March 26, 2013

Nina/煮菜

As part of supper tonight, my wife made these three dishes:
今日の夕飯には妻がこの三種類の料理を作りました:

Sweet and sour pork:
酢豚:

Spinach goma ae (dressed with sesame seeds):
ほうれん草のごま和え:
Oyster and enoki mushroom stir-fry:
ヒラタケとエノキの炒め物:
We also had nina (pronounced nee-na around here in Niigata):
煮菜(新潟のこの辺りでは「にーな」と発音)も食べました:
This nina was given by my wife's father.  This particular one contains sake kasu (lees) and abura age. Here in the Uonuma region of Niigata prefecture, nina is made by first desalting pickled nozawana. In other regions of Niigata, pickled daikon leaves and taisai (or taina; Brassica rapa) are used. Anyway, nina is a very, very popular dish in Niigata.
この煮菜は妻の父からもらったものです。酒かすと油揚げが入っています。新潟県の魚沼地域では、煮菜は、まず野沢菜漬けを塩抜きして作ります。新潟県の他の地域では、大根の葉っぱや体菜(たいさい、たいな)が使われます。ともかく、新潟では煮菜はとっても一般的な料理です。

2 comments:

Fräulein Trude said...

Wonder how Nina tastes, never heard about sake kasu but googled a bit. It looks very good.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: I have just posted a recipe. The same old flavor (soy sauce, mirin, and sake). As I mentioned in the post, nozawana zuke that has turned sour is usually used for this dish. People here pickle large amounts of nozawana in late fall to consume them until spring. As it gets warmer, nozawana zuke turns sour due to lactic acid fermentation.

Sake kasu adds a nice additional flavor to the dish (if you like the flavor of sake kasu).