December 27, 2010

Tonjiru or Butajiru (Pork Soup)/豚汁(とんじる、ぶたじる)

I previously posted about tonjiru here, but here is another post on it, because I wanted to remind you that winter calls for tonjiru and other hot soups as well as nabemono.
豚汁については既にここで述べましたが、再度、触れます。冬には鍋物の他に豚汁など温かい汁が欠かせないからです。
I made tonjiru as part of supper tonight. This particular one is very, very substantial; it contains daikon, carrot, gobo (burdock root), satoimo (taro), konnyaku, naga negi, nara take (honey mushrooms), and of course, pork.
今日の夕飯には豚汁を作りました。今回のはとても具沢山です。大根、ニンジン、ゴボウ、里芋、こんにゃく、長ネギ、ナラタケ、そしてもちろん豚肉が入っています。



Very tasty indeed!
本当に美味しいです!

14 comments:

Rose said...

I love this soup! I tried it in Japan and now I can not let winter go by without making it. ^_^ Thank you for sharing.

After seeing your post about nabe I want to make my own! I have venison and I read that there is a nabe made with venison. Can you please suggest how to make venison nabe?

Hiroyuki said...

Rose:
A venison nabe is called momiji (maple) nabe (I didn't know that!).

Just one example from
http://www.melma.com/backnumber_36184_985369/
(Japanese only)

Rough translation:

Ingredients for 4 servings

400 g venison
1/2 gobo (burdock rout)
1 carrot
1 onion
3 potatoes
3 tbsp miso
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ginger juice

Direction:
1. Thinly slice venison, parboil in boiling water (to get rid of odor) and drain.
2. Cut potatoes into managerable sizes, whittle gobo and soak in water.
3. In a shallow pot, put vegetables, add water to cover them, turn on the heat.
When the pot comes to a boil, add sugar and miso.
4. Add thinly sliced onion, add venison, adjusting the heat so as not to bring to a boil.
When the venison is done, add ginger juice.

Hiroyuki said...

Rose:
This blog has a photo of momiji nabe:
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/whvnora/29471540.html
The ingredients and the directions are almost the same.

Rose said...

Thank you very very much Hiroyuki! This is very helpful! Tonight I can have Momiji Nabe!

Hiroyuki said...

Rose: I forgot to translate how to cut carrot.
In step 2, peel carrot, cut lengthwise, and cut into 2-cm pieces.
I hope you have a great momiji nabe.

By the way, inoshishi (wild boar) nabe is called botan (peony) nabe.

Both momiji (maple) and botan (peony) refer to the colors of the meats.

Rose said...

Thank you! So the carrot should look like half circles?

I like those names for the meat. It sounds very poetic. Like how horse meat is called sakura?

I have wild boar meat too (my father loves to hunt) perhaps I can also make a botan nabe as well! ^_^ My family likes to eat wild meat because it is very healthy. Also we know that the animals lived a natural happy life.

Hiroyuki said...

Rose: Yes, half circles, called hangetsu-giri (half-moon slices) in Japanese. Of course, you can cut it into quarter rounds (ichou-giri, i.e., ginkgo leaf slices), if it's big, or you can cut it into flower shapes if you like.

Poetic (laugh)?? Yes, you are absolutely right! As you say, sakura = horsemeat. Another poetic expression I can think of right now is mizore (sleet) for grated daikon.

Your father likes hunting?! Wow!

Rose said...

I feel I must practice my knife skills. Even with vegetables there are pretty names like half moon and ginko leaves!

Thank you for the translation of mizore too! There is a beatiful picture of Yuki Nabe in Yoshihiro Murata's book Kaiseki. In which tai fish and chrysanthemum leaves are topped with plenty of mizore and then sprinkled with bits of fresh yuzu peel and fuki no to. So it looks as if spring is appearing through the melting snow!

Actually my whole family does! Recently we went pheasant hunting (やまどり)。

Hiroyuki said...

Rose: I have the book, too!

Knife skills? I would suggest starting with sharpening your knife (laugh).

Rose said...

hahaha that might help ^_^

Jessica said...

I just ran across your blog, and I enjoyed seeing your tonjiru recipe - I make it a lot but it's definitely something that everybody makes a little differently. :-)

Hiroyuki said...

Jessica: Thanks for your comment. I visited your blog and was amused to read your mention about tonjiru in the About page.
If you are a fan of peanut butter, why not subtitute it with kinako plus milk from time to time? I think it's a great low-fat alternative.

Jessica said...

Hiroyuki: Hmm, that's a good idea! I do like the taste of kinako so I'll have to try that...I usually eat peanut butter on oatmeal or English muffins and I bet kinako would be good on either of those.

Hiroyuki said...

Jessica:
Check out this post of mine:
http://hiro-shio.blogspot.com/2008/10/kinako-roasted-soy-bean-powder.html
My wife happens to be a huge fan of a mixture of kinako, sugar, and milk. She very often spreads it on a piece of bread for lunch.