Ise lobster and abalone denpo-yaki, ginkgo nut, amber glaze, wasabi

This time it's denbo-yaki. This dish is cooked using an earthenware vessel, and it's also called doki-yaki (earthenware-baked). It seems to originate from cooking with earthenware made from the clay at the bottom of Denbo-ga-ike pond on Mt. Inari in Fushimi, Kyoto, but nowadays it's often made by putting ingredients into egg and steam-baking it, and sometimes a horoku (earthenware roasting dish) or shells are used as the vessel. Depending on the season, you could add bamboo shoots in spring or kuwai (arrowhead bulb) in winter. Since the shoot took place in autumn, I added chestnut paste to bring out the sweetness of chestnuts.

When making the sauce to pour over the denbo-yaki, I decided that if I was going to use soy sauce, dark soy sauce would give a deeper color and better flavor, so I made a bekko-an (amber-colored thickened sauce). If the denbo-yaki batter is too loose, the egg and chestnut separate into two layers, and even though it's a grilled dish, it ends up looking like chawanmushi—so I pay close attention to getting the right firmness.

1. Remove the Ise lobster from its shell, lightly salt it, and cook briefly.

2. Scrub the abalone with salt, add sake and daikon, and steam in a tray for 2 hours.

3. Shell the ginkgo nuts and pan-fry them in sake.

4. Add 144cc of dashi and chestnut paste to 3 eggs, season with salt, light soy sauce, and mirin, and strain.

5. Stuff the hole in the abalone shell with grains of rice, pour the earlier egg mixture with the earlier ingredients into it, steam-bake, pour the bekko-an sauce over it, and top with wasabi.