Umani – Japanese Stew Root Vegetables

Umani is Japanese stew root vegetables with chicken. I had it in a small Japanese family restaurant recently and I fell in love with it immediately. So I tried to imitate the dish at home. My family liked it very much.  

Traditionally the main ingredients used are radish, carrot, lotus roots and burdock. Since the portion will be too big for my small family so I didn't add burdock. I also replaced chicken with pork belly as I need to “clear stock” in my freezer. If I were to cook again I would prefer to use chicken wings. 

Here is my version of Umani.

Ingredients: (serve 4)

300g-500g chicken thigh/wings/ pork belly

1 radish

2 lotus roots

1-2 carrots (depends on size)

6 shiitake mushrooms (pre-soak in water)

+/- 2 cups bonito flavoured dashi stock*

*I used water + 1 sachet (4g) of bonito dashi powder bought from Daiso

Seasonings:

3 tbsp shoyu

3 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp sake

Sugar to taste

Method:

1. Cut all ingredients into big chunks.
2. Heat a deep pot with little oil; add meat and sauté till fat is released.
3. Add mushrooms, sauté till fragrant.
4. Add the rest of ingredients (see note), stir to mix and add stock to about the height of ingredients, add seasonings to taste.
5. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium low heat, stir occasionally, until all ingredients are fork tender and stock reduced by half or more.

Kitchen notes:

1. You may want to add the lotus roots first to cook for a while before adding other ingredients as it takes more time to cook.
2. Place a piece of baking paper/grease-proof paper on the ingredients helps to keep the moist and ingredients will be cooked faster.
3. Suggest cooking this in advance and let it sit in the pot to allow all ingredients especially the radish to fully absorb the stock.