Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Ankou-nabe
Ankou-nabe — monkfish hot pot, with its liver melted into a miso or soy broth
Monkfish meat, skin, liver, and stomach simmered with vegetables, a winter pot of northern Ibaraki. It is described as a more approachable version of dobujiru, which fishermen ate aboard their boats, and comes in miso and soy-sauce versions.
- Origin: Ibaraki Kitaibaraki
- Miso-based
- About 150 km northeast of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Almost every part of the monkfish is used, including flesh, skin, stomach, fins, liver, ovaries, and gills, and their springy textures layer up. In the miso version, the liver melts into a blend of several misos to add richness. The soy-sauce version rests on monkfish bones with bonito and kombu dashi and tastes cleaner.
How it's made
Monkfish's body is gelatinous and hard to cut on a board, so it is butchered by hanging it from a hook by the lower jaw, a method called tsurushi-giri. In the pot, the original form is dobujiru, in which the liver is stir-fried and blended with miso before the flesh and vegetables go in, and ankou-nabe is described as that dish made easier to eat. The liver is said to fatten in winter and deepen in flavor.
Why it took this shape
Dobujiru was a dish fishermen ate on their boats, and since all that was needed was a pot, miso, and vegetables, it is said to have suited life afloat. The name is said to come from the liver dissolving and clouding the broth. Monkfish is landed at fishing ports in northern Ibaraki such as Hirakata, Otsu, and Nakaminato, and the season runs from November to March when cooler water fattens the liver. Food from the work of fishing was shaped into a pot.
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
- Beka NabeSardines pickled in rice bran are simmered with napa cabbage, mushrooms, and sake lees in this Noto winter hot pot, said to descend from a preservation method from before refrigeration — its name reputedly a nod to how commonly the cheap fish was eaten.
- Botan NabeA Tanba-Sasayama hot pot of wild boar and seasonal vegetables simmered in a broth of white and red miso, often finished with a dusting of ground Japanese pepper. Some restaurants are said to arrange the sliced boar meat like the petals of a peony.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Ibaraki
- Aka MochiReddish sorghum flour is kneaded with hot water, boiled into dumplings, and coated with sweet bean paste or soybean flour. In flood-prone areas where rice and wheat often failed, sorghum alone survived, making this a stand-in staple.
- Garigari NamasuDaikon is coarsely grated with a bamboo oni-oroshi grater — hence the crunchy 'gari-gari' name — then tossed with vinegared fish. The rough texture is the point, and the dish turns up at New Year's and other gatherings.
- Gomoku InarizushiFried tofu pockets are stuffed with vinegared rice mixed with carrot, burdock, and shiitake. In Kasama, home to Kasama Inari Shrine, the mix grows even more colorful with local soba and walnuts, served to shrine visitors.
- Gosai-zukeSalted, fermented sardines are layered with daikon, yuzu, and chili for a winter preserve from the Rokko coast. As sardine catches have thinned, saury increasingly takes their place.
- Hamaguri GohanLarge clams from the Kashima coast are stir-fried with carrot and shiitake, and the rice is cooked in their broth. Because each clam's two shells fit only each other, the dish is served at weddings and other celebrations.