Ebi-shinjo to yasai ribon no nabe / hot pot with prawn-fish dumplings and vegetable ribbons

Vegetable ribbons and fluffy prawn-fish dumplings turn regular nabe hot pot into something special. Put prawn-fish dumplings in the nabe first, as they taste richer as they cook with other ingredients.

1/2 of recipe:
525 calories; 32.5 g protein; 14.8 g fat; 61.5 g carbohydrate; 59.9 g net carbs; 502 mg sodium (with 50% reduced-sodium soy sauce for both broth and ponzujoyu; 743 mg with regular soy sauce); 179 mg cholesterol; 7.6 g fiber


<Ingredients>

For ebi-shinjo prawn-fish dumplings
150 g sakana no surimi ground fish
120 g prawns (shelled)
1 tbsp sake
1 1/2 tbsp katakuriko potato starch
2 tbsp tamago no moto egg yolk emulsion (mix 1 egg yolk and 3 tbsp oil until emulsified; use approximately half of mixture)

60 g shungiku garland chrysanthemum
20-25 cm gobo burdock root (74 g in photo)
1 carrot (100 g in photo)
15-20 cm daikon radish (150 g in photo)
1/2 pack shimeji mushrooms (72 g in photo)
5 shiitake mushrooms (32 g in photo)
70 g kuzukiri kudzu noodles
1/2 kinugoshi soft tofu (218 g in photo)

For hot pot broth
1000 cc dashi + 150-200 cc dashi (to add while cooking & eating at table)
4 tbsp sake
2 tsp soy sauce (not in photo)

For dipping sauce
2 tbsp ponzujoyu citrus soy sauce (see recipe to make your own)
1 tbsp dashi


<Directions>
1.

In nabe pot, put dashi, sake and soy sauce, and start to heat.

2.

Make mixture for ebi-shinjo prawn-fish dumplings.

Clean prawns with potato starch, rinse with cold water, and chop.

Put ground fish in suribachi mortar.
Add sake, yolk + oil mixture, and mix well.

Add potato starch, and mix well.

Add chopped prawns, and gently mix well.

3.

Boil kuzukiri kudzu noodles as directed on package.

4.

Slice gobo, carrot and daikon with peeler, and soak in water for 5 minutes or so.

5.

When broth boils, spoon in prawn-fish dumplings.  

Cover, and cook on medium-low heat.

6.

Cut tofu into smaller squares.
Cut shungiku into 3-4 cm.
Remove stem ends of shimeji and shiitake.

Place on a plate with other prepared goodies to be added to the pot at the table.

7.

When about ready to start eating, add some goodies (other than shungiku). 

8.

When ready to eat, add shungiku.
Serve with ponzujoyu (diluted with dashi).

Add more goodies as those in pot disappear, and enjoy!

<Notes>

• For this dish, katsuo-kobu dashi or kobu-dashi is recommended.
• While all vegetable ribbons cook fast, carrot ribbons cook especially quickly; when cooked too long, they will break into pieces when picked out of the simmering pot.
• Lots of sodium from prawn-fish dumplings is in the broth; do not consume more broth than necessary; i.e., do not drink it. Replace at least half of remaining broth with dashi if using it to make zosui (a soupy rice dish) or noodles.
• Diluting ponzujoyu citrus soy sauce is one way to reduce sodium.
• Shinjo are seafood dumplings where seafood (usually lean fish, prawns or calamari alone or often mixed) is ground with other ingredients (for binding, texture and flavor) and boiled or steamed. Shinjo are also sometimes deep-fried.
• Tamago no moto (emulsified mixture of egg yolk and vegetable oil) is used to make relatively plain fish taste rich. In addition to shinjo seafood dumplings, it is also used as a topping when grilling lean white fish. (Quite a few home cooks use plain mayonnaise for the same purpose.)
• If kuzukiri kudzu noodles are not available, Korean harusame made of sweet potato starch work great.
• The above nutrition figures are based on the following: 30% of hot pot broth is consumed with goodies; additional broth is not drunk; and 85% of ponzujoyu citrus soy sauce is consumed.
• Cholesterol breakdown for the above figure (179mg/serving): sakana no surimi ground fish 36 mg; prawns 90 mg; egg yolk for tamago no moto emulsion 53 mg. To reduce the overall figure, cut back on prawns and/or tamago no moto.

(Last updated: September 22, 2014)