Hot pot & soups
Sobagome Zosui
Sobagome zosui — buckwheat groats simmered like rice porridge with vegetables
Buckwheat groats — boiled in salted water, hulled, and dried into what's called sobagome — are simmered with chicken, konjac, and vegetables into a porridge-like dish. Said to trace back to Heike clan survivors who took refuge in the rice-poor Iya valley and grew buckwheat there instead.
- Origin: Tokushima Miyoshi
- About 570 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Sobagome zōsui centers on "sobagome" — whole buckwheat groats that are boiled in their husks and dried rather than milled into flour. Cooked, the groats swell to nearly four times their size, giving each spoonful a nutty flavor and a distinctive light snap. Chicken, konjac, carrot, and dried shiitake are simmered in dashi and seasoned with soy sauce and mirin before the groats are stirred in. Buckwheat itself is rich in protein, minerals, and fiber, so the dish, loaded with vegetables and meat, ends up well balanced nutritionally.
How it's made
The groats are boiled for ten to fifteen minutes in plenty of water, then rinsed and drained. A dashi is made from dried sardines and the soaking liquid of dried shiitake, and chicken, carrot, konjac, fish cake, and shiitake are simmered in it over medium heat. Once seasoned with light soy sauce and mirin, the pre-boiled sobagome is added last, and the dish is finished with a scattering of scallions. The groats double as the starch of the meal, so they are used generously, giving the dish the heft of a porridge rather than a thin soup.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have taken root in the Iya valley, a mountainous area poorly suited to rice cultivation. When Taira clan survivors reportedly fled there after their defeat in the Genpei War, they are said to have turned to buckwheat, which grows in a much shorter season than rice, in place of it. Boiling the whole groats rather than milling them into flour looks like a way of making full use of a limited harvest in a harsh mountain environment. At New Year's, the dish was reportedly enriched with wild fowl and served as a festive treat.
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
Related lineage
- Iya SobaA thick, binder-free soba from the Iya valley in Miyoshi, Tokushima. In this mountain terrain unsuited to rice, buckwheat's short growing season made it the staple crop.
- Ayu RosuiA whole river ayu is simmered with summer vegetables like eggplant and potato, rice, and dashi, then seasoned with miso, into a porridge-like dish. Rosui is said to be a local slurring of zosui, made to mark the June opening of ayu fishing season on the clear Katsuura River.
- OmiisanRice simmered in dried-sardine dashi is loaded with taro, daikon, and daikon greens, then finished with dissolved miso, into a porridge. Said to have been an everyday dish in leaner times, made to use up leftover rice and miso soup without waste.
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.