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Zenmai no Itameni
Zenmai no Itameni — mountain fern, dried and re-hydrated, stir-simmered with fried tofu
Zenmai fern, repeatedly boiled and sun-dried until fully cured, is re-hydrated and stir-simmered with fried tofu — a dish from Otoyo Town, known for its zenmai. The repeated drying is said to soften the fern's fiber, and the dish is a regular on sawachi platters.
- Origin: Kochi Otoyo
- About 590 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Dried Japanese royal fern, stir-fried with fried tofu, is said to turn softly fibrous and take on a deep flavor as it soaks up the stock. Otoyo Town, deep in the Shikoku mountains and more than eighty percent forest, is said to be known as a source of this fern. Boiled and dried, it keeps for a long time, and it is said to have long served as an important food in mountain villages. Because it pairs well with oil and is filling, it is said to have often appeared on the table on the day of rice-planting.
How it's made
Dried fern needs to be rehydrated before cooking: it is added to boiling water, simmered over low heat for about ten minutes, then left to soak in water for half a day to a full day. Simmering it too long is said to leave it too soft, robbing it of its texture, so care is taken. The rehydrated fern is stir-fried with fried tofu, then simmered slowly with stock and seasoning. A scattering of sesame at the end is said to bring out its fragrance.
Why it took this shape
Drying the fern takes considerable effort: it is boiled in a large pot, spread on a straw mat to dry in the sun, then worked by hand and dried again, a cycle said to be repeated five or six times to finish it. This repetition is said to soften the fibers and make the fern good to eat. Because the dried fern is shipped all at once, it is eaten regularly and often appears on sawachi platters, and dried fern from Kochi is said to be treated as a premium product.
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
Related lineage
- KonchinShaved burdock is worked generously into a batter of medium-strength wheat flour and pan-fried on both sides — a snack from Otoyo Town. It's said to use the same local wheat flour that once stood in for rice when it was scarce, and it also finds a place on sawachi platters.
- Itadori no AburaitameThe young shoots of itadori, a mountain-growing knotweed, are peeled, blanched to draw out their tartness, then stir-fried in oil and seasoned with soy sauce and sugar. Since the shoots appear only in spring, they're salted or frozen for storage and eaten from the pantry year-round.
- Hange DangoWheat dough is wrapped around sweet red bean, then wrapped again in a myoga leaf and steamed — a confection from Otoyo Town. It's made on hange, July 2nd, to mark a rest from farm labor, and is said to be offered to the paddy field's guardian deity too. It also goes by the name myoga dango.
Also from Kochi
- Chate no AemonoChayote, a squash-family vine native to tropical America and known locally as chate, is tossed raw into a light dressing — an autumn home dish in Kochi. A single vine can bear over a hundred fruit, so it's mostly grown for the household or shared with neighbors, and it's especially popular in the mountains where it grows easily.
- Chunichi SobaA local noodle dish from Akaoka, Kochi's Konan City, pairing Chinese noodles with udon stock. Dried baby sardines and shredded kelp are the standard toppings, said to have grown from a shortcut sparing the effort of both udon and ramen kitchens.
- Ginburo ZushiGinburo, a kidney bean grown only for home use in a district of Otoyo Town, is simmered sweet and folded into vinegared rice with root vegetables. Regarded as a bean of long life and good fortune, it's traditionally made for festivals and celebratory banquets.
- GoishichaA post-fermented tea from Otoyo, Kochi Prefecture, made through two stages of fermentation — an aerobic mold fermentation followed by a lactic acid soak. Named for its square-cut, sun-dried pieces said to resemble go stones, it carries a distinctive sweet-and-sour flavor.
- GuruniDaikon, carrot, taro, and other root vegetables are simmered together in a dashi made from dried baby sardines and soy sauce — a winter side dish. The name is said to come from "guru," Tosa dialect for a group of companions, and the dish was long made in bulk and reheated meal after meal.
- Ha Ninniku no NutaGarlic greens are chopped, ground, and mixed with miso, vinegar, sesame, and sugar — a traditional Kochi condiment said to trace back to a Korean import. It's commonly spooned over raw fish like yellowtail in place of soy sauce, and both its name and the fish it accompanies vary by area.