Fermented & preserved
Azara
Azara — aged napa pickles simmered with rockfish and sake lees
Napa cabbage pickled long enough to turn sour is simmered slowly with rockfish trimmings and sake lees — a Kesennuma dish said to taste even better cold, or reheated the next day, long loved as everyday food.
- Origin: Miyagi Kesennuma
- About 390 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
An everyday dish from Kesennuma: aged salted napa cabbage simmered with rockfish trimmings and sake lees. The sourness that develops in the long-aged cabbage meets the savor of the fatty rockfish, and sake lees add richness, producing a deep, layered flavor. Said to taste good even cold, and to settle further each time it is reheated, a single batch is said to feed a household for several days.
How it's made
Aged salted napa cabbage is cut into bite-sized pieces and parboiled, then rinsed while keeping some of its saltiness. Rockfish trimmings and water are brought to a boil, the cabbage is added, seasoned with salt and soy sauce, then sake lees are stirred in and the whole thing simmered slowly over low heat. Some households add miso or work in chili and garlic, varying the seasoning, it is said.
Why it took this shape
Kesennuma is a place where fresh fish is plentiful, and the wisdom of using every part of the winter's fatty rockfish, trimmings included, is said to have developed there. The preservation wisdom of aging napa cabbage over a long stretch, meeting a method of simmering fish trimmings with sake lees to draw out their savor, is thought to be what rooted this dish as an everyday local taste.
Dishes in the same style
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Miyagi
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- Bakke MisoButterbur sprouts picked in early spring — called 'bakke' locally — are boiled, chopped, and worked into a paste with walnuts and miso, said to be prized for helping clear the body of winter's buildup, spooned over rice or grilled fish.
- Donko JiruDonko, a brown hakeling landed at Ishinomaki and Kesennuma ports, is simmered in miso with daikon and tofu — a fish said to be considered lucky for money, given its wide mouth and narrow tail, and offered at the autumn ebisu-ko festival.
- Ebi MochiPaddy shrimp caught in irrigation channels and ponds are seasoned with soy sauce and sake, then folded whole into freshly pounded mochi — a Kurihara dish said to be served, red against white, to guests over New Year's.
- Fusube MochiLoach, grilled plain then smoked over an irori hearth, is ground to powder and simmered with grated daikon and burdock in a soy-chili sauce, then folded into freshly pounded mochi — said to be a mochi dish born of inland Kurihara's distance from the sea.
- GanzukiWheat flour is worked with dark brown sugar, baking soda, and vinegar, then steamed into a plain sweet bread — light yet filling, said to be named for a resemblance to wild goose meat, an everyday snack in Miyagi.