Photo/Illutration Cod soup (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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Cooking expert Etsuko Aoki could tell that the elderly were proud of their dishes from their stories and lively gestures although they said, “You know, what I eat is nothing special.” 

That motived her to continue making trips around Ishikawa Prefecture to learn about regional home cooking.

Aoki was struck when she heard a person on the news who was affected by a major earthquake that rocked the Noto Peninsula in March 2007 say, “Being born in a place with so much tasty food, I am not one to easily lose heart.” 

The place name also brought back memories of many simple dishes.

“By eating, we take into our bodies the power to live in that place,” Aoki said. “This raises our all-embracing awareness of food. The words taught me something important.”

She discusses the findings of her trips on local TV programs and in newspapers, and she keeps a recording of them with the staff of her cooking school to this day.

This week’s recipe is “tara-jiru,” or cod soup. Pacific cod is an indispensable fish on the dinner table during the winter and is, for example, eaten as sashimi, sashimi flavored by sandwiching it with dried kelp and simmered egg.

Even the intestines, including the stomach, are given the name “nanatsu dogu,” or literally the “seven tools,” and are also eaten. A generous amount of chopped “ara” (bone and head with some meat attached) goes into the cod soup.

There is a saying: “It is better to wait to take snow-covered roads and eat cod soup,” meaning it is easier to traverse snow-covered roads after others have trodden on it, and cod soup tastes better after it has been simmered until infused with the flavor of ara.

Aoki thinks that “since the ingredient is good to begin with, its flavor will be destroyed if it is overcooked” and so only seasons the soup with miso.

The soup is served in a bowl known as “goroku-wan,” created by the late lacquerware artist Isaburo Kado, with whom Aoki was acquainted. The sturdy bowl evolved from the daily life of villagers in the northern Noto Peninsula and is used to serve a variety of food. The bowl serves as a steady container for the cod soup.

Adjust the time to heat the cod’s testes (“shirako”) since it will harden. A generous amount of the white part of a green onion should be added at the end.

In the regional dialect, locally produced foods are collectively called “jiwamon.” Aoki awaits the spring while taking in jiwamon.

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Etsuko Aoki, left, visits Isaburo Kado, a lacquerware artist in Wajima. (Photo from around 1991 provided by Etsuko Aoki)

Etsuko Aoki: Born in 1933, Aoki is a cooking expert focusing on regional cuisine. She is the director of the Aoki Cooking School and runs a restaurant called Shiki no Teburu. Aoki continues to interview people around Ishikawa Prefecture about regional dishes.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serves 4)

400 grams of the meat and “ara” of cod (tara), 10 cm white part of green onion, 10-cm square dried kombu kelp, 2 Tbsp sake, 30 grams miso, some seven-flavor chili pepper

1. Pour 5 cups of water in a pot and immerse dried kombu kelp.

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Remove from pot when it turns white. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

2. Cut meat and ara of the cod into bite-size pieces. Bring water to a boil in another pot. Have cold water ready in a bowl. Drop 2 to 3 pieces in the boiling water and remove when the surface turns white. Drop them in the cold water. Clean the surface and drain. Finely slice green onion in rounds, immerse them in water and drain.

3. Add cod pieces from (2) and sake to the pot with kelp and place on heat. When pot comes to a boil, remove kelp. Carefully skim foam.

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Bring soup to a boil and skim foam. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

4. Dissolve miso in pot. Simmer quietly until umami of fish is drawn out. Add chopped green onion as finishing touch and turn off heat. Serve in bowl and sprinkle with seven-flavor chili pepper if preferred.

About 80 kcal and 1.6 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column

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