Hot pot & soups
Ise Ebi no Misoshiru
Ise ebi no misoshiru — spiny lobster simmered whole into a miso soup
Spiny lobster cut into pieces is simmered from cold water, then finished with miso for a home-style soup. Said to make use of agari, lobsters that have lost a leg or whisker and can't be shipped, and served free at a September festival in Minami marking the start of the fishing season.
- Origin: Tokushima Minami
- About 530 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
This miso soup from Minami town is a home-style dish that puts to full use "agari" — Japanese spiny lobsters that have lost an antenna or leg during the catch and can't be sold whole. The rich flavor of the lobster's roe and shell dissolves into the broth alongside the miso, and the meat stays firm and springy. Live lobsters are split lengthwise and cut into chunks, with the sand sac and vein removed before going into the pot, making for a dramatic-looking dish. Onion and wakame seaweed are common additions, and while white miso is typical, some households use red or mixed miso instead.
How it's made
The lobster goes into the pot with cold water and is simmered slowly so the shell and head release their full flavor into the broth. Once it's mostly cooked through, miso is stirred in and the soup is brought back to a boil, finished with a scattering of scallions. Onion and wakame are common additions, and some cooks stir in boiled sobagome (buckwheat groats) as well. Rather than using all the meat in the soup, some households set part of it aside as sashimi and use only the rest in the broth.
Why it took this shape
Japanese spiny lobster is generally known as a premium ingredient, but the gill-net method used to catch it in the shallow waters five to twenty meters deep reportedly produces a certain number of "agari" — lobsters missing an antenna or leg that can't be sold whole. This soup appears to have taken root as a way for households to enjoy that catch rather than waste it. The season runs from September, when it reopens, through the following May, avoiding the lobsters' spawning period, and catches are said to be larger when the sea is rough — a dish that seems to have grown out of using the season's bounty to the fullest.
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 Tokushima
- Amego no HirarayakiA flat stone is heated over a hearth for hours, then a border of miso is built on it to grill amego trout, stone tofu, and konjac — an outdoor dish from the Iya valley. Its name comes from hirara, a local word for a flat stone, and it is said to have long served as a dish for entertaining guests.
- Awa BanchaA post-fermented tea from Naka and Kamikatsu towns in Tokushima, fermented by lactic acid bacteria. Coarser leaves picked from midsummer on are boiled, packed into wooden barrels, fermented for roughly 10 days to two weeks, then sun-dried — said to give a refreshing sourness.
- Awa BitonRaised in the mountains of Awa City, Tokushima, at about 400 meters, on a feed centered on rice. Handlers are said to adjust the feed mix daily and avoid genetically modified crops where possible.
- Awa GyuPedigreed Japanese Black fattened in Tokushima, which gained recognition after being shown at a Tokyo meat market competition in 1962 — said to have a moist, fine-grained texture and modest fat.
- Awa no ItokoniSweet potato that has been boiled then dried — yude-boshi style — is rehydrated and simmered slowly with red beans for about two hours over low heat. Fitting for a region where drying vegetables is common in winter, it is said to be a warming side dish built on the concentrated flavor of dried sweet potato.
- Awa UiroRed bean paste mixed with rice flour and Awa wasanbon sugar is poured into a mold and steamed into a chewy cake. Said to have first been made to celebrate the completion of Awa wasanbon sugar in the Edo period, with related uiro cakes also found in Nagoya and Yamaguchi.