The taste in Fukushima (PART 4)

Recipe and Origin of the Name
Tororo sembei, or Japanese crackers with grated yam, are easily preserved foods of the Ishikawa district's Kodaira area. They contain no food additives and are popular between-meal refreshments. Around the Girls' Festival in March is the preferred season for preparing them.

Ingredients:
2 cups glutinous rice About 10 cm Chinese yam 1 kg sugar 5 g (1 teaspoon) salt Excessive sugar makes tororo sembei hard.

Preparation

(1) Wash glutinous rice
sufficiently; soak in
water overnight. (2) (2) Strain adequately with
a basket; steam.

(3) Pound in mortar until
smooth. (4) Peel Chinese yam; grate
and then bray. Add sugar
and salt; pound and mix
sufficiently.

(5) Form into a stick shape.
When rice cake becomes hard,
slice into thin pieces;
dry naturally. (6) Fry just before eating.

Recipe and Origin of the Name
People in this district never fail to make "hishi-maki" for the Boy's Festival in May. Hishi-maki are preservable and sent to children and distant friends as a delicacy from home.

Ingredients:
Apropos amount of glutinous rice Apropos number of bamboo leaves Aropos amount of sedge

Preparation

(1) Wash glutinous rice
sufficiently; drain. (2) Fold a bamboo leaf into a
triangle; fill rather loosely
with two tablespoonfuls
glutinous rice.

(3) Cover with another bamboo leaf;
shape into triangle.
Tie with sedge. Make bundles
of five each; soak overnight
in water. (4) Boil in abundant water next
day. In 30 minutes, swollen
rice will fill the bamboo
leaves.

(5) Powder with soybean flour and
eat. Place a soybean at each
corner of the triangle for
better taste.

Recipe and Origin of the Name
People in Aizu serve this dish not only on happy occasions but also on Buddhist rituals such as the Bon Festival (lantern festival) and higan (equinoctial weeks). In a Buddhist rite, the eyes of scallops are excluded. The amount of foodstuffs used vary with the season.

Ingredients:
4 to 5 scallop eyes 50 g dried shiitake mushrooms 50 g dried Jew's ears 1 medium carrot 20 taros 500 g konjak (devil's tongue) noodles 1 package small balls of wheat-gluten bread Apropos amount narutomaki boiled fish paste Apropos amount green leaves Apropos amount soy sauce

Preparation

(1) Reconstitute Jew's-ears and
shiitake mushrooms with water. (2) Boil taros.

(3) Boil water in pan. Put
foodstuffs in order of
toughness (toughest one first).
When boiled, season with
soy sauce. Last, add small
wheat-gluten bread soaked
in water. (4) Cut foodstuffs into smallish
pieces of the same size.

(5) Serve in bowls with boiled
green vegetable of the
season and thinly sliced
narutomaki on top.

(Taken from Illustrated Cuisine of Fukushima, published by Fukushima-ken NOYUKAI )

[ PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 ]