As promised, this week I used my Uncommon Goods Japanese earthenware cooker, also called a donabe, to make this delicious seafood soup. It’s been cold and rainy here all week, and over plaintive moans from my kids of “WHERE DID THE SUN GO,” I thought that a colorful soup made in my little Japanese donabe might be just what the doctor ordered.

Donabe cookers come in all shapes and sizes, and the one I have can best be described as the perfect cooker for two people to get a nice, hearty meal. For the five of us, though (au pair included), the size of this cooker is now known as our “snack cooker.” It’s about ten inches in diameter, which is big enough to give everyone a little taste of the tasty morsels inside, but definitely not enough to fill us up. In order to have enough food for dinner, I had to make a “side dish” of ramen noodle soup with pork belly and other veggies. I HAD TO. Otherwise, I’d still be dealing with children laying on the floor of my kitchen, crying and yelling “I’M SO HUNGRY I CAN’T WALK.” These are the theatrics I deal with when I’m trying to cook dinner.

The best part of a seafood soup made in a Japanese donabe is that I think the earthenware imparts a certain quality that makes the broth have more depth of flavor. I tested this theory by making a second batch of soup in a regular, All Clad stainless steel pot, and we all definitely noticed a difference between the two soups. Of course, the Japanese donabe is best known for its ability to make perfect, fluffy rice with a layer of crisped, golden-brown rice at the bottom. I’m so excited to try making this rice in my donabe that I can hardly sit still right now.