Oden recipe

Steps

1. In a heavy bottomed pot, like cast iron, bring the dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin up to a gentle simmer. Turn the heat off or down to low while you prepare the oden ingredients.

2. Peel the daikon and cut it into 1 inch rounds. If desired, trim so the daikon has no sharp edges. Add the daikon to a pot and top with cold water. Bring the daikon to a boil over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes. When done, remove from the water and set aside.

3. While the daikon is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients: cut the atsuage tofu into triangles and any of the larger pieces of satsuma age into smaller pieces. Cut the hanpen in quarters and the chikuwa in half on a diagonal. If any of the pieces of satsuma age are extra large, cut them in half or in quarters.If using konnyaku: Rinse off the block and lightly score the surface on a diagonal then score on the opposite diagonal, creating a diamond crisscross pattern. Cut the block of konnyaku into 3 even pieces then cut the 3 pieces in half into triangles. Bring a small pot of water to a boil and when boiling, add the konnyaku pieces and boil for 3 minutes. Drain, rinse, and set aside the konnyaku pieces.

4. When the daikon cooking time is up, add the daikon and konnyaku to the oden broth and bring to a simmer over medium low to low. Cook the daikon and konnyaku for 20 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients, aside from the boiled eggs. Simmer all of the ingredients for 10-15 minutes or until all of the ingredients soak up some of the dashi and are throughly hot.

5. Bring the pot to the table and enjoy, picking out pieces of oden to enjoy as desired. For the eggs, add them as desired, until just heated through, being sure to not overcook.