Meet nukazuke, a traditional Japanese tsukemono that is fermented in rice bran with a bit of salt. Nukazuke is full of vitamins and can be extremely pungent. Most any kind of vegetable can be used, even meat can be pickled by this method! It is easy to make at home and only takes a few days. The saltiness and sourness of the final product can easily be adjusted to accommodate your own taste.

The Mr. Universe of Nukazuke: Takakuraya’s Red Turnip
In winter when the akakabura, or red turnip is in season, Peko (that’s me) MUST eat akakabura nukazuke from Takakuraya in the Nishiki Market. It is just the best! Let me say that again. It is just the best! Takakuraya’s red turnip nukazuke has appeared on KyotoFoodie several times and is even on our current masthead banner. Peko bought this one the other day and rushed home to photograph it for the foodies of the world. It was mighty tasty with rice and sake. (The taste does vary depending on how long it was fermented. The older, the better, in my book.)

Akakabura nukazuke is also very, very photogenic in my mind. I love how it is to bright red, the ‘greens’ are red, even the nuka gets stained red. Before washing you can’t quite imagine that it could be food inside that clump of dough-like nuka mash. But, just a quick wash and it is something completely different. The reds and the greens, the texture of the turnip itself after being pickled and of course the yeasty smell all come together as something that has no parallel, not just in terms of food, but even among other nukazuke!

Akakabura Nukazuke

Akakabura Nukazuke

Akakabura Nukazuke and ‘Greens’

Akakabura Nukazuke – Washed

Akakabura Nukazuke – Washed Greens Detail

Akakabura Nukazuke – Washed Detail

What is Nukazuke?
Nukazuke‘s history isn’t as long as you might expect, it was invented in the Edo period with the advent of rice milling. Previous to this there was no nuka in Japan because rice was eaten as brown rice, not white rice.

Beriberi was prevalent in Japan at the time and this illness is a result of vitamin B1 deficiency and nukazuke happens to contain a lot vitamin B1. So, the practice of making and eating nukazuke naturally spread and the government encouraged people to eat it.

Nukazuke has the tanginess of pickles but retains much of the crunchiness of fresh vegetables.

How is Nukazuke Made?
Traditionally every household had a large container filled with nuka for making tsukemono. Now it is often purchased in stores, but some families still make it. In recent years a small bag ‘set’ filled with salted, wet nuka and ready to pickle has become popular with small families and singles that want to make their own nukazuke at home.

Nuka can be obtained for free from most rice stores. It is popular to mill rice in a small milling machine on site after the customer has decided what kind of rice and how many kilos they want to purchase. Nuka just piles up and they end up throwing a lot of it away. I got some at Kunitaya, my favorite liquor store, and they were only too happy to give me a huge bag of it.

The water and salt is added to the nuka powder and the vegetables are buried in the nuka mixture, called nukamiso in Japanese. Once started the nuka ‘bed’ must be stirred once or twice a day, depending on the air temperature to prevent rotting. Water content is maintained in the nukamiso via the vegetables pickled. Additional ingredients may be added to the nukamiso for flavor such as kombu, egg shells, apple peels and chili peppers.

The tangy, pungent flavor is achieved as a result of fermentation process that produces lactic acid.

Nukazuke Sliced and Served with Rice

Nukazuke Served with Rice

This picture might be a bit misleading. You don’t ‘sprinkle’ tsukemono on rice in Japan like a topping. Tsukemono and rice are almost always eaten together, in the same bite, but tsukemono isn’t a ‘topping’. A bite-sized portion is picked up off the plate, placed on the rice and scooped up the the chopsticks.

Peko’s Favorite Nukazuke Shop
Peko’s favorite shop for nukazuke is Takakuraya at the east end of Nishiki Market street. Takakuraya offers other kinds of pickles as well, but I like their nukazuke because it is very sour.

Miwa did some research on the store and it turns out that the owner, loves nukazuke that is quite old, the older the more sour. So, Takakuraya’s nukazuke is a bit more sour than usual — therefore Peko is a big fan.

＊Below are some pretty horrible piks that I took with my mobile phone. You get the idea how they sell them in the market. The tsukemono is presented on top of the nuka bed. This is just for show. They are really fermented somewhere else.

Akakabura Nukazuke and Plum Bonsai

Akakabura Nukazuke

Akakabura Nukazuke

Previous KyotoFoodie article (midway down there are two pretty excellent piks, before and after.)
Uni-ikura Donburi

Nishiki Takakuraya Tsukemono Specialty Store 京漬物専門店 錦・高倉屋
location: Takakuraya is located on the east end of the Nishiki Market street, next to the shoe store on the south side of the street, very close to the Shikyogoku arcade.
address: Kyoto-shi, Nakagyo-ku, Nishikikoji-dori, Teramachi, Nishi-iru, Higashidaimonji-cho 289-2 (京都市中京区錦小路通寺町西入ル東大文字町289-2)
tel: 075-231-0032
website: http://nsk-takakuraya.ocnk.net/ (circa 1995, Japanese language only)
10:00 am – 6:30 pm

At Kichisen, they start shopping for ingredients for osechi in July. Most all shopping is done at the Kyoto Central Wholesale Market. After ordering seafood, Kichisen master Tanigawa heads over to the vegetable section to purchase the finest Kyo-yasai, or Kyoto vegetables for his Japanese New Year’s Osechi. On the way back to Kichisen, we stop in at a favorite ramen shop for breakfast and I get a lesson on how to eat ramen properly.

Master Chef’s Daily Routine
We continue our visit to the Kyoto Wholesale Food Market with Kichisen owner and master chef, Yoshimi Tanigawa. Part 1 is about morning prayers and selecting fish for osechi.

Kichisen Osechi: Searching the Kyoto Vegetable Section

Kichisen Osechi: Kyoto Vegetable Section

Kichisen Osechi: Tanigawa Chats with Vegetable Vendor

In many shops, the kerosene stove is a popular destination for both staff and customers.

Kichisen Osechi:

Kichisen Osechi: Kuwai

Kichisen Osechi: Maru Daikon and Kintoki Ninjin Carrot

Kichisen Osechi: Saya Ingen

Kichisen Osechi: Ingen Mame

Kichisen Osechi: Mini Daikon

Kichisen Osechi:

Kichisen Osechi: Rape Blossoms, Nanohana

Kichisen Osechi: Red Turnip, Aka Kabura

Kichisen Osechi: Turnip, Kabura

Kichisen Osechi: Osechi Kyo-yasai, Ebi Imo

The nine boxes in the center ar filled with ebi-imo, literally ‘shrimp potato’.

Kichisen Osechi: ＠Young Bamboo Shoot, Waka Takenoko

Kichisen uses fresh, ‘winter bamboo shoots’ from Kyoto — we had never heard of these before.

Kichisen Osechi: Kyoto Fruit Section

Kichisen Osechi: Dried Persimmons, Hoshigaki

Dried persimmon are used in a New Year’s decoration called Kagami Mochi.

Kichisen Osechi: Kumquat, Kinkan

Candied kumquat are an important feature of osechi.

Kichisen Osechi: Japanese Citrus, Yuzu

Kichisen’s osechi has candied yuzu peel in it, which we had never heard of.

Ramen Breakfast
We stopped in at a ramen shop near Kyoto Station for breakfast and there I realized that I had been eating ramen ‘the wrong way’ all these years. I always mix everything up before I start eating, but Tanigawa told me that the best way to enjoy the variety of ingredients is from the middle of the bowl, pull up the noodles with whatever ingredients happen to be on top. Interesting.

Kichisen Osechi: Ramen Breakfast

Kichisen Osechi: Ramen Breakfast

I asked if it was alright to take his photo eating ramen, thinking that it might be scandalous.

Kichisen Osechi: Ramen Breakfast

Back at Kichisen

Upon hearing the car horn while we passed by on the other side of the street, the students rush out and assemble to unload and clean the vehicle.

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading

If you look down into the basement garage you can see the master’s punching bag and red Ferrari.

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting – Kumquats

These will go into osechi, they were ordered from southern Japan. The kumquats having the green leaves still attached is essential for osechi.

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading – Kyoto Ice

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading – Live Eels

These eels will be cooked for Tanigawa’s aging dogs.

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.