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Karakai-ni
Karakai-ni — dried skate cartilage simmered until soft and gelatinous
Dried skate fin from Hokkaido, called karakai, is soaked for two or three days and simmered slowly until the bone softens — an inland dish built around its jelly-soft, collagen-rich cartilage. It is said to appear at New Year and festival tables.
- Origin: Yamagata
- About 290 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Karakai, dried skate fin from Hokkaido, is simmered slowly in soy sauce, sugar, and mirin in this celebratory dish from Yamagata's inland areas. It offers both a jiggly, collagen-rich texture and the springy crunch of cartilage in the same bite. As the broth cools, it's said to set into a savory jelly that pairs well with rice.
How it's made
Karakai is soaked slowly in water for two to three days, then simmered until even the bone softens, it's said. Rehydrating it whole, rather than cut up, is said to keep more of its flavor intact, and around New Year's fishmongers reportedly soak it in advance and sell it ready to simmer. Being rich in gelatin, the broth is said to set naturally into a jelly as it cools.
Why it took this shape
In Yamagata's mountain-locked inland areas, far from the sea, fish is said to have meant mostly long-keeping dried varieties like salted salmon and dried cod. Karakai, brought in from Hokkaido, was treated the same way as a precious dried good, and the effort of soaking and slow-simmering it is said to have turned it into a dish reserved for New Year's and festivals.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Yamagata
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
- Akebi no Miso ZumeyakiThe bittersweet rind of the akebia fruit is stuffed with minced meat and maitake mushroom simmered in miso and sugar, tied with kitchen string, and grilled. Elsewhere in Japan the white pulp is what gets eaten, but Yamagata is said to hold onto the unusual custom of eating the rind instead.
- DongarajiruWinter cod caught in the coldest weeks goes into a miso soup head to tail, innards included — said to trace back to fishermen's cooking on the Shonai coast. The liver's richness carries the flavor, and the traditional way adds only a scrap of rock nori, no scallion.
- Hatahata no YuageHatahata, scaleless sailfin sandfish that crowd the Shonai coast to spawn, are boiled whole and eaten with nothing more than grated daikon and soy sauce — a simple winter fish dish. With no scales to remove, it is said to have become a fixture of Shonai's autumn and winter table.
- Hyoboshi no NimonoPurslane, called hyo, is picked in summer, boiled, and sun-dried into a keeping food, then rehydrated and simmered with shirataki, carrot, and fried tofu for New Year. The name is said to be played on for luck — a wish that something good might happen, hyotto, this year.
- ImoniTaro, beef, konnyaku, and scallion simmer together in a soy-based autumn hot pot said to trace to boatmen on the Mogami River, who cooked taro and dried cod on the riverbank while waiting out the delays of cargo transport. On the Shonai coast the same dish turns to pork and miso.