Kiritanpo Nabe

Ingredients

• 450 g short-grain rice, cooked slightly firm and still hot
• 400 g bone-in chicken thigh, chopped into 4 cm pieces
• 300 g chicken wings, for the stock
• 1.6 litres water
• 10 g kombu
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sake
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 burdock root (about 150 g), scrubbed
• 200 g maitake mushrooms, torn into clumps
• 2 Japanese leeks (naga-negi), sliced thickly on the diagonal
• 150 g shirataki noodles, rinsed and cut in half
• 100 g seri or watercress, cut into 5 cm lengths
• 4 flat wooden skewers or thick chopsticks

Before you cook

• Soak the kombu in the 1.6 litres of water in a large pan for 30 minutes.
• Shave the burdock into thin strips straight into a bowl of cold water and leave it for 10 minutes to draw out the bitterness.
• Tear the maitake, slice the leeks and cut the seri as listed.
• Wet the wooden skewers thoroughly so the rice will release from them later.

Steps

1. Tip the hot cooked rice into a bowl and pound it with the end of a rolling pin until about half the grains are crushed and the mass is sticky.
2. Wet your hands, take a quarter of the rice and press it around a skewer into a sausage about 18 cm long.
3. Repeat with the remaining rice and skewers, smoothing each one with wet fingers.
4. Toast the rice sticks under a hot grill or over a gas flame for 8 minutes, turning them, until dry and blistered brown in places.
5. Slide the toasted rice off the skewers and cut each one into three on the diagonal.
6. Set the pan of kombu water over a medium heat and lift the kombu out just before it boils.
7. Add the chicken wings and simmer for 25 minutes to build a proper chicken broth.
8. Fish out the wings and strain the broth, then return it to the pan.
9. Season the broth with the soy sauce, sake, mirin and salt, and taste it, aiming for a clean, savoury soup you would happily drink.
10. Drain the burdock and add it with the chicken thigh pieces, then simmer for 8 minutes and skim the foam.
11. Add the shirataki, maitake and leeks and cook for 4 minutes.
12. Lower in the cut kiritanpo and simmer for 3 minutes, until they soften at the edges but still hold their shape.
13. Pile the seri on top, put the lid on for 30 seconds, and serve immediately before the rice dissolves.