My friend, Chef Tanigawa, the owner-chef of Kichisen was frustrated to see a total absence of overseas visitors to Kyoto this spring. The disaster in Tohoku is that cause, however the exaggerated media coverage has made the local tragedy into a national economic calamity, with far reaching consequences, and for no rational reason. While the nuclear meltdown is deadly serious, so far, just two workers at the plant have required treatment for radiation exposure. Apparently, simple soap and water was their only required treatment.

From what I heard and saw this spring, Kyoto hospitality related businesses lost more than 98% of their customers from overseas. Yet, there was absolutely no damage or danger in Kyoto. That fact didn’t stop the media from going into frenzy mode and report that the situation in Japan was as bad as Chernobyl. This inflicts real damage on small businesses and local economies. And then, the media just move onto the next crisis, their greener pastures. It is very irresponsible, to say the least.

If you want to help Japan recover from this tragedy and you have a trip planned. Don’t cancel! Come, enjoy yourself and support the economy. If you cancelled or postponed a trip, please consider coming!

Kichisen White Miso and Tofu Served with Rice Tea Ceremony-style and Sashimi

So, here we go. Kichisen’s recipe for Kyoto-style white miso.

Temperature: Usually miso is made in the winter so it doesn’t need refrigeration as it ferments. We started this in late May so it will have to ferment in the refrigerator over the summer.

Name: Kyoto white miso, called ‘saikyo’ (west capital) miso in Kyoto and ‘shiro’ (white) miso in the rest if the country, has a lower than usual salt content, so the temperature during the fermentation process is important.

Kichisen Shiromiso Ingredients

• 1.2 kg soybeans (best quality, from Hokkaido)
• kome-koji 2.5 kg (malted rice)
• arajio salt 450 g (natural sea salt)
• water 3.5 liters

Ingredient: Hokkaido Soybeans

Ingredient: Hokkaido Soybeans - Soaked

Ingredient: Rice Koji

Preparation: Simmering Soybeans

Preparation: Simmering Soybeans - Done

Preparation: Soybean Grinder

Preparation: Mixing in Salt

Preparation: Adding Liquid

Preparation: Mixing

Preparation: Packing and Removing Air

Ready for Fermentation

Preparation Steps

• Soak soybeans in cold water overnight.
• Drain and rinse soybeans.
• In a large pot bring 3.5 liters of water to boil, reduce heat and add soybeans. Simmer for about 1 hour.
• Drain and allow to cool.
• Mash, grind or puree the soybeans. (Kichisen uses a meat grinder with a fine hole plate attachment.)
• Mix by hand the soybean puree with kome-koji thoroughly and then add salt while continuing to mix.
• Add liquid. Use the cooled ‘soup’ leftover from simmering the soybeans to soften the mix. Ladle in this liquid little-by-little and mix by hand until evenly absorbed creating a soft paste. The ideal liquid content will make the paste ‘the softness of an earlobe.’
• Vigorously knead paste and remove air bubbles.
• Make into balls and place in non-reactive container. Flatten the balls of miso paste until you have filled the container.
• Cover container and ferment at about 5 degrees C for 3 months.

Final Product: Kichisen White Miso - Done!

Final Product: Kichisen White Miso - Smokey and Pungent

About kome-koji: Rice koji (malted rice) can be made if you can obtain the active koji mold. In Japan we purchase this from a company that specialized in making kome-koji. Chef Tanigawa ordered his from a company in Shikoku. If anyone is interested, I can get the company name and contact information. However, kome-koji must be used fresh and kept refrigerated until use. I guess it is impossible to be shipped abroad.

Sake breweries, miso breweries and so on make their own kome-koji but usually purchase the actual koji mold. There are many varieties of koji in Japan and in sake and miso they play a large part in determining the taste of the final product.

Obtaining Koji Spores Abroad: Vision Brewing
The koji seeds are dry and extremely stable and are stored in an air lock bag. They have an indefinite shelf life being dried conidia, they need no refrigeration and the packet can be opened and closed frequently without harm done to the contents. Postage (air mail, 7 working days) is the method of shipping.

Tsukudani is a Japanese condiment that is usually made of seaweed that has been simmered in soy sauce, cooking sake and mirin. Kitayama, or the North Mountains of Kyoto are famous for Tsukudani made with mountain vegetables and mushrooms. Some tsukudani shinise stores in the city make tsukudani with wagyu beef.

Tsukudani is easy to make and goes well with rice and also with sake. Try it with wine too.

Tsukudani (佃煮)
Earlier in the spring of this year I got this incredibly delicious tsukudani from Tanigawa-san at Kichisen. He made it with whole togarashi pepper plant; the stems, leaves, tiny fruit and all. It was quite salty due to the amount of soy sauce used, fairly dry and the taste of pepper was obvious. I had wanted to make it myself but had only found that pepper plant in the store once.

I had wanted to make this tsukudani for myself and found Kyotona (京唐菜) the other day at the market. ‘Kyo’ means Kyoto, ‘to’ means pepper and ‘na’ means vegetable. I checked later and this wasn’t the exact same vegetable that Tanigawa-san used for his, it is more leafy but the peppery taste is definitely there.

I bought three bunches of kyotona and some wagyu beef to make mine. I wanted it to be something that I could use to flavor onigiri, so not insanely salty.

I checked around on the internet for recipes and they all used far too much soy sauce for my taste. I ended up using 1/5 the amount that one recipe called for. (See my recipe below.)

The Main Ingredients: Kyotona and Wagyu Beef

Wagyu Beef

Washing and Separating the Kyotona

Kyotona in the Pan

Cooking Down the Kyotona

Simmering with Soy Sauce and Sake

Finished

Sliced Dried Chili Pepper

Kyotona and Wagyu Tsukudani

Here is my recipe:

• 700 grams of kyotona (weighed before washing)
• 100 – 200 grams fatty wagyu beef
• 1 cup of ryorishu (cooking sake)
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup of high quality Japanese soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of mirin (sweet cooking sake)

optional ingredients

• a few tablespoons of sugar
• 1 – 2 tablespoon of sesame oil
• finely chopped ginger
• dried red chili pepper (not too hot)

For my tastes, start I started with 1/2 cup of soy sauce per 500 grams of main ingredients (beef and greens). Add and adjust other flavors from there to your liking.

1. Slice beef into strips, not cubes as I did. Long and slender will keep them from separating from the greens. Saute for several minutes. Add sesame oil if necessary.

2. Wash the greens and remove stems. By hand squeeze out as much water content as possible. (At first I thought that I had committed a Kyoto-style sacrilege by not using the stems. But I simmered a few and tried them, they were quite woody and inedible. I imagine that with other varieties of greens the stems could be used though. Stems would probably need to simmer longer than the more delicate leafy greens.)

3. Cook down the greens to remove water content. I added 1/2 cup of cooking sake to a covered wok and steamed down the greens over high heat. Then I removed the cover, reduced heat and allowed most of the water to evaporate out.

4. Add remaining cooking sake, half the soy sauce and mirin. Taste and adjust flavor (add soy sauce, sugar, mirin, ginger, etc) accordingly to your taste. Simmer down until most liquid is evaporated and flavors are fully absorbed in the greens and meat.

5. Allow to cool, uncovered. I added finely chopped dried chili peppers. The fancy, Kichisen way to do it is to just add the seeds. I added the chili after the tsukudani had cooled down because I didn’t want the spicy hotness to be absorbed too much into the tsukudani, I assume that heat and liquid content facilitates this. I used 3 chili peppers and that might have been a little too much. I don’t want the tsukudani itself to be spicy, I just want it to contain some bits of spiciness in it.

How did it taste?
My tsukudani turned out not too salty, a bit sweet with the pronounced green peppery taste of the greens. I wish that this variety of greens had been more peppery though. The hotness of the chopped chili was about the right contrast to the oiliness of the beef.

Tsukudani Regional and Seasonal Varieties
In Japan tsukudani is made with many regional and seasonal ingredients. In mountainous areas, mountain vegetables and wild mushrooms are common and near the sea, fish, especially shellfish, are commonly used. Kombu kelp and other sea vegetables are probably the most common base ingredient, even in areas removed from the sea.

In Kyoto many people make tsukudani as a side dish with daikon radish greens.

Try making your own tsukudani inspired dish!
Usually the more expensive the tsukudani, the more salty it is, as it is only intended to be a tiny bite to accent kaiseki cuisine. Again, my recipe was intended to produce something that could be used to stuff or flavor onigiri or as a ‘topping’ for rice.

Try making tsukudani with whatever you can obtain in your region. You just need Japanese soy sauce, sake or cooking sake and sugar to get the base taste of this dish.

Tsukudani can be something to go with rice, or it can be more like an appetizer that would go wonderfully with wine or dark beer. I can imagine wild mushrooms in Europe or oysters in North America making some killer appetizer type tsukudani.

Sea of Japan Heshiko Furikake へしこ ふりかけ
Heshiko is a specialty of the Sea of Japan side of Japan, the other side of the island from Kyoto. It is a preserved dish made of fish, usually mackerel or sardine. It is preserved in salted rice bran for at least a year. It is usually very salty and goes well with beer or sake.

I recently made blog friends with a blogger who is the okami-san, or proprietress, of a nice ryokan inn and restaurant in Fukui prefecture, on the Sea of Japan. They make handmade furikake from their local meibutsu (famous product), heshiko.

I ordered several bags and they arrived this morning. I opened on up and had a sniffy-sniff, and wow, it was high powered stuff! My first reaction was ‘Sea of Japan!’, their culinary culture is really different from Kyoto. It is still pretty close to Kyoto, so we have quite a bit of heshiko in Kyoto. This is preserved, not fermented fish, but it is pungent, but not in an overly challenging way. I think that most Western folks, especially foodies could handle this.

I decided to cook up some rice for lunch. To go with gourmet furikake, I knew that it had to be excellent rice cooked in the donabe earthenware pot, which tastes better than made in an electric rice cooker.

The main ingredients are: mackerel heshiko powder, daikon radish leaf powder, sesame seed, katsuo powder, shiitake powder and ichimi chili powder.

Heshiko Furikake

Iwashi Heshiko

This is what heshiko looks like when you buy it. This is sardine heshiko. To prepare heshiko, you simply wash the rice bran-salt mixture off and saute it in a bit of oil. It is very salty and pungent, so a little goes a long way. It can be put on plain rice or used as the flavoring for ochazuke. It is also a favorite tsumami (hors d’oeuvres) for drinkers.

Furikake on Rice Cooked in Donabe

Furikake on Rice Cooked in Donabe – detail

Kasu Chinmi: Ikura is hard to beat, but salmon roe marinated in sake kasu for about a week beats ikura! This is a rather rare dish in Japan. The first time I recall having it was this January at Kichisen. After one bite, I knew that I had to try making it! Winter is the season for both sake kasu and salmon roe. It of course tastes of salmon roe and in addition has a wonderful flavor combination of sake and the fruity fragrance of fermenting sake mash.

What is Sujiko?
Sujiko, unlike ikura is still in the egg sac, ikura is individual eggs. Ikura can be cured with either salt or shoyu and the slightly sinewy egg sac is removed. Once sujiko is cured, the taste is identical to ikura and the texture is not very different.

I just packed the sujiko sacs in sake kasu and refrigerated for about 1 week. It of course keeps longer than that.

Sujiko Kasuzuke can be enjoyed as is and goes very well with sake or wine. With food it is usually served on rice, we used it to make a luxurious onigiri rice ball (see photo below).

Preparation

Kasuzuke: Sake Kasu

Kasuzuke: Sake Kasu – detail

Sujiko (Salted Salmon Egg Sac)

Sujiko on Sake Kasu

Next step is to gently cover it with kasu.

Done

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

I am trying to figure out what to do with all this orange stained sake kasu now. We are certainly not going to throw it out! I am hoping that it will make excellent salmon kasu soup, we will let you know if we are able to come up with anything yummy.

Served

Sujiko Kasuzuke – served

Sujiko Kasuzuke – served

How Did it Taste?
Sujiko cured in sake kasu has a definite taste of sake and the flowery sweetness of the mash. This kasu we used this year was teshibori (hand-pressed) so the alcohol content is higher than mechanically pressed kasu. Also, I mixed in some fine ryorishu (cooking sake) to increase the liquidity of the kasu, making it better for marinading.

I have been making onigiri (rice balls) with it and eating it as chinmi on or along side rice at dinner. It is really nice! It is very easy to make and doesn’t even cost that much, but if you do the preparation you are rewarded with a very luxurious and special taste.

A friend that doesn’t drink much was over for dinner recently and was a bit surprised at the alcohol content in the sujiko! I guess she got a bit of a ‘buzz’ from it! That’s what I like, food that gets you drunk!

Sujiko Season
By the way, sujiko is in season in late autumn and early winter. I bought this in February but had to hunt around for it. I found it at the food court at Fuji Daimaru Department Store in Kyoto. I bought 6 roe sacs for about 1,800 yen. A pretty reasonable price, I thought. If it had been proper ikura, I think that it would have cost about 3-4 times that for the same amount.

Sujiko Kasuzuke Onigiri

This is from our Uri Nukazuke Onigiri article.

The other day I was up in Shiga Prefecture, just over the East Mountains from Kyoto, on the shores of Lake Biwa and I was given a package of whole sugatani ayu, a trout-like sweetfish from Lake Biwa as a gift.

Itadakimono: A Gift Humbly Received
The giving of small gifts in Japan is an important part of the culture and gifts are very often food. Ayu, the sweetfish that inhabit rivers in Japan and Lake Biwa are prepared in a myriad of ways. Ayu Sugatani 鮎姿煮, is whole ayu simmered in sweetened sake and soy sauce with sansho. The small, 15 cm fish have been simmered a very long time, so you can eat everything; the head, bones, fins, internals. There is no bitterness from the internals and I didn’t even notice that I was eating bones. In Japan it is said that eating the bones of fish is very nutritious.

Whole Simmered Ayu on Jukkokumai ’10 Grain’ Rice

Jukkokumai Rice
I made some rice (also some itadakimono) with jukkokumai 十穀米, literally ’10 grains rice’. Jukkokumai comes in small packets and contains 10 kinds of grains that can be added to the rice cooker to make white rice more hearty and nutritious. There are lots of variations, 5, 10, 15 grain, and each company’s mix usually contains a unique assortment of grains.

I was intending the jukkokumai to be for breakfast but as I hadn’t eaten much today I decided to have some with my simmered ayu itadakimono for a midnight snack.

It just took a minute to prepare and tasted wonderful. I took one ayu out from the vacuum pack and cut it into thin sections. I simply placed it atop the rice and voilà! The gokokumai would have been a little bland all by itself and the simmered ayu would have been too salty alone. This was the perfect combination.

Oyu-wari Imo-jochu
I washed it down with some sweet potato shochu (imo-jochu) in hot water (oyu-wari). On a cold winter night, just before bed, shochu with hot water really hits the spot! The imo-jochu variety has a very strong and peculiar taste and bouquet. Imo-jochu is popular with older men in Japan. Women, as a rule, can’t stand the stuff.

Whole Simmered Ayu – In the Package

Whole Simmered Ayu – Sliced

The left side is the head and the right is the tail.

Whole Simmered Ayu on Jukkokumai Rice

Whole Simmered Ayu on Jukkokumai Rice – detail

Whole Simmered Ayu on Jukkokumai Rice – How to Eat

Sorry about the horrible photo, I was eating with one hand and photographing with the other. So, you just scoop up some rice with a piece of ayu.

Other Ayu Related Articles on KyotoFoodie
Wagashi: Ayugashi or Waka-ayu Sweetfish Shaped Confection
Wagashi: More Kawaii Father’s Day Wagashi

Koshogatsu, or ‘little shogatsu‘ is traditionally observed on January 15th and marks the end of the Japanese New Year celebration. Mochi that has been offered to Shinto gods for the last half month is now quite dried out and is shattered with a hammer for eating by humans. The shards are cooked in okayu rice porridge, in Kyoto this okayu is cooked with azuki beans for the ‘rice dish’ of the last O-shogatsu meal. I was invited over to Kichisen to photograph Koshogatsu cuisine and the most expensive maguro in Japan, Oma Maguro, from the port of Oma on the northern most part of the Honshu main island. If I had been told it was wagyu beef, I would have believed it!

Japan’s Finest Tuna: Oma Hon Maguro

Oma Maguro is considered the very best tuna in Japan for sushi and sashimi. It is taken in the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido via the ipponzuri, literally ‘one line catching’ method of fishing, using live bait on a single hook and line. Oma Maguro weigh several hundred kilos and the largest taken on record is 440 kg! The highest price ever paid for a tuna at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market was for an Oma Maguro that weighed 202 kgs and sold for about $200,000 USD in 2001. Oma Maguro is famous for its fat content and exquisite marbling which looks nearly identical to Japan’s famous wagyu beef in which the cows are fed beer and apples and massaged by humans. This makes it prized for the best sushi and sashimi.

Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Master Tanigawa selected the most choice part of the tuna for this toro sashimi. It comes from the kama, or collar of the maguro. (More about kama at the links below.) If you like toro, you have to try the kama section of the fish.

If you go to a fine wagyu restaurant in Japan, wagyu sushi and wagyu sashimi will often be on the menu, this tuna looks identical!

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Is it wagyu, or is it tuna?

Traditional Koshogatsu Dinner: Azukigayu (Azuki Bean and Mochi Rice Porridge)

After photographing the toro sashimi, Master Tanigawa invited me to try some Koshogatsu azuki bean okayu rice porridge and two slices of toro. Of course I was only too happy to accept!

The okayu, though including azuki beans was not sweet, it was almost bland. The kagami mochi inside was well cooked and soft enough to eat but still I could tell that it had been dried out. While eating it in a dimly lit, chilly room, I could easily imagine what shogatsu was like a thousand years ago in Kyoto. The toro sashimi, or course a very new addition to the culinary scene in Kyoto, and it was pretty incredible. I have had some pretty fine toro but this was different. It did just melt on my tongue. (I won’t torment you with the details on this one.)

Koshogatsu is not regularly celebrated by most Japanese now, though a fair number of people observe it in Kyoto. This was my first time to eat Koshogatsu food such as kagami mochi. Thank you Master Tanigawa!

Kichisen Ikebana Decoration and Otoso

The silver pot is filled with otoso: New Year’s sake.

Shogatsu Decoration: Kagami Mochi

Do you remember this offering from this article? Today is the last day of O-shogatsu and the kagami mochi in the shogatsu offerings is broken apart and in Kyoto eaten with azukigayu (azuki bean rice porridge).

Koshogatsu Ryori: Azukigayu and Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi – detail

The master said that these two pieces would set you back about $100 USD.

Koshogatsu Ryori: Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko is ikura still in the egg sac. I love ikura but had never had it flavored with sake kasu (sake mash lees), it was astounding!

Koshogatsu Ryori: Eating Azukigayu and Mochi

This is a detailed article about Oma Maguro:
Japan’s love affair with Oma’s tuna | The Japan Times Online

KyotoFoodie Burikama articles:
Buri kama Shioyaki (Salt Grilled Yellowtail Collar)
Buri-zanmai: Buri Kama Shioyaki (Salt Grilled Fatty Yellowtail Collar)

Shiokara is a favorite of Miwa and she made some recently and it is ready for eating. Shiokawa is made of salted squid semi-fermented in its own guts and is a kind of chinmi, literally ‘rare taste’. Japanese like shiokara on rice or with sake.

Shiokara

Miwa, with some help from Kichisen, made her first shiokara. It came out very well, she reports. Here are a few photos of it served. (I took some photos of her happy face eating the shiokawa on rice, but she absolutely would not allow me to put them up on this article.

Miwa says the following about shiokara:
Shiokara on shinmai, new rice, like in the photos on this article, is a simple meal but the most luxurious meal to Japanese. Yum, yum, yum!

Even though we thought that it would be too salty, the taste definitely got more and more mild over the passing days and it is very nice now. The progression of the taste with time is something I like very much. I think Mr Tanigawa’s tip of adding high quality kelp helps a lot.

Shiokara lasts just a few weeks but you can freeze it too.

I have not tried this, but heard that you can eat on pasta too, as sauce. I am going to try this soon.

Paku says:
Please pass the karasumi.

Be sure to check out our shiokara series:
How to Clean Squid
How to Make Shiokara
How to Eat Shiokara (this article)

Squid Shiokara Served

The dark strip on the top is kombu, of kelp. Kombu is naturally salty and softens and adds complexity to the flavor.

Squid Shiokara Served – detail

At Kichisen, the master and students work in the cold through the night like Santa’s workshop getting Japanese New Year’s Osechi ready to send via express chilled delivery to arrive at homes all over Japan on New Year’s Eve day. Kichisen’s osechi is exquisite and as it is a meal to be shared with God, it comes in a breathtaking white lacquer box.

Kichisen’s Signature White Lacquer Osechi Box 白重

The green hollyhock leaf motif on the boxes comes from the neighboring Shimogamo Shrine.

The Meaning and Symbols of Osechi Ryori

Kichisen’s osechi ryori contains 41 kinds of food. Here we introduce 13 of the representative dishes and explain some of the meaning and metaphor.

Osechi is hozonshoku, or preserved food. Historically it was prepared in advance so that the women of the family could have several days off from cooking, it is also very similar to how Japanese ate in centuries past. The dishes in osechi ryori each have a meaning related to health and happiness in the new year. Puns and plays on words and Chinese characters are common. Like the taste of the food, the symbols and metaphors are rather quant and from a different era, they remain largely unchanged today.

Representative Osechi Dishes and Their Meanings

1. Bodara 棒鱈: Eat well
Bodara is dried cod (tara) slow simmered in soy sauce. Tarafuku means to have an rich and abundant dietary life. People eat bodara wishing to eat well in the new year.

2. Iseebi Shioyu 伊勢海老塩湯: Health and long life
Salt boiled lobster. After lobster has been boiled in salt water the meat is pulled apart by hand into delicate threads. It is said to look like the white hair of the grandparents of the family. People eat this hoping to live in health well into old age.

3. Kazunoko 数の子: Many descendants
Kazunoko, herring egg sac, holds an enormous number of eggs and people eat this hoping to have many descendants.

4. Tazukuri 田作り: Bountiful harvests
Tazukuri, literally ‘making rice fields’ is dried baby sardines that have been simmered in soy sauce. In the Edo period, dried baby sardines were used as fertilizer to enrich the soil and increase the harvest.

5. Kinkan Amani 金柑甘煮: Auspiciousness and wealth
Kinkan amani is sweet, simmered kumquat. Kumquat is called kinkan in Japanese. The Chinese characters for kinkan are 金柑, 金冠, or ‘golden crown’ has the same phonetic reading. Japanese of old seem to have loved these kinds of puns.

6. Tataki Gobo 叩牛蒡: Increase good fortune, stability in life
With cooking, the ends of burdock split, people wish their luck to split and multiply. Burdock has deep roots that afford stability.

7. Karasumi Kinpaku Serohan Tsutsumi 唐墨金箔セロハン包み: Promotion, progress in life
Karasumi is the highest quality chinmi in Japan. It is made of the bora fish egg sac. This fish has different names during it’s growth stages, so its name changes as it grows up, so people eats hoping to progress in life.

8. Hirame Ryuhimaki 鮃龍飛巻: Happiness and joy
Flounder wrapped with simmered kelp. Kelp is called kombu, or kobu in Japanese. Kobu is a play on the word yorokobu, which means happiness and joy.

9. Shin Takenoko Fukumeni  新筍子含煮: Prosperity and growth
Bamboo grows very fast, so people eat this hoping for their family’s prosperity and growth to be like that of bamboo.

10. Budo Mame 葡萄豆: Diligence
These beans are black and from ancient times people believed that black has talismanic power. Mame, ‘bean’ in Japanese,  written with different characters means ‘diligent’. People eat this dish wishing to live a ‘beanly’ new year. (Beanly: Miwa made up this word, it was too great to edit. Everyone have a ‘beanly’ 2009!)

11. Matsukasa Kuwai 松笠慈姑: Auspiciousness
The kuwai bulb produces a large sprout, and this is a symbol of growth and development. The bulb is cut into the shape of a pine cone, the pine tree, in Japanese culture is a majestic and auspicious symbol.

12. Kurumaebi Tsuyayu 車海老艶湯: Longevity
Shrimp have long whiskers and their backs are curved, they are associated with elder people. People eat shrimp hoping to live a long life.

13. Ayu Komb Maki 鮎昆布巻き: Happiness
From ancient times ayu, or sweetfish was known as fish that brings happiness, the kombu, kelp wrapping is also a symbol of happiness.

Representative Osechi

From left; cod, lobster threads, herring roe, sardines, kumquat and burdock root.

Representative Osechi: Flounder with Ginger Wrapped in Kelp

Representative Osechi: Black Beans

Osechi Detail: Shoyu Simmered Cod, Bodara

After two weeks of soaking to reconstitute the dried cod, at Kichisen this dish is cooked for 2 days straight.

Osechi Detail: Salt Simmered Lobster Threads

This dish hardly tastes of salt.

Osechi Detail: Herring Eggs, Kazukono

Osechi Detail: Karasumi with Gold Leaf Wrapped in Cellophane

If you are interested in chinmi, seek out karasumi when you visit Japan, it is more cheese-like than fish in taste.

Moritsuke, Literally To Set Out

Osechi Moritsuke, or ‘serving up beautifully’, starts at midnight on December 30. The staff of Kichisen works through the night filling beautiful white lacquer boxes with the 41 dishes that had been prepared over the last few days New Year’s cuisine. For cleanliness, everyone is dressed in what look like biohazard gear. The heat was turned off and it was 2°C indoors.

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

Notice the large photos of the various arrangements for quick reference.

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

Osechi Moritsuke: Filling the Boxes

This is fish is called mutsu and has been marinaded in miso and then grilled — heavenly.

Osechi Moritsuke: Chestnuts

The yellow color is natural and achieved by simmering with gardenia seeds.

Osechi Moritsuke: Shrimp

Osechi Moritsuke: Bamboo Shoots

Osechi Moritsuke: Bamboo Shoots

Osechi Moritsuke: Candied Yuzu Peel

The Final Product: Three Layers of Exquisite Hozonshoku

Osechi Box: Bottom

Osechi Box: Middle

Osechi Box: Top

Osechi Box

Osechi Box: The Finished Product, Ready for Boxing and Shipping

Shiokara is made of salted squid semi-fermented in its own guts and is a kind of chinmi, literally ‘rare taste’. Japanese like shiokara on rice or with sake. Shiokara is one taste that you might want to miss when you visit Japan, but we show how to make it in this article.

Making Shiokara

Shiokara, like other chinmi in Japan is popular among drinkers, Miwa, a salt devotee loves shiokara on rice. To make ika-no-shiokara, you just need a fresh squid (ika) and salt (shio). The amount of salt can be varied depending on your taste. Here are the main steps that are required.

1. Clean the squid saving the kimo ‘liver’ (digestive gland) from the internals.
2. Remove ‘skin’ and slice squid body (and legs if desired).
3. Sprinkle with salt and leave over night.
4. Pass guts through sieve.
5. Add sliced squid to pressed salted guts and leave over night. If available, add thin sliced kombu (dried kelp) as well.
6. Add a small amount of sake and mirin for fragrance. Allow to ferment for several more days.

Be sure to check out our shiokara series:
How to Clean Squid
How to Make Shiokara (this article)
How to Eat Shiokara

Shiokara: Squid Digestive Gland Ready for Salt

Shiokara: Sprinkling Salt

Shiokara: Sprinkling Salt

And Then the Telephone Rang

We suddenly got ordered over to Kichisen for Christmas Cake, on the telephone before we left, Miwa asked Mr. Tanigawa about his shiokara recipe. He told her that he doesn’t have any recipes and to just bring over her salted squid and guts and he would check it.

When we arrived, Miwa took out two plates, one of salted sliced squid and the other of salted ‘liver’ (actually a kind of intestine) which she had dutifully wrapped in furoshiki. Mr. Tanigawa ordered a disciple out of the kitchen to turn the shiokara ‘inside out’.

The technique here is to put the salted ‘liver’ on some kind of wire mesh and push the liquid part into a bowl below with the gland sac remaining on the mesh.

Amount of Salt: Miwa had intended to remove a lot of the salt, the amount shown in the photo below is far too much. There are two approachs to salting; sprinkle on a little salt and pass through the sieve or cover the glands in salt, let rest over night, wipe away most salt and then pass through the sieve.

Mr. Tanigawa, who has no recipes, recommends using a small amount of salt to start with (see second photo above) and add more later to taste. With salt, you can always add it, but you can never remove it. If you can use the salt content of dried kombu, that will give a more mellow and complex taste. This is a very ‘Kyoto’ approach.

Shiokara: Passing Through a Sieve

Shiokara: Passing Through a Sieve

Shiokara: Passing Through a Sieve

Shiokara: Passing Through a Sieve

Shiokara: Passing Through a Sieve

Shiokara: Adding Sliced Squid

On a towel, remove blot off the salt.

Shiokara: Adding Sliced Squid

Shiokara: Adding Sliced Squid

Shiokara: Adding Sliced Squid

Add and stir well.

Shiokara: Adding Sliced Squid

Shiokara: Adding Sliced Squid

Shiokara: Adding Strips of Kombu

Add kombu to mellow and add complexity.

Shiokara: Adding Strips of Kombu

Shiokara: Kichisen Uses French Salt

So, Does Shiokara Taste Good?
Well, Peko, a devotee of most Japanese chinmi, is actually not a big fan of shiokawa. So, let’s wait a few days and get a report from Miwa.

Shiokara: Leftover Digestive Gland Membrane (Gore)

They cut up the gore and added it to the shiokara too. You might skip that step.

Itadakimono (a gift humbly received): Squid
Yesterday morning I had a chance to go to the Kyoto Central Wholesale Food Market with the Iron Chef defeater Yoshimi Tanigawa, the owner of Kichisen. (also known as Kisen). Kichisen is among the best of the best for Kyoto Kaiseki cuisine. Mr Tanigawa gave me several of the squid that he bought and told me to make shiokara with it. Shiokara is a side dish not for the faint hearted that combines sliced squid body and legs with some squid entrails and is pickled in salt.

To make shiokara, the squid first must be cleaned. But how do you clean a squid? Well, it is not that difficult and requires little technique. It does involve getting your hands dirty.

Cleaning Squid: the Squid

The Main Steps of Cleaning a Squid

1. Separate the legs and entrails out from the body by gently pulling the legs away from the body.
2. Remove the ‘cuttlebone’, the transparent cartilage spine of the squid by gently pulling.
3. Clean out remaining tissue, innards and so on from body (split body if not making rings).
4. Peel away spotted brown outer membrane from the body.
5. Cut the legs away from the ‘head’ from the entrails.
6. Remove orangish-brown gland from guts for shiokara (if you are brave).
7. Wash body and legs thoroughly.

The squid body can be stuffed, sliced into rings or split and sliced into strips. For shiokara, you want to split it down the middle, wash well and slice into strips. The legs can also be used for shiokara but removing the tentacles and and skin membrane requires some technique. The legs with skin attached can be used for other dishes.

Be sure to check out our shiokara series:
How to Clean Squid (this article)
How to Make Shiokara
How to Eat Shiokara

Cleaning Squid: To Start, Just Pull

Gently pull the legs away from the body. No cutting should be required, but you can use your finger to tear the connective membrane if need be. The orangish-brown part is the digestive gland, something like an intestine. It is called kimo, or liver in Japanese, but properly it is not a liver. This gland is essential for making shiokara.

Cleaning Squid: Removing the Guts

Cleaning Squid: Guts and Digestive Gland Removed

Cleaning Squid: Eggs and Ink

Attaached to the head arethree mains parts; the egg sac (left, white), ink sac (middle, blackish) and digestive gland (right, orangish-brown). Be careful not to break the ink sac as you will have quite a mess. Squid ink easily washes away with water though.

Cleaning Squid: Removing the Cuttlebone

Cleaning Squid: Removing the Cuttlebone

Cleaning Squid: Split and Remove Remaining Viscera

If you want to cut into rings, just wash out the body thoroughly with running water.

Cleaning Squid: Split and Remove Remaining Viscera

Cleaning Squid: Peeling Away the Skin

A quick slice with the knife will make it easier to ‘get an edge’ on the skin to peel away. For cooking preparations using high heat such as deep frying, this step may be skipped.

Cleaning Squid: Peeling Away the Skin

Cleaning Squid: Peeling Away the Skin

Cleaning Squid: Done!

Cleaning Squid for Shiokawa: Digestive Gland

Simply cut away the base of the digestive gland from the head.

Cleaning Squid for Shiokawa: Digestive Gland

If you are making shiokara, remove this dark strip of viscera that is attached to the digestive gland

Snapshots from Kichisen Kitchen
Kichisen is not your garden variety ‘best of the best’ restaurant. Mr. Tanigawa runs a ‘dojo’ training school with Marine bootcamp level severity for aspiring Kyoto cuisine chefs. Here are a few survivors. They are not students or kitchen staff, but disciples.

Pro Squid Cleaning

Pro Squid Cleaning

Pro Squid Cleaning

Pro Squid Cleaning