00:00If you ever wanted to try a dish that is rich in culture and tradition,
00:04packed with nutrition and tastes delicious, then you need to try this chankonabe,
00:10a fascinating fanpot dish with deep roots in Japanese sumo wrestling.
00:15You can also find this recipe on my website along with 400 Japanese recipes,
00:19just google chankonabe space so that you'd find the written recipe.
00:24We're going to start with my favourite part of this dish, the meatballs.
00:27Begin by adding 200g of ground chicken to a bowl, along with half tablespoon of miso paste,
00:34half teaspoon of soy sauce, one clove of great garlic, and half teaspoon of great ginger.
00:41Mix it well, making sure to break up the miso thoroughly so there are no surprise lumps of
00:47miso in the mixture. Usually I would use yellow awase miso but I run out, so I mix red and
00:54white
00:54miso together this time and it works perfectly. That's essentially what our miso is, a mixed
01:01blend of two kinds of miso. Next up, crack an egg into a separate bowl and give it a quick
01:07whisk.
01:08This is going to help bind everything together beautifully.
01:13Add the whisked egg to your chicken mixture along with two tablespoons of cornstarch,
01:18then combine everything until you've got this incorporated, its slightly sticky texture.
01:24Because the mixture is quite sticky and loose, we're not going to shape them yet.
01:29Once it's all combined, pop the bowl in the fridge until you're ready to cook.
01:35Next, I'd prepare my vegetables. Here I have one carrot, two shiitake mushrooms, a bunch of enoki
01:42mushrooms, one eighth of an apple cabbage, a bunch of mustard, we call mizuna in Japanese,
01:50and the white part of Japanese leek. In a big pot, we're making this incredible broth base,
01:56pouring one litre of dashi stock for the umami base we all love, add one and a half tablespoon of
02:03Chinese style chicken bouillon powder, one tablespoon of soy sauce, and one tablespoon of mirin.
02:10Then we have one teaspoon of grey ginger, two grey garlic cloves, and three tablespoons of ground
02:17sesame seeds. Give everything a good stir and let it come to a gentle boil of medium heat.
02:24Once the broth is boiling, it's time to make the meatballs. Here's a little trick I used. Use two
02:30spoons to shape the meatballs. Use one spoon to scoop up some of the ground chicken mixture,
02:35then use the other to gently scrape it off and into the simmering broth. This technique is perfect for
02:43ground meat that is too loose or sticky to roll by hand. By the way, did you know the word
02:49chanko
02:49actually refers to any meal prepared in a sumo stable? Even curry rice or sukiyaki can be chanko.
02:56Despite their impressive size, sumo wrestlers build these bodies with nutritious food, not junk food.
03:06There's actually no one right way to make chanko nabe. Each stable uses its own base,
03:12soy sauce, miso or salt. It's just a name for hotpot sumo wrestlers make. And while nabe is definitely a
03:20staple, sumo wrestlers enjoy other dishes too. Once all the meatballs are in, put the lid on and let them
03:32cook
03:32for about 3-4 minutes. Okay, it's been 3 minutes and chicken meatballs are floating, so next let's
03:43layer in those vegetables. Start with your carrots. They need a bit more time to get perfectly tender.
03:51The same goes for if you're adding any other root vegetables to this dish.
03:56Simmer for a few minutes, then after they've had their head start,
04:00in goes the rest of your vegetables and 150g of firm tofu.
04:06The story of chanko nabe goes back to the early 1900s. When more recruits started joining the stables,
04:14regular catering got too expensive and complicated. Hotpot was the perfect solution. You could cook a ton of
04:21it at once and it provided exactly the right nutrition these wrestlers needed. That's why it
04:27quickly spread across all sumo stables. These days, many retired wrestlers have opened their
04:34own chanko nabe restaurants, sharing this incredible tradition with everyone. If you visit Japan, you've
04:40gotta try it. Once everything is in, place the lid back on and let everything simmer together for 10 minutes,
04:49so all of these flavours meld into something absolutely delicious.
04:54Okay, it's been 10 minutes, so here comes our final step. Turn off the heat because we're about to
04:59add miso paste. Now, instead of dropping the miso straight in, grab a ladle or a mashed spoon, scoop
05:06that rich flavourful paste onto it, then gently dip it into the warm broth. Use chopsticks or small whisk to
05:14slowly dissolve the miso, watching as it melts into your soup. This technique prevents lumps and makes
05:21sure every spoonful of your soup has that perfect miso flavour. So why is this extra step with miso
05:28important? Well, miso is pretty special, but it's also quite delicate. If you cook it for too long,
05:34or at a temperature that's too high, you can lose all those complex amazing flavours. That's why we
05:41always add it right at the end when we can. And there you have it. Your beautiful soup is ready
05:48to be
05:48enjoyed. Serve it up just as is, or if you're feeling extra hungry, pair it with a bowl of steaming
05:55rice.
05:56Trust me, when those cold winds are blowing outside, there's nothing more comforting than wrapping your
06:02hands around a bowl of this warming, soul satisfying soup. And as I always do when I eat whole pot,
06:17is enjoy the leftover soup with noodles. This broth goes very well with noodle noodles in my opinion.
06:24Whatever noodles you decide to use, make sure to boil them in a separate pot and wash them before you
06:30add them to the broth so it doesn't become too thick and starchy. And that's it, delicious chankonabe,
06:38the soul food of sumo wrestlers. Want even more delicious recipes? Grab my free cookbook from the link
06:45in the description. Okay, let's go over the ingredients one more time. And if you're ready to cook, grab the
06:51written instructions by clicking the full recipe box with a picture that's about to pop up on your screen.
06:57Here we go, the link to the full recipe is on the screen now. And if you want to watch
07:02more similar
07:02videos, don't miss my winter recipe playlist popping up on your screen as well. Thanks so much for
07:08watching and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye!
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