Photo: Cp9asngf · CC BY-SA 4.0
Noppe (Taro and Root Vegetables Simmered Until Thickened)
A Niigata dish for New Year and celebrations: taro with carrot, burdock, lotus root, chicken, aburaage, fish cake and shiitake, cut small and simmered in a clear broth. No starch is added; the taro alone thickens it, and it is eaten warm or cold.
Ingredients
- taro (satoimo) · peeled weight500 g
- chicken thigh · cut in small dice200 g
- carrot1
- burdock0.5 root
- lotus root100 g
- dried shiitake · soaked4
- aburaage2 sheets
- kamaboko0.5 log
- dried scallop · optional, soaked20 g
- Broth
- dashi · including the shiitake and scallop soaking water800 ml
- light soy sauce (usukuchi)3 tbsp
- sake2 tbsp
- mirin2 tbsp
- salt0.5 tsp
- To serve
- salmon roe (ikura) · optional60 g
Steps
Cut the taro, carrot, burdock, lotus root, shiitake, aburaage and kamaboko into short sticks or small dice of a similar size.
- ⏲ 10 min
Put the dashi, chicken, scallop, burdock, carrot, lotus root and shiitake in a pan without frying anything first, and bring to the boil. Skim.
- ⏲ 20 min
Add the taro and aburaage, season with the sake, mirin, light soy sauce and salt, and simmer gently, uncovered.
- ⏲ 3 min
When the taro is soft and the liquid has thickened, add the kamaboko to warm through and turn off the heat.
Serve warm, or leave to cool. Top with salmon roe if you like.
Variations
- Kokusho. In Jōetsu and Itoigawa, south-west of Niigata, the same simmered dish is thickened with katakuriko (potato starch).
- Daikai. The Murakami name, with more root vegetables.
- Many ingredients. Around Shibata, thirteen to fifteen go in.
Tips
- Add no starch. The thickness comes from the taro.
- Do not fry anything first. Everything goes into the water.
- Cut everything small and to one size. It all cooks together.
- Eat it warm, at room temperature or chilled. Households differ.
More detail and the reasons why (2)
- What the taro does. According to Japanese Wikipedia, Niigata's noppe, like the noppe served around Kasuga Taisha in Nara, takes its thickness from taro alone. Next door, Jōetsu and Itoigawa's kokusho reaches the same body by stirring in katakuriko. A slurry added at the end is the route described in thickening a sauce; noppe leaves that step out and hands the job to one ingredient.
- A simmered dish, not a soup. Dishes with similar names, noppei-jiru and its relatives, are found all over Japan, but Niigata's noppe is said to be a simmered dish rather than a soup. Wikipedia sums up the family as root vegetables cut small, boiled in water first and seasoned afterwards, and never fried in oil beforehand, which is the usual difference from kenchin-jiru, where they are.
The basics behind this dish
- Blanching: Keeping Vegetables GreenBlanched vegetables go dull because of acid and heat. Why the pot should be large, why the lid stays off, and what the ice bath is really for.
- 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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