How-to 'Shabu-Shabu': Mitsuwa, NJ edition!

Have you ever had shabu-shabu, traditional Japanese 'cook-your-own' hot pot meal? If not, and you would like to try and make it at home - it's easy! As long as you have access to it's vast array of ingredients, which can be found in any Asian market or even some local grocery chains. The term 'shabu-shabu' is a Japanese onomatopoeia that derives from the "swish-swish" sound of the ingredients while being cooked in the communal pot of boiling water.

While attending this year's Mitsuwa Marketplace's Summer Matsuri (festival) in Edgewater, N.J., I made a much recommended stop in their Japanese grocery store-

 By the way - the Festival was great as always! It was lovely weather that day and it was packed with great people, even greater street food and fun games! I recommend you to attend if you haven't already.

It's kid friendly and really immerses you Japanese street culture.

I was able to find all of my ingredients in the grocery store, which also includes a bakery, and food court as well as other shops selling goods such as books, toys, cosmetics and more!

The first ingredient for a good shabu-shabu is the broth, such as dashi. However, it is not uncommon for one to just use water. Dashi is a broth made with konbu (kelp) and bonito flakes (dried, grated bonito fish). There are dashi broth packets, which I went with, however, it is not hard to make your own. Just buy dried konbu, cut one sheet in half and soak in a large pot of water, fully submerged, for about 30 mins or until it is pliable. Then, remove the konbu, bring the water to a boil and put in about 1 oz. of bonito flakes and stir until dissolved. This will be the broth with which you will construct your shabu-shabu.

And now you choose your ingredients to put into the broth, which can be almost anything! For the purposes of this instructional article, I will be sharing with you what I chose, you can choose whichever ingredients you prefer.

I started from the first aisle and worked my way through - as to not miss anything. So my first stop was produce. Mushrooms are always good in shabu-shabu - they soak up the broth and their umami (flavor) enhances it as well. I chose two of my favorites - enoki and shiitake. Enoki are long, white, stringy mushrooms that come in small bunches. I specially like these because of their interesting texture. And shiitake, which you can find almost anywhere these days, are very earthy, meaty and add a lot of substance to the dish. There were so many other varieties of mushrooms available, so feel free to experiment. To ready the shittake for shabu-shabu, simply rinse off, cut off the stems (but don't throw away! You can add them to the broth to enhance flavor) and then cut the tops in halves - the enoki you can leave as is, just pull them apart a bit to make slightly smaller bunches.

Next is the tofu. Tofu is another versatile ingredient in many Japanese dishes that has a pleasant creamy texture and soaks up broth well, like a sponge. For soups such as this, it is best to choose a firmer tofu, so it withstands being in the liquid a bit and doesn't disintegrate. I chose a medium firm (on a scale from 1-5, it was a 3) which was totally fine. To ready the tofu, you must drain it a bit first. Remove it from it's packaging and place on a plate, wrapping the tofu with a paper towel. Then, place another plate on top of it and put some weight to it, in my case, I used two filled cans. In a couple of minutes,  you should notice a lot of the moisture has expelled.

Cut the tofu gently with a sharp knife into cubes.

Next down the aisle were noodles. This is an optional step, but I like to use udon noodles to put into the broth after the shabu-shabu is done to get the most out of that flavorful broth you created! After you are done with your shabu-shabu, simply put a packet of udon into the broth, let sit for about 2-3 minutes depending on how firm or soft you like your noodles to be, then spoon out broth into bowl with some noodles and enjoy!

I think it is a nice way to finish off the meal. But let's get back to the ingredients!

Next is fish! A popular ingredient in shabu-shabu are fish cakes/balls made from steamed fish paste. I know it might sound weird, but they are very tasty! I like the flavor of these almost as much as the meats! I bought a set of fish cakes/balls which is best to get a good variety and picking & choosing your own can be very intimidating since there is a wide variety of them! No preparation involved, just take out of packaging

and plop into the broth, and just leave them in for a couple of minutes.

And now, the tastiest portion of any shabu-shabu: the meats!

You can use which ever meat you want, chicken, pork, beef, even seafood, but in my case, I picked out some choice special shabu-shabu cuts of silky pork loin, angus beef, and pork belly. Be careful when going through the meats aisle, since they will have both shabu-shabu and sukiyaki cuts and they look very similar. They usually have a sticker on the package or it is written on the label which cut is which.

No preparation needed for these, just unwrap the package and wait to start swishin'!

Also, for the meats, it is best to accompany them with a variety of sauces. In my case, I went with a ponzu sauce. Ponzu sauce is citrus with shoyu (soy sauce) but you may also use a creamier sesame sauce or just plain old shoyu straight up. However, some make up their own sauces using chili sauces, mayonnaise and honey!

Now, this is optional, but I like to make some white rice to have with my shabu-shabu so you can go ahead and put that in your rice cooker while you are waiting for your dashi broth to come to a boil.

I have a portable stove at home, which you can get easily from most supermarkets, which is butane gas powered. Having a portable stove is ideal for shabu-shabu since you have to keep the water boiling through-out the meal.

So just place the portable stove on your table where you will be serving, put the butane gas canister in, turn it on, place your large pot of dashi on the stove and wait until it starts to boil. Also, take this opportunity to throw in those mushroom stems to add flavor.

Once the dashi comes to a boil, lower the heat a bit and start adding the veggies. In this case, the mushrooms, tofu, and fish cakes, since these take a while to be ready. Then you can start "swishing" the meat. Simply pick up one piece with your chopsticks, without letting go, swish the meat back and forth about 3 or 4 times until it turns a slight brown. You don't want to over cook it. It only takes a few seconds, since the shabu-shabu cut is so thin. Then immediately dip in sauce, take a mouth full of rice and enjoy! It's also best to use a mesh skimmer to get the smaller pieces of food floating in the dashi or to help contain a bunch of meat being cooked at one time.

And again, please refer to the noodle step I mentioned earlier once the shabu-shabu is done

as to not waste any of the flavorful broth you've created! Itadakimasu! いただきます！