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Sawasawa
Sawasawa — konjac and sweet potato simmered into a thick soup
Konjac is simmered in dashi with carrot and burdock, then thickened with grated sweet potato, in this dish from Nio, Mitoyo. Its name is said to come from the sara-sara texture of its brothy consistency, traditionally made for memorial services.
- Origin: Kagawa Mitoyo (Nio)
- About 580 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Sawasawa centers on konjac, simmered together with carrot, burdock, sweet potato, and dried shiitake in a dashi-based broth. Grated sweet potato thickens the broth, and the watery, easily poured texture that results is said to be the source of the dish's name. The chewy bite of the konjac meets the thickened, faintly sweet broth for a simple but deeply satisfying flavor. A similar dish, "konnyaku no hachihai," exists elsewhere in Kagawa, but differs in how the konjac is cut and in its garnishes.
How it's made
The konjac is briefly boiled and cut into strips, the carrot julienned, and the burdock shaved into strips and boiled. Dried shiitake is rehydrated, cut into strips, and lightly seasoned. Dashi and the prepared ingredients go into a pot and simmer with soy sauce, sugar, and sake. Peeled, grated sweet potato is stirred into the simmering pot, and once it thickens, the heat is turned off. It's served with a topping of chopped scallion and grated ginger.
Why it took this shape
In the mountainous part of Toyo in Mitoyo city, households are said to have long grown konjac corms around their homes, making konjac together as a community when the season came and storing dozens of blocks per household in barrels with the bitterness-removing liquid. Made from readily available konjac and root vegetables with a simple method, the dish appears to have become established as a special-occasion food for memorial services and the monthly anniversary of Kobo Daishi's death. Konjac is said to be rich in dietary fiber and to help the gut, which is also said to have made it valued as a dish that's easy on the body.
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.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- At teishoku diners, shokudo, and machi-chukaA guide to the teishoku set-meal format, free rice refills, table placement, and paying at a shokudo-style diner.
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 Kagawa
- Aji no SanbaiAji (horse mackerel) is grilled until lightly charred, then steeped in a three-part vinegar dressing sharpened with chili and ginger. The vinegar is said to soften the bones enough to eat whole, and the dish has long served as a summer festival accompaniment to drinks around the Seto Inland Sea.
- Anmochi ZoniA New Year zoni made by simmering daikon, kintoki carrot, and a round rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste in dried-sardine broth, finished with white miso. Said to have begun as a once-a-year treat using sugar, once a costly commodity in the Edo period.
- Ebi Miso JiruSmall shell-on shrimp are pureed with rice rinse water, then simmered with white miso and tofu. Served as part of the roughly 300-year-old sacred sake festival at Uga Shrine in Toyonaka, Mitoyo, where it has long accompanied the shrine's home-brewed doburoku.
- Hage DangoFreshly milled new-wheat dumplings are coated in a simple red-bean paste. Traditionally made around Hangeshō, the early-July turning point when the rains break, as thanks for the season's farm work, and offered to household gods before the family eats.
- Ikanago shoyuA fish sauce fermented from sand lance and salt for six months or more, mainly produced in the Aji district of Takamatsu, Kagawa. It is said to have disappeared for a time before local volunteers revived production around 1998, and it is counted among Japan's three great fish sauces.
- ImotakoOctopus from the Seto Inland Sea and taro are simmered together in a simple seasoned broth. Once reserved for New Year and wedding feasts, it is said to have become an everyday side dish today.