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.