December 6, 2016

Otoji/おとうじ

My father comes from Nagano (aka Shinshu). Like any other area in Japan, Shinshu has some wonderful local dishes, one of which is otoji. There are several variations of this local dish, and my father's version uses hiyamugi (wheat noodles thicker than somen and thinner than udon) rather than soba (buckwheat noodles) and uses soy sauce (and mirin) rather than miso.
父は長野(信州)出身です。日本の他の地域同様、信州には、素晴らしい郷土料理があります。その一つが「おとうじ」です。この料理にはいくつかバリエーションがありますが、父の「おとうじ」は、そばではなく冷麦(ひやむぎ)を使い(冷麦とは素麺(そうめん)より太く、うどんより細い小麦の麺)、味噌ではなく、しょう油(とみりん)を使います。

I've been familiar with this local dish since childhood, but this is the very first time that I have made otoji.
この郷土料理は子供の頃から知っていますが、作るのは初めてです。 
Many hiyamugi products contain some noodles colored green and pink.
冷麦では、緑やピンクに色付けした麺が入っている製品が多いです。
I wanted to arrange the boiled hiyamugi beautifully into individual coils, but I was just unable to.
茹でた冷麦を美しくコイル状にしたかったのですが、ちょっとできませんでした。
The soup contains daikon, Chinese cabbage, carrot, abura age, naga negi, and three mushrooms (enoki, nameko, and shiitake), and is seasoned with instant dashi and soy sauce (no mirin, because my father doesn't like the soup to be sweetened).
汁には、大根、白菜、人参、油揚げ、長ネギ、3種のきのこ(えのき、なめこ、しいたけ)を入れ、出汁の素としょう油で味付けしました(父は汁を甘くするのは嫌いなので、みりんは入れていません)。
To have otoji in a proper way, you need a wooden basket with a handle called toji kago. Surprisingly, I found that my father did not have a single toji kago!
おとうじを正しく食べるには、柄のついた竹製のかご(とうじかご)が必要ですが、驚いたことに、父は、とうじかごを持っていませんでした!

So, the proper way to have otoji is like this: You put a coil of boiled hiyamugi in the toji kago, and dip the toji kago into the pot of soup for a while, transfer the hiyamugi to a bowl, and put some soup and some of the ingredients to the bowl.
というわけで、正しいおとうじの食べ方は、次の通りです:コイル状にした茹でた冷麦をとうじかごに入れ、かごを汁にしばらく漬けて、冷麦をお椀に移し、汁と具を少しお椀に入れます。

These and other YouTube videos may clarify how to eat otoji properly:
次のようなYouTubeのビデオでおとうじの正しい食べ方が分かると思います。
Video 1
Video 2

2 comments:

Amy said...

This is such an amazing way to eat noodles! The noodles will be nice and hot when you eat them, but they won't absorb additional liquid by sitting in a bowl of hot broth. Plus the toji kago are so cute! I don't think I've gone looking for hiyamugi in the Japanese supermarkets around me, and I didn't know that hiyamugi could have additional colors - I'll have to look for them now!

Hiroyuki said...

Amy: You are quite an observer! I totally agree with your comment about otoji.

Yes, the toji kago are so cute I need to get some myself!

As for hiyamugi, for some reason (I really don't know why), hiyamugi has become less popular than somen. All my family except me prefer somen to hiyamugi...