Notes about Recipes in this book

• Dashi-rich shabu-shabu (Dashi shabu)

  • nutrica6 on May 05, 2025

    This was a lot of prep work for the vegetables but easy to serve and eat. The serving sauces were nice and flavorful. Don’t be afraid to skimp on the wasabi paste. The dashi is mild. I doubled this and the dashi recipe and it made a ton of food. Definitely add noodles and save it as a soup for leftovers.

• Plain white rice (Hakumai)

  • DKennedy on December 03, 2025

    Made my first batch of rose brand rice (1 c. rice to 1 c. + 2T water) in my new double sided donabe today. Perfect texture. The instructions set out in Naoko's book are easy to follow. I added an uncooked egg atop the inside lid as suggested in her notes and both came out perfectly. Served topped with leftover Napa cabbage from last night's hot pot meal. Delicious.

• Salmon and hijiki rice (Sakehijiki gohan)

  • gjnmc on January 01, 2024

    Link NOT behind paywall: https://snukfoods.com/blogs/recipe/salmon-hijiki-rice

• Azuki sticky rice (Azuki okowa)

  • maranelancheran on November 08, 2020

    Also sometimes spelled azuki and aduki, adzuki beans are small, red beans originating from China and are popular in Asian cooking. Although they are also simply referred to as red beans, they should not be confused with kidney beans, which are twice the size and shaped like kidneys

  • maranelancheran on November 08, 2020

    True mirin, called "hon-mirin," is made by combining steamed glutinous rice, cultured rice (called koji), and a distilled rice liquor. This mixture is allowed to ferment anywhere from two months to several years. (The longer it ages, the darker the color more intense its flavor will be.) While the ingredients generally are the same for rice vinegar but with more sugar. Hence mirin although is very similar to rice vinegar, mirin is sweet and with alcohol that enhances the umami flavor. While the acidity of rice vinegar creates a sour tanginess in the flavoring.

  • maranelancheran on November 08, 2020

    Sticky rice is also called "sweet rice" because of its taste. It has a sweeter taste than regular white rice, which is why it works so well in dessert recipes. But mainly, it is prized for its chewy and sticky texture.

  • maranelancheran on November 08, 2020

    Short-grain rice, named for its size, is only a tiny bit longer than it is wide. It's not uncommon for medium- and short-grain rice to get combined into the same category, which can make for some confusion. This squat, plump rice cooks up soft and tender, and is known for sticking together and clumping

• Miso keema curry

  • mjes on July 27, 2022

    This recipe called for three ingredients not in my pantry -- Hatcho miso, Kurozu, and tomato ketchup; it failed to indicate what style of curry powder was used in Japan. I found a Japanese curry spice recipe using turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, nutmeg, fennel, star anise, cardamom, clove, bay leaves, allspice, thyme, sage, cayenne ... not my typical Bombay curry powder. I suspect that substitutions of red miso and Chinese black vinegar would have been fine but I'd not had a Japanese curry before so I was closely following the recipe. The resulting dish, served with rice, was very enjoyable but didn't encourage me to explore Japanese curries more extensively.

  • Rinshin on August 15, 2022

    This is for mjes. Standard curry powder used in Japan is S&B curry powder which was made originally 70 years ago in Japan. It can be bought on Amazon. Hatcho miso, a specialty of Nagoya can also be bought on Amazon and is much more complex and deeper flavor than red miso which is quite generic unless from miso producing areas known for red miso.

  • Rinshin on July 24, 2024

    I love miso and curry, but the resulting combination of miso and curry was just not as good as I originally thought. Especially with the bold and pronounced taste of Hatcho miso. Perhaps less miso and switching to sweeter white Saikyo miso would have worked better. The addition of okra instead of commonly used peas was a miss for us too. There was certain viscous texture with cooked okra we did not care for except in soupy gumbos. This isn’t a bad tasting version of keema curry but it is also not our favorites either. Added fresh cherry tomatoes and soft boiled egg for topping to soften the taste. Photo added

• Soy-flavored simmered ground chicken over rice

  • marissa_ifnbae on May 27, 2026

    So delicious! I didn’t have sake so I subbed in dashi and added a bag of frozen peas. Sooo much umami

• Steamed enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef (Enoki gyu-maki mushi)

  • elizabeth_qnjo8t on April 05, 2026

    Made it without the shiso leaf. This was great but the dipping sauce (separate recipe) really makes it.

• Sizzling tofu and mushrooms in miso sauce

  • elizabeth_qnjo8t on April 04, 2026

    This has become a staple at my house!

• Steam-roasted fingerling potatoes

  • takstephe on May 17, 2022

    I didn't realize I needed a tagine-style donabe for this until after I had sprung for a pot of caviar. I ended up using the steaming directions on page 179/180 for a donabe steamer (what I have) and then doing the rest according to this recipe. This came out great! Reminded me a bit of sour cream and onion potato chips but much more indulgent. The walnut dipping sauce was also killer. Seemed very strong on its own but when slathered on potato it balanced perfectly.

• Negi and shio-koji dipping sauce

  • elizabeth_qnjo8t on April 05, 2026

    A bit labor intensive for a week day, but GREAT sauce. Similar to Hainan chicken sauce

• San Francisco Chronicle

  Best Cookbooks of 2015: ...home cooks are able to discover the magic of these one-pot meals. Is owning a $200 donabe a requirement for working through the book? The short answer is yes...

  Full review