November 23, 2008

Satoimo no Nikkorogashi (lit. Simmered and Rolled Taro)/里芋の煮っ転がし

Yesterday, I harvested some satoimo (taro) from a small lot around my house. I put some of them in miso soup together with daikon this morning. My son said he wanted to have satoimo no nikkorogashi (or nikorogashi, which literally means simmered and rolled), and I complied with this request, although I didn't want to. To make satoimo no nikkorogashi, I usually want to use much more (> 30) satoimo.
昨日、家の周りの小さな畑から里芋を収穫しました。今朝、いくつかを大根と一緒に味噌汁に入れました。息子は里芋の煮っ転がしを食べたいと言うので、リクエストに応じました。本当はしたくなかったのですが。里芋の煮っ転がしを作る時は、普通、里芋をもっと多く(30個以上)使いたいので。
Most recipes call for parboiling satoimo before simmering in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin (and/or sugar), but I don't want to parboil them. Once I followed such a recipe and found the resulting nikkorogashi rather bland. I usually skip parboiling them and simply simmer them in a dashi, mirin, and soy sauce mixture with a ratio of 8:1:1.
大半のレシピーでは、出汁、醤油、みりん(と砂糖)で煮る前に下茹でするよう書いてありますが、私は下茹でするのは好きではありません。そのようなレシピーを試したことがありますが、出来上がった煮っ転がしは味気なくなってしまいました。普通は下茹でを省いて、ただ出汁、みりん、醤油を8:1:1で混ぜたもので煮ます。
A 8:1:1 mixture of dashi, mirin, and soy sauce is called happo (versatile) dashi, because it can be used for most Japanese simmered dishes.
出汁、みりん、醤油を8:1:1で混ぜたものは八方出汁と呼ばれます。大半の煮物料理に使えるからです。

Photo taken after harvest:
収穫後に撮った写真

2 comments:

Yvette said...

That looks yummy - especially since you grew & harvested them yourself! Those look like the araimo that we get here. Is there a difference between araimo & satoimo?

Hiroyuki said...

Yvette: It is yummy. My daughter, who is usually a picky eater, likes it. It will be even better the next day! That's why I want to use a lot of satoimo when I make it.
I'm not familiar with the term araimo, though it's clear to me that it means rough potato. I googled and found it's the same as satoimo.
Imo is a generic term for potato.
Thus, sato (village) imo = taro,
yama (mountain) imo = yam,
jaga (< Jakarta) imo = potato (as in potato chips), and
satsuma (place name) imo = sweet potato.