Oden is my favorite Japanese winter food (ah, seasonal, those Japanese) and is best prepared in a Crock pot (slow cooker for the brand sensitive among you.)

The longer you cook oden, the better it tastes.  For best results, start the night before and set your cooker on low for up to 24 hours. On the low setting, I find that my oden starts to really taste like oden only after 12 or 14 hours, and really starts tasting good at the 20 hour mark.

Here’s what I use for a vegetarian version:

Start by preparing the Kombu broth in with a big stock pot with 6-8 cups of cold water. Throw in one piece of kombu seaweed (4×8 inches or 6×8).  Slowly bring to just to a boil and then turn the heat down very very low.  You can take out the kombu now. 

While the kombu broth is heating up, prepare:

  • 1 daikon radish
  • half a dozen red radishes
  • 4 carrots
  • (red radishes, potatoes, turnips, any root vegetables work great)
  • 8 boiled eggs (my favorite)
  • 2-4 blocks deep-fried tofu or 1-2 lbs firm tofu
  • fish cakes (for non-vegetarian)
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 4 tbsps sake (Japanese rice wine)
  • 1-2 teaspoons sugar

Veggies:
Cut the daikon and the carrots into 1.5″ thick rounds.  Cut any other root vegetables into similar large chunks (red radishes can be left whole).

Eggs:
Hard boil and peel the eggs.

Tofu:
If you can get deep-fried tofu at your supermarket, it often tastes the best.  If the blocks are large, you can cut them into pieces.

If you don’t live near an asian grocery that has deep-fried tofu blocks, you can fry them up yourself. I don’t use a deep fryer, rather I just put several tablespoons of a high-temp vegetable oil (canola or coconut seem to work fine) in a pan.

Cut the firm tofu into large triangular blocks.  I find that a 1-lb tofu block makes a good 6 pieces.  I then fry the tofu on each side in the hot oil, 4-5 minutes on a side until they tofu starts to get crispy.

Put everything together including the soy sauce into the crock pot and set it to low.

Go to bed.
Have oden tomorrow!