Fermented & preserved
Nita Kumoji
Nita kumoji — sour leaf pickles simmered fresh with sesame oil
Salt-leached turnip-leaf pickles are stir-fried in oil, then simmered down in soy sauce and mirin until the liquid is gone — a dish of the Hida region born from the wisdom of using up pickles that had turned sour by early spring, finished with a hit of sesame oil and seeds.
- Origin: Gifu
- About 230 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Desalted, aged pickled greens stir-fried in oil then simmered, so the pickle's tartness is wrapped in the toastiness of oil and sesame oil, finished over high heat for a crisp, satisfying bite. It's said to be a plain but deeply flavorful side dish that goes well with rice.
How it's made
Salted turnip greens or similar pickled leaves are rinsed to remove the salt, cut into roughly three-centimeter pieces, stir-fried in oil, then simmered in seasoning until the liquid is gone. Sesame oil and white sesame are added at the end over high heat to finish. It's said to be a way of eating the pickle twice — first as is, then simmered once it's turned sour.
Why it took this shape
The word 'kumoji' is said to trace back to court language for pickles used in the Heian period, and the dish itself is said to have grown from a habit of simmering rather than discarding greens pickled in winter once they'd turned sour by spring — a way of not wasting food. In an era when food was scarce, using a pickle down to its last bite is said to have taken root as local practice.
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 Gifu
- Akadatsu no SubuteThe red-purple leaf stalk of taro, called akadatsu, has its fibers removed and is salt-rubbed before being dressed in a sweetened vinegar — a dish of Yamagata City on land whose lime-poor, thin soil suited taro cultivation, once said to be fed to new mothers to aid recovery.
- Ayu NarezushiAyu heading downriver to spawn in autumn, often carrying roe, are salted and stuffed with freshly cooked rice, then packed in a barrel to ferment for about two months — a narezushi of Gifu City said to have been made from fish caught at the Nagara River's cormorant fishery and once presented to the shogunate.
- Ayu ZosuiAyu, grilled plain until fragrant, is flaked and briefly simmered with dashi and rice into a light porridge — a Gifu river-fish dish said to have begun as a way to use ayu too damaged from fishing to sell whole, often served as the closing course at restaurants specializing in ayu.
- FunamisoCrucian carp, first grilled plain, simmers for hours with rehydrated soybeans, then finishes in soybean miso and coarse sugar — a river-fish dish of the Seino region, where the miso's strong umami is said to soften the fish's characteristic edge, simmered until the flesh falls apart as a winter keeping food.
- Ayu no ShioyakiAyu are salted all over, given a decorative touch of salt on fin and tail, then grilled over charcoal on both sides — a river-fish dish of Gifu, said to draw on fish caught fresh at the 1,300-year-old Nagara River cormorant fishery or at the traditional yana weirs that channel fish into a catch.
- Gohei MochiCrushed rice is skewered and grilled, then glazed with a walnut- or peanut-flecked sauce — a dish of the Tono and Hida areas where soy-based sauce dominates north of the old Nakasendo road and miso-based sauce south of it, traditionally served to celebrate the new rice harvest or to honor a guest.