Vol. 12
Chikuzen-ni
筑前煮の作り方

　When making a nimono, you might first think of using bonito dashi.　But for chikuzen-ni, you don’t need to use bonito dashi, you just add soy sauce and simmer until the liquid is slightly reduced.

　You can enjoy the rich flavor of this nimono with different textures and tastes by cooking wide variety of ingredients.

- 1 chicken thigh
- 5 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 konnyaku
- 300g lotus roots
- 2 burdock roots
- 1/2 carrot
- Appropriate amount of snow peas
- 6 taros
- Water reserved from soaking shiitake mushrooms (about 100cc or all you have)
- 100cc koikuchi soy sauce
- 4 to 5 tablespoons sake
- 4 to 5 tablespoons mirin

1. Prepare the vegetables

　Chikuzen-ni is a mixture of a variety of root vegetables, together with chicken and shiitake mushrooms for the savoriness and konnnyaku, which adds good texture to the dish.　Although it requires additional work, preparation of these ingredients is the most important process in making chikuzen-ni.

　First, cut the lotus roots and burdock roots into rangiri (cut random) of about 2 bites-size pieces.

　Next, tear the konnyaku by scooping with a spoon.　Don’t cut with a cooking knife. The konnyaku absorbs the seasoning better this way.　Rub salt into the konnyaku and set aside for a while, and water will come out of the konnyaku.　This is the origin of the smell.　Throw away the water and parboil the konnyaku briefly and drain in a colander.　This process will remove smellfrom the konnyaku.

　Peel the taros and cut in half if it is too big and parboil (depending on the size, the time will vary, but for this time 3 to 4 minutes).　Cut the carrots into rangiri, the shiitake mushrooms and chicken meat into 2 bites-size pieces and the snow peas into half diagonally.　Now, the preparation process is completed.　Make sure to reserve the soaking water from the dried shiitake mushrooms, as it will be used for dashi.

2. Sautéthe ingredients slowly and then simmer

　Before simmering the ingredients, sauté slowly with oil.　In a pot, first put the ingredients that takes longer time to cook such as chicken, carrots, burdock roots, lotus roots and konnyaku.　When you’ve checked that the ingredients are well sautéed and the color has turned slightly clear, add the taros and shiitake mushrooms.

　Then, add all the soaking water from the shiitake mushrooms and the rest of the seasonings.　Cover with a drop-lid and adjust the heat so that the ingredients are simmering in the liquid.

　Open the drop-lid occasionally to mix the ingredients and check the thickness of the liquid.　Leave the drop-lid on the ingredients for about 10 minutes to simmer and you will see that taro is cooked and the amount of liquid is as shown in the second picture below. Take out the drop-lid and continue simmering by shaking the pot until it starts to glare and the liquid is thickened.

When serving the dish on a big plate, top it with snow peas boiled in lightly salted water for garnish.　The secret of making a tasty chikuzen-ni is to use a lot of ingredients that has different variety of textures!

（レシピ・写真： 冨田唯介　英訳： 中西 直）

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