Fish Cakes and Vegetables

Name: Fish Cakes and Vegetables (Oden)
Yield: Serves four
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 4 medium potatoes, unpeeled, soaked in a bowl of water (to remove some of the starch); 1.5 litres/2½ pints/6¼ cups second dashi stock, or the same amount of water and 10 ml/2 tsp dashi-no-moto; 30 x 7.5 cm/12 x 3 in dashi-konbu; 40 ml/8 tsp shoyu; 675 g/1 lb daikon, peeled and cut into 4cm/1½in lengths; 12-20 ready-made fish balls and cakes (4 of each kind); 75 ml/5 tbsp sake; English (hot) mustard, to serve; 4 hard-boiled (hard-cooked) eggs, unshelled; 15 ml/1 tbsp salt; 8 small shiitake mushrooms, stalks removed; 1 atsu-age; 1 konnyaku; 285 g/10¼ oz packet tofu block, cut into 8 cubes

Oden

Preparation info

Serves
four

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Japanese Cookbook

By Emi Kazuko and Yasuko Fukuoka

Published 2024

About

Oden is a satisfying and easy dish to make at home as you can buy assorted ready-made fish balls and fish cakes from Asian food stores. You will also need a large clay pot or a heavy flameproof casserole and a portable stove.

Ingredients

30 x 7.5 cm/12 x 3 in dashi-konbu
675 g/1

Asia
Japan
Fish course
Stew
Pescatarian

Method

Wrap the dashi-konbu in a wet, clean dishtowel for 5 minutes, or until soft enough to bend easily by hand without breaking. Snip it in half crossways, then cut each into four ribbons lengthways. Tie the centre of each “ribbon”.
Slightly shave