Hot pot & soups
Kanimaki-jiru
Kanimaki-jiru — mitten crab ground fine and folded into a miso broth
A live yamataro crab — a mitten crab known locally by this name — is ground shell and all, mixed with water and miso, strained, then simmered gently — an autumn soup from the Kitago area of Nichinan City, the protein setting into soft curds like silken tofu as it heats, capturing every bit of the crab's flavor.
- Origin: Miyazaki Nichinan
- About 900 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Kanimaki-jiru, from Kitago in southern Miyazaki, is a miso-based soup made by grinding whole "santaro-gani" river crab, caught from autumn into winter, and mixing it into a miso broth. The name is said to come from the way the miso wraps the crab's flavor into the soup. Suspended in a clear broth, the soft, cloud-like texture of the crab carries a concentrated burst of flavor.
How it's made
Live santaro-gani crabs are washed well, their shells removed, then ground fine in a blender or similar tool. Water and miso are mixed in, and the mixture is strained through a sieve into a pot. Heated slowly over low heat, the crab's protein reacts with the miso and sets into something like soft tofu curds. It's served in a bowl with grated ginger and scallion, and somen or udon noodles can be added for a heartier meal.
Why it took this shape
Santaro-gani crabs are born at sea, grow as they climb upriver, then head back down to the sea to spawn, and this is said to be the season targeted for the catch. As a valuable source of protein in this area, grinding the whole crab, one that's also good boiled and eaten, is said to have developed as a way to draw out every bit of its flavor without waste. It's remained a beloved dish that people in the area are said to look forward to each autumn, a taste that announces the changing season.
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 Miyazaki
- Chikin NanbanFried chicken dipped in sweet vinegar and topped with tartar sauce, said to have originated in Nobeoka, Miyazaki. It's said to trace to a sweet-vinegar fried chicken devised as staff food at a Western-food restaurant in the 1950s.
- Futatabi DangoDumpling flour is kneaded, steamed with freshly picked mugwort folded in, then pounded a second time — a Nobeoka treat named for that unusual second working of the dough, wrapped around sweet bean paste and dusted with soybean flour into a soft, pale-green dumpling.
- Hie-zushiWild boar bones are simmered into a broth, then rice, millet, and vegetables are added and cooked down into a porridge — a Shiiba village dish built on millet, a grain said to have been eaten in Japan since before rice farming; whenever a boar was dressed, the porridge it made was shared around the whole village to see out the long winter.
- Hyuga Kurokawa Kabocha no NimonoHyuga kurokawa kabocha, a black-skinned heirloom pumpkin first grown in Miyazaki City, is cut into large chunks and simmered slowly in sugar and light soy sauce — lighter and less sweet than a Western pumpkin, but it holds its shape well and its skin is good to eat too.
- Iriko MochiGlutinous rice is parched and ground into iriko flour, then kneaded with starch syrup, rested, and cut into bars — a Miyazaki sweet said to have arrived from the Satsuma domain as a festival treat, once handed out to neighbors to wish for a child's healthy growth.
- Jidori no Miso KorobakashiJidori chicken is rolled around a dry pan with no added water, coaxed with a miso glaze without letting it catch — a home-cooked dish from around Kobayashi City, its name a western-Miyazaki dialect word for tumbling food in a pot as it cooks, the mix of vegetables and seasoning varying from house to house.