Photo: Opqr · CC BY-SA 3.0
Kozuyu (Dried Scallop Soup with Taro and Wheat Gluten)
A celebration soup from Aizu in Fukushima: dried scallops soaked to make the broth and left in it, with taro, carrot, wood ear, ginkgo nuts and tiny wheat-gluten puffs, lightly seasoned. It is served in small, shallow red lacquer dishes and refilled as often as you like.
Ingredients
- dried scallops · 4-6 pieces30 g
- water1.2 L
- taro · peeled, bite-sized4
- carrot · cut into ginkgo-leaf or flower shapes0.5
- dried shiitake · soaked and sliced3
- dried wood ear · soaked and torn5 g
- shirataki noodles · blanched, cut into 2-3cm100 g
- ginkgo nuts · cooked and peeled12
- green beans · blanched, 3cm lengths50 g
- mamefu (tiny wheat-gluten puffs)15 g
- Seasoning
- sake2 tbsp
- light soy sauce (usukuchi)1.5 tbsp
- salt · to taste0.5 tsp
Steps
Soak the dried scallops overnight in the 1.2L of water.
Shred the soaked scallops by hand and put them in a pot with all their soaking water. Bring to the boil. The scallops stay in.
- ⏲ 15 min
Add the taro, carrot, shiitake, wood ear, shirataki and ginkgo and simmer gently until the taro is tender.
Season with the sake and light soy sauce, and adjust lightly with salt.
- ⏲ 1 min 30 sec
Add the green beans and the mamefu last and leave for 1-2 minutes, until the mamefu has soaked up the broth.
Keep it in one large bowl and ladle it into small, shallow dishes to serve.
Variations
- Zakuzaku. A similar soup made at home, with kombu, daikon and burdock added and dried sardines in the broth as well.
- Hime-take. Some households add thin bamboo shoots called hime-take; the bowl in the photograph has them.
- Tsuyuji. In Minami-Aizu kozuyu is also called tsuyuji.
- Kozuyu sets. There are so many ingredients to prepare that local shops sell the basic ones packed together.
Tips
- The scallop soaking water is the broth. Do not throw it away.
- The scallops stay in once the broth is made. They become part of the soup.
- Season lightly. The scallop should come through first.
- Use seven or nine ingredients. Odd numbers are considered lucky.
- The mamefu goes in last.
More detail and the reasons why (2)
- The stock ingredient is the food. A stock is usually strained and its solids thrown away (stocks and broths). Kozuyu makes its broth from dried scallops and then leaves them in to be eaten. Japanese Wikipedia explains that inland Aizu, before modern transport and refrigeration, could not get fresh seafood even for a celebration, so a soup of dried seafood became the celebration dish. The savoury depth of dried scallop also shows up in wonton noodles, as a stand-in for dried flounder.
- Why the dishes are shallow. Kozuyu is served in tejio-zara, small, shallow dishes of red Aizu lacquer. Japanese Wikipedia says they carry the message "we could not prepare a lavish dish, but please have as many bowls of this as you like", and so with kozuyu alone it is not rude to ask for more at a formal celebration.
The basics behind this dish
- Stocks and Broths: Clarity, Time, and Why You Do Not Salt ThemWhat separates a clear stock from a cloudy one is temperature, not ingredients. Why you start in cold water, how long each ingredient wants, and why salt comes later.
- Salt: When You Add It Matters More Than How MuchThe same amount of salt either draws water out or seasons all the way through, depending on when it goes in. Osmosis, seasoning in layers, and why salt types are not interchangeable by volume.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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