Making angler nabe アンコウ鍋を作る

A friend of mine called me if I would like to join a dinner at his place, saying that we can maybe cook some Japanese dishes, especially one with fish. Yes, it means I am supposed to cook for that. He called another two of his friends whom he got to know in his Russian class. So by chance we were all connected to Russian language. He is Iranian but he loves Japanese dishes, loves natto very much. He once asked me to demostrate how to make natto, I procured for him a heater for making natto.

友人の一人が彼のところに晩御飯を食べに来ないかと言う。何か日本料理、特に魚の料理を作ろうと。だいたいこういう場合は暗黙の了解で僕が料理を作ることになっている。彼はロシア語のクラスで知り合った2人を夕食に呼んでいた。偶然にもこの4人はみんなロシア語繋がりなわけだ。彼はイランの出身だが日本食が大好きで、特に納豆が好きだ。一度納豆を作るところを見せてくれと頼まれ、納豆用のヒーターも調達してやった。

He called me in advance what he would buy for the dinner, I thought for a moment which fish we should take for dinner. In Japan there are lots of possibilities in this season of the year, but in Austria fish is very expensive and no many choices as in Japan. I told him to buy angler, chinese cabbage, leeks, carrot and mushrooms. Honeslty I wondered if he was able to, I told him later that I would buy and bring shimeji and enoki mushroom. And the most important thing, ceramic pot, I brought the one with me which I brought back from Japan in my suitecase. I also asked him if he had rice and eggs at home, he had healthy one than white rice. After eating nabe, rice or udon noodle is especially necessary.

彼は事前に何を買ったらいいかと聞いてきたので、どの魚を使おうか考えた。日本ならこの季節たくさんの選択肢があるが、オーストリアは魚がとても高くて日本のようには選択肢がない。彼にはアンコウ、白菜、葱、ニンジン、シメジにえのきを買うように伝える。実際彼が分かるかどうか不安だったのでシメジとえのきはこちらで買って持参すると伝える。そして一番大事な鍋だが、これは前回日本に帰ったときにスーツケースに入れて持ち帰ってきたものを持参する。家に米と卵はあるかと聞くと、彼は白米よりもヘルシーなものがあると言う。なべの後にはうどんか米が欠かせない。

The other day, he asked me to go to a Japanese restaurant together with me. He could have ordered sushi there, but he wanted to follow my advice what to order. I ordered beer and edamame, grilled dried horse mackerel, tempura soba which all became his favorite. So this time I brought edamame with me and started to cook edamame for others while waiting for main dish, angler soup. To my surprise he bought dried horse mackerel by himself, so we grilled it for the starter.

先日、彼が一緒に日本料理屋に行かないかと誘ってきた。彼はそこで寿司をオーダーすることも出来たに違いないが、僕のアドバイスに従うという。そこで枝豆とビール、あぶった鯵の干物に天ぷらそば。どれも彼には気に入ったようだ。それで今回枝豆を持っていって、アンコウ鍋が出来るのを待つ間に枝豆とビールを楽しもうと考えた。驚いたことに彼は鯵の干物も日本食材屋で買い求めていて、これも突き出しに加えることにする。

After taking soup from kelp, added bonita flakes, then I put cut vegetables in the pot. Unfortunately he did not have any soy sauce at home but condenced soup. I tried to mix it with salt to have the proper taste. For others, too, edamame was the first experience. I explained to them exactly as same as I told my friend at the Japanese restaurant some days ago,  that these two are not seperable. They ate edamame as Japanese would do, bit and ate only the bean inside.

昆布からだしをとった後に鰹節も加え、そして鍋に切った野菜を並べていく。彼としたことが家に醤油がなく、出汁つゆしかない。しょうがないので塩と出汁つゆを混ぜてなんとか味をまとめる努力をする。枝豆は他の人たちにとっても初めての経験だ。友人に数日前に日本食屋で説明をしたのと同じように、ビールと枝豆は切っても切れないものだと説明をする。彼らは日本人と同じように、鞘にかぶりついて中の豆だけを食べた。

We did not have sake to drink but a bottle of Riesling, a typical Austrian white wine with full aroma. It seemed to me that they somehow liked the angler soup. After finishing it, I added rice and rest of vegetable into the pot and cooked again. To finalize it I added eggs into the pot after putting out the fire and covered with the lid. This may be also the first time for them to see how I cooked so-to-say risotto. We enjoy the risotto until the last grain of rice and there was nothing left in the pot.

酒はなかったものの典型的なオーストリアワイン、香りの強いリーズリングが一本。彼らはアンコウ鍋が気に入ったようだった。食べ終わった後、お米と残っていた野菜を鍋に加え火にかける。仕上げに溶き卵を火を止めた後の鍋に入れ、蓋をする。彼らにはこうやってリゾットを作るのを見たのは初めてのようだ。われわれは最後の一粒までリゾットを楽しみ、鍋は空っぽになった。