Hot pot & soups
Gojiru
Fukui gojiru — a miso soup thickened with ground soybean paste
Soybeans soaked overnight are ground into a paste called 'go' and stirred into miso soup — said to be one of the shojin dishes served at the Honkoko gathering. The soft, nutty richness makes it a nourishing winter staple in Fukui homes.
- Origin: Fukui
- About 320 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A miso soup thickened with 'go' — soybeans soaked overnight and ground smooth — so the beans' fluffy richness meets the miso's saltiness in a deeply nourishing bowl that warms from the inside. The texture carries a light thickness, and it's said to be finished with scallion and a touch of chili for extra bite. It tends to boil over easily, so it's said to need watching on the stove.
How it's made
Soybeans soaked overnight are simmered until the raw smell is gone, then ground smooth into 'go' with a mortar or blender before being simmered with other ingredients and stirred through with miso. Grinding by hand can take over an hour, though using soybean flour speeds things up — a choice said to shift with each household's pace of life. Finishing with chopped scallion while it's still hot is said to be standard.
Why it took this shape
The soup is said to have spread as part of the feast for Hoonko, the year's biggest Jodo Shinshu memorial, where ground soybeans served as a protein source within an otherwise meat- and fish-free spread. It's said to have been handed down as a warming, nourishing dish for the harsh winters of the Reihoku region, with each household keeping its own version alive.
Before you go
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
- At yakiniku, shabu-shabu, and hot potGrilling your own meat at yakiniku, swishing thin slices at shabu-shabu, and sharing from the pot — the customs behind each.
Dishes in the same style
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.
- Aichi ZoniSquare mochi and mochina, a traditional Owari green, are served in a plain clear broth for New Year — a notably simple zoni. It's speculated that using miso so often in daily cooking is exactly why a clear broth is chosen for this festive occasion, deliberately leaving miso out.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Fukui
- Atsuage no NitaThick fried tofu, blanched and scored with a cross cut, is simmered sweet-savory in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a dash of ginger juice. Fukui leads the country in fried-tofu consumption, and this dish is said to have moved from a Honkoko feast dish into everyday cooking.
- BokkakeThick fried tofu, burdock, and shirataki noodles are simmered in a bonito broth and poured hot, broth and all, over freshly cooked rice — eaten for over a century since the early 1910s. In Katsuyama it is said to take a chazuke-like turn, topped with fish cake and mitsuba.
- ChameshiRoasted soybeans are steeped in hot roasted barley tea, and rice is then cooked in that same tea — a dish from the old post town of Imajo, said to descend from Nara's 'nara-chameshi'. It is said to be indispensable at memorial services, Honkoko, and for daughters visiting home.
- Choju NamasuGround sesame is worked into a paste with miso, thick fried tofu, mustard, and vinegar, then tossed with shredded daikon, carrot, and snap peas — a New Year salad whose name literally wishes long life, also said to appear at memorial services and Honkoko.
- Decchi YokanSweet red bean paste is set with agar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a thin, water-yokan-like winter confection. It is said to have begun when a young apprentice, home for New Year from a Kyoto shop, stretched a bar of yokan with water to share with neighbors, eaten by the kotatsu.
- Echizen Oroshi SobaA cold soba from Echizen, Fukui, topped with grated daikon and bonito flakes. It is said to originate with a soba maker a local lord brought from Kyoto to promote buckwheat as an emergency food crop.