Simmered Vegetables (Nishime)
Simmered Vegetables (Nishime) is often served in New Year’s feasts. Various vegetables are cooked in slightly sweet soy-based broth. A good dashi stock and meticulous preparation of each ingredient are the keys to a good-looking dish.If you use konbu dashi for dashi stock, you can make it a vegan dish.Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 25 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 150g / 5.3oz lotus roots ((note 2))
- 8 dried shiitake mushrooms (medium size) (rehydrated in 250ml / 8.4oz water)
- 280g / 9.9oz taro ((small, note 3))
- 250g / 8.8oz konnyaku
- 100g / 3.5oz carrot
- 15 snow peas ((small, note 4))
- 250ml / 8.4oz dashi stock
- 2 tsp sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 400ml / 13.5oz dashi stock
- 200ml / 6.8oz shiitake dashi ((liquid from shiitake musrooms))
- 2 tbsp mirin
- ½ tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cooking sake
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
Instructions
- 1
Lotus roots: peel the skin thinly and slice into 8mm / 5⁄16” thick pieces. Optional:Take each slice and make shallow V-shape incisions between the holes around the circle to make the lotus slice look like a flower (see the photo in the post).
- 2
Shiitake mushrooms: Squeeze water out and remove the stems. Preserve the water (shiitake dashi).
- 3
Taro: Cut the top and bottom ends off. Peel skin vertically.
- 4
Konnyaku: Slice into 8mm / 5⁄16” thick pieces. Make 2.5cm / 1" incision in the centre of each slice lengthwise. Make a twisted konnyaku by putting one end through the incision.
- 5
Carrot: Slice the carrot into 1cm / ⅜” thick discs. Optional: Using a flower-shaped vegetable cutter, cut each slice into flowers (note 5). Curve each flower-shaped slice and make nejiri-ume (note 6).
- 6
Snow peas: Remove ends and the side strings by pulling the end along the side of the pod.
- 7
Bring water in a small pot to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and blanch for a minute. Drain and cool them down quickly in cold running water. Pat dry. If your snow peas are large, cut them in half diagonally.
- 8
Add carrot pieces and all Cooking Carrot ingredients to a pot. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.
- 9
Cook for about 10 minutes until the carrots are cooked through. Turn the heat off and let it cool (leave carrots in the broth).
- 10
Add all the Simmering Broth for Nishime ingredients to a large pot. Add lotus roots, shiitake mushrooms, taro and konnyaku pieces to the pot.
- 11
Bring it to a boil with a lid on. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes.
- 12
Remove the lid and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or so until the liquid almost evaporates. Turn the heat off.
- 13
Place lotus roots, taro, shiitake mushrooms and konnyaku on a serving plate, clustering the same vegetables together.
- 14
Place the snow peas on the front part of the plate.
- 15
Drain carrots and scatter them over the vegetables.