Matsuri Chef Tadashi Ono’s Hot Pot recipes

Conquer cold weather with warm and comforting recipes for traditional chicken and salmon hot pots from Matsuri chef Tadashi Ono.

Tadashi Ono is a celebrated chef who has won plaudits for both his Japanese and French cooking in The New York Times, Gourmet, Food & Wine and other publications. Born and raised in Tokyo, Tadashi began training as a chef at the age of sixteen. He moved to Los Angeles in the eighties, cooking at the innovative French-Japanese fusion restaurant Le Petite Chaya and the legendary L’Orangerie.

Conquer cold weather with warm and comforting recipes for traditional chicken and salmon hot pots from Matsuri chef Tadashi Ono.

Relocating to New York, he became the executive chef of La Caravelle, one of America’s top French restaurants. After nine years there, Tadashi felt the pull of his Japanese cooking roots and opened up the fine dining restaurant Sono. In 2003 he launched Matsuri, where he introduced vibrant, modern Japanese cooking to wide acclaim. Tadashi is also the coauthor of “Japanese Hot Pots,” (Ten Speed Press) a cookbook about Japan’s beloved comfort food, which will be published in October 2009. Besides cooking, Tadashi is an accomplished potter and avid student of Japanese food culture. He considers the legendary Japanese chef, ceramicist and author Rosanjin his mentor and inspiration.

Chicken hot pot

Tori Mizutaki nabe

• 4 pieces chicken legs (2-3 lb) skinned, boned, cut into bite size
• ¼ pieces green cabbage (about 1/3 lb) cut into bite size.
• ½ package tofu, cut in 4 pieces
• 4 pieces scallion, sliced into 2 inch angle
• 8 pieces shitake mushrooms stemmed
• 3 ounce oyster mushrooms
• ½ pieces small carrot slice thin into 2 inch half moon
• 2 tea sp salt
• 4 cups chicken stock (Japanese style, just chicken bone and water)
• 2 cups packed spinach leaves, cleaned, stemmed
• 4 tea sp yuzu kosho, substitute with Tabasco sauce

Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add chicken. When the water returns to a boil, poach 1 minute. Remove from the heat, strain the chicken in a colander and cool under running water. Set a side.

Place cabbage on the bottom of hot pot and add chicken, tofu, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, carrot and scallion on top of cabbage, arranging each ingredient in separate neat bunch. Sprinkle in the salt and chicken stock.

Cover the hot pot and bring it to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minuets. Uncover the pot add spinach, and simmer for 1 minuet.

Transfer the hot pot to the table. Serve the ingredients together with the broth in a small bowls. Accent with the Yuzu-kosho or Tabasco.

How to make Hot Pots

Salmon hot pot

• 4 cups water
• ¾ cup miso
• 1 medium Spanish onion, cut crosswise into ½ inch thick
• ¼ small heads green cabbage, cut into bite size
• 2 Idaho potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut into ¼ inch thich slices
• ½ pack tofu, cut into 4 peaces
• 5 pieces scallions
• 8 pieces shitake mushrooms
• I pounds salmon fillet
• 2 cups spinach leaves
• pinch cayenne pepper

Prepare the broth by combine the water and miso in a bowl, whisking to blend well; reserve

Place the onion slices on the bottom of a hot pot and randomly pile the cabbage and potatoes on top of it. Pour in the reserved broth. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil over hi heat. Decrease the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.

Uncover the pot, and place tofu, scallion, shitake mushrooms and salmon on top of other ingredients, arranging each in a separate, neat bunch. Cover the pot again and simmer for 5 minutes more. As fish cooks use chopstick at regular interval to separate the slice and press them into the broth so they heat though evenly. Add spinach leaves and simmer for 1 minute more.

Transfer the hot pot to the dinning table. Serve the ingredients together with the broth in a small bowls, scenting with cayenne pepper.