Chicken and eight vegetable stew

This is a great example of my style of cooking: nothing too precise or difficult. Use what you got, bung it all together, tastes great every time. I came across this idea in a cookbook dedicated to western-inspired Japanese food, known as yoshuko. Typical yoshuko dishes would be hambaagaa (a meat patty, grilled and served with soy sauce and grated daikon, as opposed to the western ketchup and pickle), or a pizza topped with white miso instead of tomato sauce.

Recipe

Chicken and eight vegetable stew is designed to be light and nourishing, but can also be easily adapted to the cook's palate, so feel free to vary the vegetables and adjust the seasoning until you're happy with the dish.

In advance:
8 dried shitake mushrooms, covered in boiling water and left 2-3 hours*

1 tsp oil
4-6 chicken drumsticks, skinned
1 onion, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
150-200g lotus root (fresh or frozen, peeled and sliced)
100g prepared bamboo shoots, sliced**
100g fresh mushrooms, cut into bite sized pieces (any type will do - chestnut, button, bunashimeji, etc.)
3-4 cups dashi or chicken stock
1-2 tbsp soy sauce (Japanese preferred, but use whatever you have)
3 tbsp mirin or sweet sherry
100g snowpeas or green beans
1 spring onion, sliced

Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the chicken drumsticks on all sides.

Push the chicken to one side (or remove from the pan, depending on your pan size) and add the onion. Cook for 4-5 minutes, until softened.

While the onion is cooking, cut the rehydrated shitake mushrooms into bite-sized pieces, discarding the stems (which tend to be woody). When the onions are softened, start to add the other vegetables, one at a time, so the pan doesn't cool off too much: carrot, lotus root, bamboo, rehydrated dried mushrooms, and the fresh mushrooms. Don't add the snowpeas or spring onion at this stage. Add the chicken back to the pan as well if you took it out.

Add the mirin or sherry, then heat the stock and add to the stew, along with the soy sauce.

Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken and carrot is cooked. Add the snow peas and the spring onion and simmer 1 minute, then serve.

* The mushrooms can be left soaking for longer than this if required - just refrigerate until you need them.
** If you can find vacuum sealed packets of prepared bamboo shoots (look in Asian markets), they're much preferred to tinned shoots, not least because they come in large pieces rather than soggy strips.

Serves: 4
Preparation and cooking time: 25-30 minutes, plus 2-3 hours soaking.