Monkfish Anko and Anko-Nabe Winter Hot Pot

Ingredients

• For the ankimo (steamed monkfish liver)
• 300 g monkfish liver (ankimo), fresh only; blood vessels removed
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, for light salting of the liver
• For the ankimo dressing
• 60 ml ponzu
• 60 g daikon, finely grated with chilli (momiji oroshi)
• For the anko-nabe
• 600 g monkfish tail flesh, cut into large pieces
• 200 g monkfish skin, cleaned, cut into pieces
• 1.2 litres dashi, kombu or ichiban dashi
• 40 g white miso (shiro miso), added in stages
• 20 g red miso (aka miso), added in stages
• 200 g firm tofu, cut into cubes
• 150 g napa cabbage (hakusai), cut into wide strips
• 100 g fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed
• 2 spring onions (negi), sliced on the diagonal

Method

1. 1
   Rinse the monkfish liver under cold running water. Pull away all visible blood vessels. Salt the liver lightly and leave for 10 minutes, then pat dry. Roll tightly in plastic wrap to form a firm cylinder, twisting the ends closed. Steam over steadily simmering water for 20 minutes. The liver is done when it is firm to gentle pressure through the wrap and no pink seepage appears at the ends.
2. 2
   Remove the steamed ankimo from the steamer and allow it to cool completely at room temperature, then refrigerate until fully cold and set. Slice into rounds approximately 1 cm thick. The slices should hold their shape cleanly, showing a uniform, pale-beige interior with no raw or translucent centre.
3. 3
   Prepare the momiji oroshi: finely grate the daikon and incorporate the chilli to a uniform blush. Arrange the ankimo slices on a serving plate. Dress at table with ponzu and momiji oroshi. This is the dish's first course; serve and eat before the hot pot begins.
4. 4
   Bring the dashi to a gentle simmer in a donabe or heavy-based pot. Dissolve approximately two-thirds of the combined white and red miso into the broth by whisking a ladleful of hot dashi into the miso paste in a small bowl before returning it to the pot. The broth should smell rounded and savoury with no raw miso sharpness — this is where the dish lives or dies, because miso added carelessly in one quantity will either flatten the sweet monkfish flesh or overwhelm its delicacy; the blend of white and red must be tasted and adjusted in stages as the pot concentrates.
5. 5
   Add the monkfish skin to the simmering broth first. Simmer for 8–10 minutes until it begins to soften and turn translucent and gelatinous at the edges. Add the monkfish tail pieces, napa cabbage, shiitake, and tofu. Simmer gently — never at a rolling boil — until the tail flesh is just cooked through: it should feel firm but not resistant when pressed with chopsticks, and its surface will turn from translucent to opaque white.
6. 6
   Taste the broth and adjust with the remaining miso as needed, bearing in mind that the pot will continue to concentrate at the table. Scatter the spring onions over the surface. Serve the pot communally at the table over a low flame, ladling broth, flesh, skin, and vegetables into individual bowls. The skin is done when it yields a thick, savoury, jelly-like consistency.