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Sanma Kigaki
Sanma kigaki — saury simmered with grated daikon
Saury, head and scales removed, is simmered together with grated daikon and finished in soy sauce — a Kesennuma home dish said to carry the name of an older method, 'kigaki', that once used the brine from salted bonito as a fish-sauce-like seasoning.
- Origin: Miyagi Kesennuma
- About 390 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
A home-style autumn dish from Kesennuma: gutted saury simmered together with grated daikon and its juice, finished with soy sauce. The saury's flesh softens as it soaks up moisture from the daikon, its fat's sweetness mingling with the soy sauce's richness. The word in its name, "kigaki," once referred to a kind of fish sauce, and it is said to survive today as the local name for the dish.
How it's made
The saury's head and scales are removed and the belly slit open to take out the innards. Grated daikon is added together with its juice, and the saury is simmered in it; once cooked through, the flesh is flaked and the backbone lifted out. Soy sauce is stirred in for a final boil, and the dish is finished with green onion. It is favored as a side dish and just as much as an accompaniment to sake, it is said.
Why it took this shape
In the Motoyoshi area of Kesennuma, the brine left over from salting bonito is said to have once been used as a fish sauce to simmer daikon, and that practice is said to be the origin of the name "kigaki." A piece of wisdom from an era when soy sauce was costly and precious is thought to have merged with the food culture of a fishing town where saury comes ashore, carried forward as a home dish still made today.
Before you go
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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
Contrast
- Sanma SurimijiruAutumn-caught saury is pounded into a paste, rolled into dumplings, and simmered with daikon and other vegetables — in the Ishikawaki area it's said to carry pine-needle-shaped daikon shreds and go by the name 'matsubajiru'.
- AzaraNapa 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.
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.