Home-style
Kuritsubo
Kuritsubo — chicken and root vegetables simmered sweet with candied chestnuts
Chicken thigh and root vegetables like carrot, lotus root, and taro are simmered in barley miso or soy alongside candied chestnuts — a dish from Kawatana and Higashisonogi named, it's said, for its chestnuts (kuri) and the bowl it's served in (tsubo), traditionally festival fare.
- Origin: Nagasaki Kawatana
- About 950 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A simmered dish from Kawatana and Higashisonogi towns that combines chicken thigh, carrot, lotus root, burdock, konjac, taro and fried tofu with candied chestnuts. The candied chestnuts push the dish a bit sweeter than an ordinary simmered vegetable dish, though the trick is said to be not overcooking it, so the plain flavor of the root vegetables still comes through. It's remembered as a feast-day dish handed down through local festivals.
How it's made
Chicken thigh, carrot, lotus root, burdock, konjac, dried shiitake, taro, fried tofu and green beans are simmered together, seasoned with barley miso or soy sauce. Candied chestnuts are added for sweetness, but not simmering it down too far, so the plain flavor of the root vegetables still shows through, is said to be the key. Green beans are scattered on top at the end for a touch of color.
Why it took this shape
The 'kuri' in the name is said to come from the chestnuts used as an ingredient, and 'tsubo' from likening the serving bowl to a jar, written with characters meaning 'chestnut jar.' The dish is said to have long been served as a feast-day food at local autumn festivals, and is thought to have taken root as a dish for celebratory occasions. The root vegetable harvest overlapping with chestnut season is also said to be part of why this particular pairing took hold.
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 Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.