Kanako's Kitchen

Western people tend to think of tofu as an alternative to meat, but in Japan lots of dishes put the two together.

Kenchin-jiru is one of them, a warming dish for cold winter days you can make in about half an hour to 40 minutes. It brings together Tofu, pork, carrots and Japanese radish (daikon) into a lovely, savory-sweet main dish.

The secret to great kenchin-jiru is simple: very fresh Japanese radish. Make sure your daikon is super-fresh, and this dish will turn out great.

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Ingredients (for two)

Half a carrot
Half a daikon (must be very fresh!)
250 grams of soft tofu
100 grams of pork
Soy Sauce – 1.5 to two table-spoons (to taste)
Dashi – one table-spoon

Preparation:

There’s a lot of chopping in this recipe. Take the time to learn to chop these vegetables properly.

1. Cut carrot in 10 cm. long chunks
2. Slice each carrot chunk vertically, quite thinly
3. Slice the slices again, until you end up with thin little strips
4. Slice the pork as thin as you can
5. Slice daikon in 10 cm. long chunks
6. Peel the chunks
7. Cut the chunks vertically into four slices
8. Slice vertical slices again into little strips (1 cm. or so)

click to enlarge

Cooking:

1. Heat mid-sized pot, then add a good quantity of oil
2. Stir fry the pork together with the daikon for 2 minutes, until pork changes color
3. Add carrots, cook for 4 or 5 minutes, stirring now and again
4. When pork is cooked is all the way through, add one table-spoon of dashi, and 1.5 table-spoons of soy sauce
5. Stir well and set on low heat, and cover
6. Cook, covered, for another 10 minutes until daikon becomes fully translucent: stirring now and again
7. Check for saltiness: if needed, add a little bit more soy sauce (remember, tofu is bland: at this stage, the dish should be quite salty)
8. Add in tofu, mix in, and cook for 5 minutes more

click to enlarge

Kenchinjiru is real Japanese comfort food: the kind of thing you want on a cold winter night to warm you from the inside out. Serve as main in 1-soup 1-dish.

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For today’s dinner we had Kenchin-jiru, egg soup, and white rice with flavored Nori.

Itadakimasu!