Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Tarachiri
Tarachiri — cod simmered with tofu and vegetables in kombu broth, eaten with ponzu
Cod fillets simmered with tofu and vegetables in kombu dashi or hot water and eaten with ponzu or soy sauce. 'Chiri' is said to refer to how fish flesh curls when put in hot water.
- Mizutaki & chiri (light broth)
Lineage
What it's made of
Cod flesh is mild and flakes into soft pieces when cooked. Tofu and vegetables with little bitterness join it so that the broth stays clear. In unseasoned liquid the sweetness of cod rises quietly, and it is eaten with ponzu, condiments, and the scent of yuzu. Flesh that is springy and translucent, with skin free of slime, is said to be best.
How it's made
Water, sake, and ginger are brought to a boil in an earthenware pot, then cod goes in and is cooked to taste. Because long simmering firms the flesh, pieces are taken just as they finish. The liquid is not seasoned; ponzu, yuzu kosho, or slivered yuzu peel are set out for dipping. Cod in the depth of winter is said to taste best.
Why it took this shape
The name 'chiri' is said to come from how fresh fish fillets curl up with a 'chiri-chiri' look when hot water is poured on them. A pot in which white fish is quickly cooked in kombu dashi or hot water is chiri-nabe, and cod, caught in northern seas in winter, became a representative ingredient. On the Hokkaido coast and in Hokuriku the word often means pollock, and elsewhere Pacific cod.
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
- Asuka NabeA hot pot from Asuka Village of chicken and seasonal vegetables simmered in milk and dashi. It is said to trace to a dairy product brought from Tang China in the Asuka period and later reworked by monks who simmered their chickens in milk, taking its present form around the early Showa era.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- MizutakiBone-in chicken and vegetables simmer slowly into a milky broth, eaten with a citrus-soy dip — said to have taken shape in Hakata from a foreign chicken soup that first landed in Nagasaki, and now inseparable from the closing feast of the city's summer festival.
- JobannabePork and spinach quickly simmered in kombu and sake broth and eaten with ponzu. The name is said to mean a pot you would not tire of eating every night, and it belongs to the line of mizutaki, in which the broth is not seasoned.
- YudofuTofu gently warmed in an earthenware pot lined with kombu. It is said to have begun as temple cooking at Nanzenji and to have been served first at teahouses at the temple gate, and Kyoto's soft water underlies tofu that stays tender even when heated.
- TecchiriFugu meat and bones simmered with napa cabbage and tofu in kombu dashi and eaten with ponzu. The name is said to join 'teppo', a nickname for fugu, with 'chiri-nabe', and to have come into use in Osaka around 1955.