Grandma Ichiko's Nishime
Ingredients:
| 1 tray | chopped chicken (or pork) |
| 3 pkg | Nishime Kombu |
| 1 pkg | dried Shiitake mushrooms |
| 2 large | carrots |
| 1/2 bag | frozen lotus root |
| bamboo shoots | |
| Aramio (Dasheen or Japanese Taro) | |
| 1 block | Konnyaku |
| 2 pkg | Gobo maki (fish cake) |
| 1 pkg | Aburaage |
| 1 c | shoyu |
| 1/2 c | sugar |
Instructions:
- Cut chicken into smaller pieces and brown in a separate pan with salt and pepper
- In a 5 quart pot, soak kombu and tie strips into knots. Cut between the knots and simmer in pot with just enough water to cover
- When kombu starts to soften, add Shiitake mushrooms and browned chicken to the pot
- Peel and cut carrots diagonally, rolling the carrot with each cut (presentation is everything in Japan!)
- Add carrots and lotus root to pot
- When carrots start to cook, add cut cone shaped bamboo shoots from tip to end forming circles along with the araimo
- Add in Konnyaku (should be cut in slices with a slit in the middle but not enough through to form a twist)
- Trim the end of the green beans, slice the gobo maki diagonally and cut aburaage into small triangles and add these to the pot last. (They cook the fastest)
- NEVER STIR the pot. Toss the ingredients in the pot to not smoosh any vegetables
- In a small bowl, mix half a cup of sugar with 1 cup of shoyu and pour over contents of pot
- Continuously toss while simmering on low until sauce is well distributed
Recipe submitted by Jean Morris, Principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School