In Japan winter is the season for crab and the best, fresh sake. We were given two beautiful crabs from the Sea of Japan and after doing kani nabe I wanted to cook the kani miso in the shell with sake over an open flame, so I bought some fresh, unfiltered ginjoshu sake from the north of Japan. With the leftover broth and bits of crab meat and vegetables we made kani zosui, a rice soup. This all makes for a wonderful dinner on a mid-winter night!

Mottainai: No Waste in Japanese Culture

One thing I would like to show in Japanese culture, through the lens of food, is ‘mottainai‘, or not wasting anything. You might have heard a bit about mottainai recently in relation to environmental conservation. With device and invention even the kani miso, or crab guts, which don’t amount to much are enjoyed. (The ‘miso‘ in kani miso is actually a reference to the brain of the crab, rather than miso paste/soup. In reality, the brain only makes up a fraction of the kani miso.) The raw kani miso, difficult to remove from the shell with an eating utensil, is just cooked with sake right in the shell over an open flame. In the end, it all comes out. It is fun, efficient and tasty!

There are at least two dishes in Japanese cuisine that employ this strategy; one is sake warmed in the crab shell and drunk and the second is the miso well cooked in the shell often with some broth and sake. Our rendition here is sort of a combination of both; too much sake to be proper kani miso korayaki and cooked too long to be proper kani miso korazake.

These crabs were another itadakimono, or gift humbly received which are very common in Japanese culture, especially gifts of food.

Kani Miso Korayaki

Crab ‘miso‘ cooked in the shell with plenty of sake over an open flame. We cooked it for about 2 minutes. In a nice restaurant this would be done over a mini charcoal hibachi right at your table.

Crab Dinner, Japanese Style

Kani Nabe かに鍋: Crab hotpot. (Sorry, no pictures.) We slowly simmered kombu and an assortment of winter veggies to make a nice, light broth then added the crab. Cooking the crab takes about 3 minutes. We squeezed fresh yuzu juice on the crab meat, however just plain crab meat was very sweet. I much prefer yuzu on crab to lemon I realized, because the taste is more complex and mellow. (However I did long for butter!)

Kani Miso かにみそ: We used the body and miso of one crab for korayaki 甲羅焼き- korazake 甲羅酒, cooked over an open flame as shown below. We scooped it out with a spoon and ate it like ice cream, one scoop plain and the second with just a squeeze of yuzu. The flavor of kani miso, … we are trying to describe. It tastes like crab, the texture is often creamy, and it has a taste that is distinctly ’kani miso’, which I am at a loss to describe. Part of the kani miso is eggs, so it has a bit of the Shanghai crab taste, if you have had that. That is feeble, I know. I guess I can only say that it is indeed a treat, and if you like crab, you will probably like kani miso. By the way, many sushi restaurants offer kani miso sushi, which is usually quite good. It is just the crab internals in a miso-like paste, usually not cooked like this though.

Kani Zosui かに雑炊: Zosui is a wonderful dish in Japan, the taste and texture is a bit like risotto. After a nabe, after the fish, chicken, veggies, etc have been finished, what remains is the very best broth as it has the taste of everything that went into the nabe in it. Japanese wouldn’t just let this go to waste. Rice — or udon can be added to the nabe and cooked in the broth as the final course of the meal. Egg is often added too, which we did. This mixture is cooked in the nabe for a few minutes until most of the broth has been absorbed. Then eggs can be added and just stirred a bit and removed to a bowl while the egg is still a bit runny.

We used the kani miso from one of the crabs to add additional flavor to the zosui. Though the preparation method is quite different, as is the texture of the rice, zosui is really is quite similar to risotto. Just imagine crab and egg with vegetable broth.

Nabe: A Tasty and Easy to Eat Meal for Travelers in Japan
Even if you are not really into Japanese food, and not an extreme eater, you would probably have no trouble with these dishes. Nabe is always a good bet for anyone that doesn’t want to get too adventurous with their meals when they visit Japan. In nabe cuisine, everything is well cooked and the ingredients are all things that we often eat in Western food (vegetables, fish, chicken, etc).

Kani Miso Korayaki Cooking: Crab ‘Miso’ Cooked in the Shell with Sake

Kani Miso Korayaki Cooking: Crab ‘Miso’ Cooked in the Shell with Sake

Kani Miso Korayaki Cooking: Crab ‘Miso’ Cooked in the Shell with Sake

Kani Miso Korayaki Served: Crab ‘Miso’ Cooked in the Shell with Sake

IKani Zosui, Kani Miso Korayaki, Tsukemono and Yuzu

Kani Zosui: Crab Rice Soup

Kani Zosui: Crab Rice Soup – detail

The Sake: Muroka Ginjoshu from Kamonishiki Brewery in Niigata

This sake is muroka (unfiltered) ginjoshu (high quality) okedashi (from a wooden vat) and shiboritate (just pressed) from a brewery in Niigata, a region that produces Japan’s best rice and some fine sake. This sake was pretty dreadful. It lacked the fresh, fruitiness of muroka shiboritate, I could taste no wood though the label says that it comes from a wooden vat. What I could taste was the sickening and lingering taste of jozo alcohol (distilled alcohol) that is added to cheap sake. If you have had sake that you didn’t like, jozo alcohol is likely the culprit.

The milling rate of this ginjoshu is 60%. At 980 yen for a 720ml bottle, it is not particularly expensive, but is rather price for ryorishu, or cooking sake, which I ended up using it for. This sake was nicely packaged and in the refrigerated section at the liquor store. It ought to be a whole lot better, I thought.

Muroka Ginjoshu Sake – package

Funky package, crappy sake!

Muroka Ginjoshu Sake

Even serving this sake in a nice glass couldn’t improve it!

Links

The Sake: Kamonishiki website (Japanese language)

加茂錦酒造
新潟県加茂市仲町2-6
tel/fax 0256-52-0070

A lobster, mochi, kelp, daidai- orange and persimmon offering to god, crab served amid fresh snow covered bamboo grass, red snapper sashimi served in a basket of green bamboo, pine bough and plum blossom;  it’s Oshogatsu Ryori at Kichisen.

Several hundred boxes of Osechi have been delivered, this is the most important celebration of the year in Japan, you would think that everyone at Kichisen would finally be taking a few days off work. But Tanigawa explains that a proper Kyoto restaurant must be open and serve customers during this important time of year. Kichisen offers Oshogatsu Kaiseki Ryori, Japanese New Year’s Kaiseki Cuisine, and it is as beautiful as it is delicious.

New Year’s Kaiseki
Shogatsu in Japan is a lot like Christmas, it is a magical time and custom and decoration abound. In addition to sublime and intricate cuisine, Kichisen is decorated for the season.

Kichisen Gate with Shogatsu Decoration and Candle Lanterns

Kichisen’s Oshogatsu Kaiseki includes some 13 courses, here we feature 4 of them: five bite-sized selections from osechi ryori, clear soup with clam paste garnished with gold leaf, red snapper sashimi with Seville orange-shoyu, sekihan mochi rice with azuki beans and chestnuts and finally crab served in a snowstorm.

Sakizuke Course: Appetizer

Sakizuke is the first course in kaiseki and is an appetizer. The two most prominent features this serving is the sakaki leaf and the cow on the lid of the ceramic serving tray. Shinto gods are believed to dwell in the sakaki tree and here it’s leaves are used to invite god to dinner as well. 2009 is the year of the cow, therefore a cow appears. The chopsticks are special too, both ends are tapered, the tapered end is used for eating. Symbolically the meal is shared with god.

The sakizuke course contains a few bites of 5 dishes that appeared in osechi ryori; including baby carp simmered in sweetened shoyu with ginger, kuruma-ebi (shrimp), hirame kombumaki (flounder with ginger rolled in kelp), and black bean with tsukushi bud.

Sakizuke: Appetizer

Sakizuke: Appetizer

Sakizuke: Appetizer – detail

Sakizuke: Budo Mame, Literally Grape Beans

Shiru Mono Course: Hamaguri Shinjo

Shiru-mono is a soup course. Here shinjo, also known as kamaboko-like fish paste is made with hamaguri clams, this is the white block that is garnished with kinome sansho leaves and gold leaf. The sea vegetable in the broth is called shinbaso, literally god horse grass, the origin of the name is interesting. A Japanese historic figure Minamotono Yoshitsune had to travel a long distance and his horse was exhausted. When he stopped to rest, locals fed his horse this sea vegetable and his horse made a quick recovery. Neither Miwa nor I had heard of this sea vegetable and it is quite expensive.

Shiru Mono: Hamaguri Shinjo

Shiru Mono: Hamaguri Shinjo – detail

Mukozuke Course: Tai and Ika Sashimi

This course is completely over the top. A whole tai, red snapper is served in a green bamboo hoekago (a portable shrine for the god of business called Ebisu) basket with a pine bough and budding plum branch for a roof. Pine is a very majestic and auspicious symbol in Japanese culture and plums blossom just after oshogatsu, the coming of spring. Ika, squid sashimi is included along with a simmered baby daikon radish and extremely rare black mushroom. The dipping sauce, momiji-oroshi, is shoyu with grated daikon and a tiny bit of chili pepper and a generous squeeze of the Japanese orange called daidai. Kichisen’s momiji-orishi dipping sauce is sublime!

Hoekago Tai and Ika Sashimi with Daidai Orange Dipping Sauce

Hoekago Tai and Ika Sashimi with Daidai Orange Dipping Sauce

Hoekago Tai and Ika Sashimi – detail

Notice the baby daikon and the black mushroom (triangle).

Hoekago Tai and Ika Sashimi with Daidai Orange Dipping Sauce – detail

Kichisen’s momiji-oroshi with daidai orange juice is sublime.

Hoekago Tai and Ika Sashimi Served

Gohan Course: Sekihan with Kachiguri

Sekihan, or ‘red rice’ is mochi rice cooked with azuki beans and served on celebratory occasions in Japan. Kichisen adds dried chestnuts, kachiguri. Kachiguri literally means ‘victory chestnut’, they were eaten by samurai before battle. The azuki must be extra special, I have never seen sekihan rice so deeply colored before. The color of the cooked rice comes from the azuki beans.

The ceramic container is in the shape of kohaku mochi, literally red and white mochi that is eaten at New Year’s, weddings, birth of a child and so on. The golden Chinese character on the top of the cover is kotobuki 壽, meaning congratulations.

Gohan: Sekihan Mochi Rice with Kachiguri

Gohan: Sekihan Mochi Rice with Kachiguri

Gohan: Sekihan Mochi Rice with Kachiguri – detail

Gohan: Sekihan Mochi Rice with Kachiguri – detail

The rice is really colored by the azuki!

Gohan: Sekihan – Kyoto-style Decoration

This is really ‘Kyoto’, the most extravagant part of this piece, the golden leafed area, is inside the cover. Many diners would miss this entirely. This is common in Kyoto architecture and kimono as well, the most luxuiriant part, the most expensive material is hidden, or at least difficult to find.

Gohan: Sekihan Mochi Rice with Kachiguri Served

Secchu no Kani: Crab Amid the Snow

This dish is way, way, way over the top. The scene is a winter mountain snowscape; crab leg trees in the snow and bamboo grass covered in snow made of shaved ice. The dipping sauce is kani miso, which is crab internals and vinegar.

Oshogatsu Ryori: Secchu-no-kani (Crab and Bamboo Amid the Snow)

Oshogatsu Ryori: Secchu-no-kani (Crab and Bamboo Amid the Snow)

Oshogatsu Ryori: Secchu-no-kani (Crab and Bamboo Amid the Snow)

Oshogatsu Ryori: Secchu-no-kani (Crab and Bamboo Amid the Snow)

Oshogatsu Ryori: Secchu-no-kani (Crab and Bamboo Amid the Snow)

Those snow covered bamboo leaves are exactly like I have seen them in the mountains. Amazing!

Shogatsu New Year’s Decoration and Ikebana Flower Arrangements

The prominence of food in Japanese culture, even in decoration is astounding, here are a few examples from Kichisen.

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Genkan Entry

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Genkan Entry – Kagami Mochi

Orange, dried persimmons, mochi, dried kelp, fern leaves and a lobster make up this kagami mochi offering in the entry.

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Dining Room

Food stuffs make up a central element of this decoration: heads of rice and a huge sheet of dried kelp. The colored string-like elements are flax which traditionally was used to make linen in Japan.

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Dining Room – detail

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Dining Room Flower Arrangement

Shogatsu ikebana flower arrangement in the tokonoma alcove of a dining room.

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Tea Ceremony Room Flower Arrangement

This intimate room is for the tea ceremony, kaiseki is born out of the tea ceremony. This tokonoma arrangement is in green bamboo with willow branches and a camellia flower. I have never seen an aesthetic like this outside of Japan.

Oshogatsu New Year’s Decoration: Tokonoma Alcove Flower Arrangement

Another bamboo, willow and camellia arrangement in a dining room tokonoma alcove.