Photo/Illutration Gameni (Chicken and vegetable stew)

Happy New Year! I wish you a fruitful year ahead. Feed your passion for bento and take your skills to the next level with me.

Gameni, also called Chikuzenni, is a local dish in Fukuoka, where I live.

You stir-fry, then stew chicken thighs with an array of root vegetables to make this New Year’s favorite.

It is said that what differs between the two versions is that Gameni is usually made with bone-in chicken.

My dear friend Yasuko Malhotra, a native of Fukuoka who’s been living in New Delhi for 22 years, hosts a culinary and art studio.

I learned to make Gameni from her. My young son loves it.

“In this dish, even I will eat all the vegetables,” he said.

Yasuko likes to make her own versions of foods that are hard to find in India: natto and tofu from soybeans, "kamaboko," "chikuwa" (tubular fish paste cake) from fish, Chinese noodles, and even "udon" noodles from flour.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has spent the New Year's holiday in Delhi for two years in a row, which is a first for her.

She wants to eat "osechi ryori," traditional Japanese New Year’s dishes, in India.

Since she couldn’t return to Japan, almost everything on her table will be homemade this year.

She makes a fish paste from scratch, then cooks various types of fish cakes, such as red and white kamaboko (steamed), "satsuma age" (deep-fried), and "datemaki" (rolled omelet). Amazing!

“Furthermore, I am still missing New Year mochi soup with yellowtail and mustard leaves (katsuo na), a specialty of Fukuoka,” she said.

This is a no-fuss version of chicken stew without konjac or taro, which are precooked. Please refer to the YouTube video for the full version (but zero effort)!

Ingredients for 2 servings

250-300 grams chicken thigh / 2/3 tsp salt / 2 dried shiitake mushrooms /200 ml water / 1 small carrot (150 g) / 1 lotus root (150 g) / 1 burdock root (150 g) / 1 tbsp sesame oil /1 tbsp + 2 tbsp soy sauce / 2 tbsp mirin (sweet cooking rice wine) / 2 tbsp sugar / 2~3 green beans / 1/2 tsp salt

Other dishes

Steamed rice

Directions

1. Soak dried shiitake mushrooms in 200 ml of water overnight. Remove the stems and cut in half, setting aside the shiitake water for later use.

2. Peel the carrot, lotus root and burdock root; cut into bite-size pieces and soak them in water for 5 minutes.

3. Boil a pot of water, add 1/2 tsp salt and green beans. Boil for 1 minute, then soak in water. Drain and cut each green bean into 3 pieces lengthwise. Tie each piece of bean into a decorative knot. Make 6.

4. Remove chicken tendons. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces. Heat a frying pan and stir-fry the chicken. Add 1 tbsp soy sauce and mirin when the meat has browned. Remove from heat when the surface obtains a light glaze.

5. Heat sesame oil in a pot. Place all ingredients except the chicken and green beans.

6. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 200 ml of shiitake water and sugar.

7. Simmer over medium heat. Cover and simmer for about 12 minutes. Add chicken and cook for about 2-3 more minutes.

8. Turn off heat when the soup stock decreases to about one-third of the quantity. Let stand and allow the flavor to soak in.

9. Pack the rice in your bento box.

10. Arrange the Gameni in a balanced manner on the rice; pour soup stock over it.

11. Garnish with tied green beans.

Photo/Yasuko Malhotra

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Scan this QR code with your smartphone to view the recipe video in English.
https://www.youtube.com/c/PenandSpoon

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This article originally appeared in the Jan. 2-9, 2022, issue of Asahi Weekly.

Bento-Tada-L
Chikako Tada

Chikako Tada: The author of seven cookbooks, Tada is a Japanese food journalist and editor of Pen & Spoon, a website devoted to food (https://pen-and-spoon.com/). She worked as a newspaper reporter for 12 years before going freelance. She spent two years studying baking in Paris and began making bento around 2016 during her seven-year stay in India. She returned to Japan in 2020 and lives in Fukuoka.

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