Ground sardines make a rich and wonderfully nourishing focal point to miso soup with udon noodles. Hand chopped or pureed in a food processor with ginger and scallions then gently simmered in broth mellows the heavy sardine taste.

Iwashi-no-tsumire, or sardine ‘meatballs’ is a fairly popular food in Japan, but is probably not widely known abroad. Sardines are an aozakana, which means they are in season in the autumn and winter and full of nutrients and energy, and of course rich in flavor. Iwashi-no-tsumire goes very well with rich miso based soup in the cold months.

We added some mibuna greens to ours, which is a traditional Kyoto vegetable, or Kyo-yasai.

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon with Vegetables

Iwashi Ryori: Fishballs in Miso Soup
Hopefully this iwashi ryori dish is also one that you can adapt and make with what you have available where you live. You need sardines or another aozakana, mackerel will taste fine too. Fresh is best, but frozen fish ought to be fine. You need udon noodles, fresh are preferred, but dried is ok. Also, you need miso for the soup, we prefer sweet (light in color) to salty (dark) and some seasonal vegetables. I think that most any root vegetables would be a great addition.

Miwa’s (AKA Paku) iwashi-no-tsumire is particularly ‘home cooking’ tasty. Fishballs can easily be made in a food processor but she makes hers long hand. She cleans the sardines and chops the fillets with a large knife. The taste and especially the texture of hand chopped is different. Hand chopping makes meatballs chunkier and softer.

If using a food processor, simply gut and gill the sardines and chop them up, head, bones, tail and all. The click of a button will save you at least 30 minutes. If you use a food processor it is my theory that the fishballs are actually more nutritious as the skin, bones and head contain a lot of calcium and nutrients absent in the flesh only. If you are using larger fish, you probably don’t want to have the bones or head included, judge according to size. The less ground the fish is, the more it will be like hand chopped.

See our KyotoFoodie article on how to clean sardines here if you want to do it the old fashioned way.

Japanese Meatballs and Fishballs: The Difference Between Dango and Tsumire
Dango Properly, dango is a sweet and made of mochi. Niku-dango 肉団子, or meat dango is made of chicken or meat.
Tsumire Dango made of ground or chopped fish are called tsumire and usually goes in soup.

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon – Ingredients

Sardines, vegetables and udon comprise the main ingredients.

Ingredients

• 6-12 whole sardines (depending on size)
• scallion (at least one bunch, for my taste, the more the better)
• 1/3 cup flour
• fresh ginger grated
• miso paste (light/sweet is recommended)
• dashi soup stock (powdered or liquid concentrate is fine, made from scratch is better)
• 1/2 cup cooking sake (optional)
• 1 tablespoon mirin (optional)
• miso paste (light/sweet is recommended)
• udon noodles (fresh are preferred but dried are fine)
• carrot julienned (consider other root vegetables)
• fresh ginger julienned
• fresh greens such as mibuna, mizuna, kikuna, (spinach as a substitute)

＊As with all our recipes here on KyotoFoodie, we just give you the ingredients, photos of the preparation process and send you in the general direction. Fine tune to your taste. The only thing to be careful of with this recipe is that the fishballs do not get too hard and rubbery from excess flour. You can also use a little starch but they will get rubbery in a big hurry. Adding egg yolk will help hold the fishballs together and add flavor. An egg yolk on top of the soup just before serving is also great.

Preparation

Chopping the Sardines
Cleaning the sardines is step one. Again, see this step-by-step article on how to clean sardines. If you are chopping by hand, Miwa says that you want to be sure to pull off the skin as it makes it much harder to chop.

Chopping in the Flour
Chop the sardine fillets into small chunks then “chop-chop-chop” for about a minute. Then add chopped scallions and about 1/3 of the flour. Continue “chop-chop-chop”ing and fold over the mixture with the knife. Repeat this process several times adding the remaining flour.

Chopping in the Ginger and Miso
After you have “chop-chop-chop”ed for a few minutes add about 1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger and about 1 tablespoon of miso paste and just keep on “chop-chop-chop”ing, folding over the mixture as you go.

Notice in the photos below that the mixture is pretty course. Miwa says (and I agree) the secret is to have the tsumire course and chunky but finely chopped enough to hold together for simmering in the soup. If you are not completely confident your first try, just add a little more flour, or God forbid some starch. Total “chop-chop-chop” time is about 5 minutes.

Cooking

Soup
Make the dashi. In a sauce pan bring about 1/2 liter of water to boil and reduce heat to gentle boil. If you have tap water that has a chemical taste to it, consider using bottled water. If you can make dashi from scratch, that is best. The powdered dashi or dashi concentrate is fine too. (We’ve got a great dashi recipe article coming.) Add sake and mirin if desired.

Once you have the dashi ready and gently boiling add the tsumire, forming into balls with a spoon. Cover and simmer gently for a few minutes. Next add the ginger and carrots. Cover and continue to simmer. Add the greens last. Cut the greens into 5cm sections and add to simmering broth, add the root ends first as they will require more cooking time.

Add the miso and dissolve in a ladle as shown in the photos below. Miso should be simmered and not boiled.

Udon
Depending on the type of udon you have, fresh or dried, cooking time will vary. See instructions on the package. Cook until al dente.

Don’t let the greens get over cooked. Ideally, you want the soup and udon ready to serve at the same time.

Point
Miwa says that the tsumire and dashi will taste better the longer it is stewed. This is one dish that will taste better the next day. However, the fishballs can easily disintegrate into the soup with the passing of several hours if you have too little flour. You can cook this dish well in advance and blanch the greens and boil the udon just before serving.

Serving

Udon should be rinsed with cold water after boiling to firm it up. If you want it piping hot at serving, return it to the boiled water for a moment, the soup should be hot enough to reheat the udon though.

Place the udon in a large bowl and ladle on the tsumire and miso soup, placing the veggies on top.

Enjoy!

Kyoto Greens – Kyo-yasai Mibuna

Kyo-yasai 京野菜 (Kyoto Vegetables) are the traditional vegetables of Kyoto of which Kyoto is very famous for. Mibuna is one of several Kyo-yasai greens and is part of the mustard family.

Kyo-yasai Mibuna – detail

Mibuna leaves are soft and the taste is quite mild, maybe somewhere between spinach and Chinese white cabbage, with just a hint of mustard green.

Iwashi Tsumire – Chopping Sardines

Iwashi Tsumire – Chopping Flour and Scallions into the Sardines

Iwashi Tsumire – Chopping Flour and Scallions into the Sardines

Iwashi Tsumire – Chopping Ginger and Miso into the Sardines

Iwashi Tsumire – Chop and Fold, Chop and Fold

Iwashi Tsumire – Forming Fishballs with Spoon

Notice that the mixture is still pretty course.

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Dashi – Simmering the Fishballs in Dashi

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Dashi – Simmering the Fishballs in Dashi

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Dashi – Add the Vegetables

Add the greens very last, root ends first.

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon – Dissolving the Miso

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon – Dissolving the Miso

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon – Dissolving the Miso

Repeat this process until all miso is dissolved in the ladle.

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon – Served

Iwashi Tsumire Iri Miso Udon – Served

Reference and Links
More on mibuna at the ‘Vegetables of Interest’ blog.

Sardines are full of nutrients and flavor, but just how to clean them?

To Be Continued: Iwashi Ryori
We are continuing our series on iwashi ryori and ‘cleaning sardines’ precedes an amazing recipe; get ready for ‘sardine meatballs’!

Small Fish
Cooking small fish is still not very common in my homeland, but here in Japan they are ubiquitous and tasty. There are a myriad ways to enjoy sardines and Miwa (AKA Paku) gives us a demo on how to clean them, or most any other kind of small fish.

How to Clean Sardines
As mentioned in a previous article on iwashi ryori (sardine cuisine), sardines are a ‘weak’ fish and they deteriorate quickly. Only the freshest should be used for sushi or sashimi. The bellies are extremely fragile and it is best to just cut the belly out with one cut and pull the innards out. Sardines may have a few scales on them, just run the knife over the skin to remove them as necessary. (That wasn’t necessary for us.)

Cleaning Sardines

Notice the sardine on the bottom, the dark spot on the belly is a tear.

Rinse and check for scales

In Japan, sardines are usually quite small and scales are not an issue. The sardine species and size in your region may vary, so give them a looking over.

Removing the Entrails

Cut off the head

Cut off the head and pull away with your knife

Cut the belly to remove entrails

Pull entrails out with belly

Remove entrails

Make sure that you cut out the anus and intestinal remnants. (Miwa missed on this one.)

Removing the Bones
Next comes removing the bones. The rib bones are so thin that they are easily chewed. The backbone is fine left in for deep fried preparations, but if sauteing, simmering, etc you will want to pull it out, and it comes out easily with a light tug.

Splitting the sardine

Run your thumb along the backbone and separate…

Splitting the sardine

…all the way to the tail.

Voilà!

That was easy! Now for the other half.

Cut the skin around the backbone just before the tail

The tail is a handle!

Pulling out the backbone

Gently pull the backbone out via the tail while holding down with your other hand.

Note: The backbone can be fried to make hone senbei, literally ‘bone cracker’. This is actually very tasty and goes great with beer.

Optional Step: Removing the Skin
It depends on what sardine dish you are making but you will probably want to remove the skin. It’s easy.

Peeling the skin away

Start at the head end, on the top of the sardine (back) and peel the meat away from the skin. The end result will produce two fillets.

Peeling the skin away

Peel the skin away from the second fillet.

Ready to be Iwashi Ryori!

Be sure to catch our next installment of iwashi ryori!

You’ve got to try this dish! Simple and tasty home cooking with aozakana; just sardines, ginger and rice.

Iwashi (sardine); aozakana

Sardine is called iwashi in Japanese and iwashi is an aozakana (青魚), literally, ‘blue fish’. Blue refers to the color of the back of the fish. Aozakana are in season in autumn and winter in Japan and are rich, oily fish and therefore very tasty and nourishing.

Iwashi Gohan

Iwashi-gohan is very simple to prepare and so, so delicious! Iwashi, as it is an aozakana is big and heavy in flavor, a flavor that might not be for everyone. However, cooking it in rice with ginger and sake mellows out the intensity of the sardine flavor considerably. So, don’t be afraid to give this recipe a try.

Iwashi Gohan

Ingredients

• 6-10 whole sardines (depending on size)
• 2 – 2 1/2 cups short grain rice (mugi, rolled oats is a nice addition)
• fresh ginger julienned
• 5 tablespoons cooking sake
• 1 tablespoon mirin (optional)
• salt
• dried kombu (optional)
• scallion

Preparation

Iwashi
Cleaning the sardines simply involves cutting off the heads and tails, removing the entrails and optionally pulling out the backbone.

Iwashi flesh, especially the belly skin is very soft so gutting the fish is best done by cutting off the bottom 1/4 of the belly on a cutting board. Most of the guts come out with the belly skin. Simply wash out the rest under running water. A gentle pull on the backbone will remove most of it. You can leave it in or take it out.

After cleaning the iwashi place in salt water for several hours. This removes some of the fishiness. If you can get really fresh, sushi quality iwashi, you can probably skip this. Rinse well before adding to the rice.

Rice
Use short grain rice if at all possible. Wash the rice thoroughly, until the poured off water is fairly clear. If you are adding mugi (rolled oats) add it after washing the rice. Now in Japan there is ‘washless’ rice (無洗米), but I am assuming that is not common in the English speaking lands. The amount of water needed will depend on your cooking method. The best is an electric rice cooker. Electric rice cookers have markings inside to denote the amount of water needed for various kinds of rice and rice/grain mixtures. If you are cooking rice in a pan on the stove, see the instructions on the rice bag as cooking requirements may vary depending on rice grain size and dryness.

Cooking
Pour clean, fresh water on the rice, add cooking sake if you have it. Next, add the sardines and julienned ginger. Adding a bit of mirin, salt and dried kombu will enhance the flavor of the finished rice. Cover and cook.

Serving
After the iwashi-gohan has finished cooking, remove the kombu and turnover several times with a rice paddle or similar large serving spoon and re-cover for several minutes.

Serve in a large bowl and garnish with chopped scallions.

You may wish to add a small amount of shoyu but it should be sufficiently flavorful.

Iwashi Gohan Ingredients

Cleaned Sardines

Iwashi Gohan Ready to Cook

Kombu and ginger is added and it is ready to cook!

Iwashi Gohan Done

Note the measuring marks on the inside of the rice cooker that denote the appropriate amount of water for various kinds of rice.

Iwashi Gohan Served

Iwashi Gohan Served – detail

Sardines sauteed in sake and soy sauce with ginger make an excellent side dish and goes extremely well with sake and beer.

Iwashi (sardine); aozakana

Sardine is called iwashi in Japanese and iwashi is an aozakana (青魚), literally, ‘blue fish’. Blue refers to the color of the back of the fish. Aozakana are in season in autumn and winter in Japan and are rich, oily fish and therefore very tasty.

Interestingly, the Chinese character, or kanji for iwashi is 鰯 and it means ‘weak fish’. Why weak? Well, iwashi have to live in a large school, they die easily and spoil quickly. The flesh of the sardine is very soft (weak) too. In olden days in Japan it is said that poor people ate iwashi because it was the only fish that they could afford. Iwashi are now enjoyed by everyone in Japan. As sardines are small the bones are difficult to remove, therefore favored preparation methods usually involve lots of heat, like deep frying. This make the bones barely noticeable. Sardines are also ground to make iwashi-dango (meatballs) for winter soups and broths. Super fresh sardines are a favorite at sushi restaurants and quite a treat if you like aozakana!

Iwashi Shoyuyaki

Whole sardines are a common sight in the fresh fish cases of any supermarket in Japan. I cannot think of any fish that is cheaper than sardines in Japan, a pack of 6-10 is usually about 100 yen (about 1 US dollar). That is very cheap for anything in Japan.

I bought several packs of fresh sardines at the grocery store because I wanted to try a recipe called iwashi-gohan (sardine rice). I made it and it was astounding! That article is coming soon, this one is a teaser.

Miwa (the KyotoFoodie formerly known as Paku) can really cook and she has done sauteed iwashi a few times for me that was really good. I decided to give it a whirl, with shoyu, it was my first time to make it. Miwa and I were both very surprised with my creation.

Shoyuyaki is a category of sauteed dishes in Japan in which steak, chicken, fish, even vegetables are sauteed in oil until nearly done. Then shoyu is added, which cooks down very quickly and then burns.

The secret is to remove the heat a few moments before the burning point and then get it out of the pan and onto a plate immediately. Even if the heat if removed it will continue to cook (and burn) in the still hot pan.

Ingredients

• 6-10 whole sardines (fresh is best but frozen would probably also work fine)
• ginger chopped or julienned (fresh)
• 5 tablespoons cooking sake (white cooking wine or even Chinese cooking wine ought to work fine too)
• 1-2 tablespoons mirin (optional)
• salt
• oil (I used olive and a dash of premium sesame oil at the end)
• 1-2 tablespoons shoyu (Japanese soy sauce recommended)

Preparation
To clean the sardines cut off the heads, remove all entrails and cut off tails. Some people leave the heads and tails on but I would only recommend this for deep fried preparations which make the bones hardly noticeable. Sauteing doesn’t soften the bones sufficiently. Additionally, you can pull the backbone out if you prefer.

Iwashi flesh, especially the belly skin is very soft so gutting the fish is best done simply by cutting off the bottom 1/4 of the belly on a cutting board. Most of the guts come out with the belly skin. Simply wash out the rest under running water.

After cleaning the iwashi place in salt water for several hours. This removes some of the fishiness. If you can get really fresh, sushi quality iwashi, you can probably skip this.

Cooking
Cooking just takes a few minutes. Heat the pan and add a few tablespoons of oil. Add iwashi and sliced ginger and saute for several minutes over medium heat. Carefully turn the fish over an saute for another minute or so. Add cooking sake. I added some more finely cut ginger here. Cover and cook for until the cooking sake is reduced by about half. Add shoyu and cook over high heat, watch carefully. Do not burn! When the sauce starts to thicken up remove from heat and transfer to a plate immediately.

Iwashi Shoyuyaki – Sardines Prepared for Cooking

Iwashi Shoyuyaki – Sardines with Ginger in the Frying Pan

Iwashi Shoyuyaki – Sardines Sauteed on One Side

Iwashi Shoyuyaki – Sardines Sauteed on Second Side, Cooking Sake Added

Iwashi Shoyuyaki – Sauteing in Shoyu

Iwashi Shoyuyaki Served

Iwashi Shoyuyaki Served – detail

Iwashi Chinese Kanji Character: weak

The Chinese character, or kanji for iwashi, is 鰯 and this character was actually made in Japan and does not exist in Chinese. Pictorial, kanji characters have fascinating etymological meanings. The Chinese character for iwashi can be separated into two independent characters; 魚 (fish) and 弱 (weak). Put them together and it spells iwashi in Japan!