When you don’t have a staff of sumo wrestlers to prepare dinner chanko nabe for you, will a rice cooker do the job for a one-person scorching pot meal?
Given their girth, you would possibly count on sumo wrestlers’ food regimen to include scrumptious, high-calorie meals. You’d really be solely half proper, although. Sure, with a purpose to construct physique weight sumo wrestlers have to eat lots, which is unquestionably simpler to do if the meals you’re consuming tastes nice, however sumo wrestlers are additionally skilled athletes, so they should construct muscle too, not simply fats.
Due to that, the staple meals within the sumo wrestler food regimen is a scorching pot dish known as chanko nabe, a stew with a rooster and/or bonito-stock broth and a mix of meat (primarily rooster) and greens. It’s really a wholesome, balanced meal, with the explanation sumo wrestlers placed on weight having way more to do with how a lot of it they eat versus the calorific density of the elements themselves.
Chanko nabe is such part of sumo tradition that chanko-making responsibility is a part of the every day record of tasks at sumo coaching dormitories (known as “stables”), with designated wrestlers for every day tasked with making ready and serving the stew. However what about these of us who discover ourselves craving chanko however don’t have an institutionalized scorching pot-producing protocol as a part of our life? What about, say, our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa, who doesn’t even personal a daily cooking pot, and who, after an extended day at work, generally is feeling too lazy to make even a single minimize with a kitchen knife?
No downside! As a result of even in the event you don’t have a junior sumo wrestler to make chanko for you, you possibly can delegate the vast majority of the work to your rice cooker!
Not less than, that was Seiji’s concept after the profitable outcomes of his try to prepare dinner sukiyaki in a rice cooker whereas expending the least quantity of effort attainable. Nevertheless, there’s an vital distinction between sukiyaki and chanko, as you would possibly discover if you have a look at the elements Seiji used.
● Pre-cut rooster (385 grams [13.6 ounces])
● Pre-sliced vegetable pack (Chinese language cabbage, inexperienced onion, carrots, bean sprouts)
● Chanko nabe broth (750 grams [26.5 ounces])
● Udon noodles
● Eggs (non-obligatory)
See, whereas sukiyaki makes use of thin-sliced beef, chanko as an alternative requires chunks of rooster. Seiji wasn’t positive if these bigger, thicker items of meat would prepare dinner correctly within the rice cooker. He was positive, although, that he didn’t need to go to the trouble of truly sitting there and stirring the stew because it cooked, so he stored his fingers figuratively crossed as he went by way of the bare-minimum steps he was keen to do. First, he tossed the greens into the rice cooker pot…
…then he added the rooster…
…and poured within the broth.
Now it was time to show issues over to the rice cooker, so Seiji closed the lid, hit the beginning button, and let every little thing prepare dinner for the usual 45-minute rice-cooking cycle.
And when that point was up…
…Seiji had chanko nabe!
OK, so perhaps we must always have cleaned up the perimeters of the pot just a little earlier than snapping a photograph, however we had been fairly excited to see the way it tasted, and it didn’t disappoint! The whole lot, together with the rooster, was cooked throughout, with the entire elements’ respective juices mixing along with the preliminary broth for a wealthy mixture of flavors. By leaving the rice cooker plugged in as Seiji ate, every little thing stayed good and heat too.
It’s customary to complete off a chanko nabe meal by pouring a number of the leftover broth over white rice or udon noodles. Seiji opted for the latter, and as soon as once more determined to prepare dinner them within the rice cooker, tossing in a pack of noodles and letting them prepare dinner for 5 minutes.
▼ Like many rice cookers, ours doesn’t mean you can set the timer in such small increments, so Seiji timed 5 minutes on his telephone after which hit the cease button.
As soon as once more, the rice cooker adeptly tailored its function, rewarding Seiji with properly cooked udon to which he then added a uncooked egg, as is commonly the fashion in Japan, although not an absolute necessity.
So sure, in the event you don’t have a staff of junior sumo wrestlers making chanko nabe for you, a rice cooker is a viable substitute in the event you don’t need to do any precise cooking your self.
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