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Zenmai no Nimono
Zenmai no nimono — simmered dried royal fern
A Niigata home dish of sun-dried royal fern, rehydrated, pan-fried, then simmered in dashi and soy sauce. It preserves the old wisdom of drying spring fiddleheads to see the household through winter.
- Origin: Niigata
- About 260 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Sun-dried royal fern fronds, painstakingly hand-kneaded, are rehydrated, sauteed in oil, and simmered slowly in a broth of dashi, soy sauce and mirin. Going through this near-fermentation process of drying and kneading gives the dried fern a springy chew and depth of flavor that fresh fronds don't have, with a fibrous bite that soaks up the broth and a lingering, faintly bitter, deeply savory taste.
How it's made
Dried fern is placed in a pot with plenty of water, brought just to a boil, then removed from heat and left to cool completely. This process is repeated two or three times with fresh water each time to rehydrate it fully. The rehydrated fern is cut into manageable lengths, sauteed in oil, then simmered with dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar. Shiitake mushrooms, carrot or wheat gluten cakes are often added as well.
Why it took this shape
In these snowbound mountain areas, the practice of sun-drying spring-harvested fern to preserve it through winter is said to be an old and deeply rooted piece of local wisdom. Taking advantage of the way the fronds lose their bitterness naturally as the snow melts, the labor-intensive kneading process draws out a rich flavor unique to the dried ingredient. It is even simmered whole and uncut for New Year as a gesture of good fortune, making it an essential winter dish.
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
Also from Niigata
- AnboA Chuetsu-region dish of steamed rice-flour dumplings filled with sweet bean paste, pickled greens or eggplant. Similar in spirit to Nagano's oyaki but distinguished by its rice-flour skin, reflecting land suited to rice rather than wheat.
- Echigo misoA red, savory miso from Niigata, also called 'ukikoji miso' (floating-koji miso) because its polished whole-grain rice koji appears to float within the paste. Its style is said to vary across Niigata's Joetsu, Chuetsu, Kaetsu, and Sado districts, each shaped by local climate.
- Fugu no Ko no KasuzukeA rare Sado delicacy in which puffer fish ovaries are salt-cured for two years or more, then aged for a long stretch in Sado's sake lees. Only ovaries processed by licensed fugu chefs are sold, and the practice is said to date back to the Edo period.
- Fukashi NasuA Niigata dish of kinchaku eggplant halved, steamed, chilled and eaten with mustard or ginger soy sauce. In a prefecture among Japan's top eggplant producers, it is said to have been valued as a cooling dish through the summer.
- Hegi SobaA soba from Ojiya, Niigata, that uses funori seaweed, the same binder once used to size thread for the region's textiles, as a noodle binder. It is arranged in small bite-sized portions on a wooden box called a hegi.
- Hiyashijiru Miso JitateA chilled soup from the Chuetsu region, dashi thinned with miso and studded with chopped cucumber and shiso. Devised to stay appetizing through the summer heat, it is said to be eaten on its own or poured over rice or noodles.