After years of shopping at the farmers market in the depths of winter, I finally have my root-vegetable game down. I’ve figured out the perfect way to braise turnips (lots of butter, a small amount of chicken stock), mastered the too-many-parsnips conundrum (roast with olive oil and cumin salt), and even gotten my 7-year-old to appreciate the finer points of kohlrabi (sliced thin and eaten raw).
But then I got the idea to make nimono, a simmered Japanese stew. Ganso Yaki, an izakaya in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, has an entire section of the menu devoted to different kinds of nimonos.
You can make a nimono out of anything — fish, tofu, vegetables, meat — but I was drawn to the konsai-ni variation. It was filled with chunks of root vegetables, both the familiar (carrots and sweet potatoes) and the out of the ordinary (lotus, burdock, taro). The broth was the most compelling part, deeply savory from soy sauce, dried shiitake mushroom caps and kombu (seaweed), but also a little sweet from a touch of sugar.
The beauty of a nimono is that once you gather the ingredients for the broth (check Japanese and Asian markets or buy them online), it’s simple to prepare; no harder than chicken soup, just as warming.
Even better, with the broth in your pot, you can add pretty much anything you have, including all those random roots from your community supported agriculture box. As they simmer, they turn velvety soft and absorb the heady flavors. The key is to add the denser, slower-cooking ones first and the quicker-cooking ones later so all are done at the same time.
Another trick to cooking a nimono is to cover the pot with an otoshibuta, a Japanese drop lid, which sits directly on top of the bubbling broth and keeps the vegetables submerged. This cooks them more evenly and quickly than a traditional pot lid.
You can buy a traditional wooden otoshibuta, or a cute silicone one with a pig face on it (the steam rises out of the pig’s nostrils, much to the amusement of small children).
But it’s easy to make one: Just take a piece of foil, fold it into a round that is slightly smaller than the top of your pot, and poke a few holes in it.
If you’re looking for a dose of protein with your vegetables, you could throw in cubes of tofu or pieces of fish or seafood during the last few minutes of cooking. Or, for something heartier, add chicken toward the beginning as I do here.
The result is a rich simmered stew with tender root vegetables, and one more delicious way to get through winter.
Japanese Chicken and Root Vegetable Stew
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 1 hour
Ingredients
10 to 12 dried Japanese or Chinese shiitake mushrooms (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1 piece kombu, about 7 by 3 1/2 inches
1 pound bone-in chicken thighs (2 or 3), skins removed if you prefer (or substitute bone-in breast meat)
4 ounces taro root, celery root or potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 ounces daikon or other radishes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (or use kohlrabi)
4 ounces carrots, yellow beets or lotus root, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup sake
2 1/2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce or tamari, more to taste
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces sweet potato, white turnip or winter squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Rice wine vinegar, to taste
Ground sansho pepper, shichimi togarashi or good smoky chile powder, for garnish
Preparation
1. In a medium bowl, soak dried mushrooms in water overnight at room temperature. (Alternatively, you can cover mushrooms with hot water and let soak for 2 hours.)
2. Remove mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Slice off stems and discard them. Cut the caps into 1/4-inch pieces.
3. Place kombu in a large pot, add mushrooms and their soaking liquid, and bring to a boil over high heat.
4. Meanwhile, make a drop lid (called an otoshibuta in Japanese) by folding foil into a round just smaller than the pot. Poke a few holes in the drop lid with a chopstick or knife.
5. As soon as liquid boils, remove kombu and discard or save to reuse. Add chicken, taro, radish, carrot, sake, soy sauce, sugar and salt to the pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, place drop lid directly on top of cooking vegetables and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
6. Remove chicken from the pot and set aside. Add sweet potato to the pot, cover pot again with drop lid, and simmer for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until vegetables are cooked through but not mushy.
7. Meanwhile, shred cooled chicken and divide among four bowls. Stir rice wine vinegar into stew, along with salt to taste, then ladle it into the bowls with the chicken. Garnish with sansho powder or shichimi togarashi and serve.
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