Yosenabe (Japanese Hot Pot)

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I saw an online comment that Japanese hot pot is like “fine dining for lazy people” and I couldn’t agree more. Yosenabe (寄せ鍋) literally means “putting anything” such as meat, seafood, vegetables and tofu together in a donabe (Japanese earthen clay pot) to cook as a one-dish hot pot meal. When the ingredients are arranged prettily in the clay pot for the first round of serving, it does look so appealing.  To me the best part of this dish is that you let your diners do the cooking :p

Related Recipes:

• Shabu Shabu Recipe
• Sukiyaki Recipe
• Easy Japanese Recipes

I like the “anything” concept. This version is chicken, hotate and oysters. You can use shabu shabu pork, wagyu beef, crab, clams, sliced fish or prawns instead – basically anything accessible at the moment.

When ready to serve, fill the earthen pot with a quick-preparing dashi or miso soup stock, cover with lid and bring the contents to a simmer on a portable stove at the dining table. The remaining ingredients are arranged in a communal platter. This is one sociable dish where family and friends gather over the course of an hour or so at the dining table. It is also perfect for the colder seasons and rainy days.

These are two easy sauces for Japanese hot pot which I also used for Sukiyaki. One is roasted sesame sauce (known as “goma”; pictured above, left) while the other is a citrus-based soy sauce (ponzu shoyu) with grated radish and chopped scallions.

Traditional Japanese nabe uses a donabe (eathern clay pot). I bought a simple and inexpensive clay pot (less than S$10) from a local household shop. I like that it is quite shallow and wide so that all the ingredients can be seen.

These are the ingredients I used for my yosenabe.