauce): This sauce is usually made from ground sesame, soy sauce, kelp stock, sake, and sugar.
- Beaten raw egg: This is most commonly used as the dipping sauce for sukiyaki.
See also
In Spanish: Nabemono para niños
