Kabu with Dengaku miso

This is Kabu, Japanese spring turnip available in April and May. It is often pickled with salt, kombu and grated peel of yuzu. Furthermore it is a common ingredient in soups and simmered dishes. There are over 100 traditional and local species in Japan and it proves that Japanese have loved it for a long time. By the way, I often simmer it with slices of pork and gochujang (Korean red chili paste) and soysauce.





Today I cook Dengaku by way of trial. Dengaku is one of Japanese traditioanl cuisine, which consists of simmered vegetable, tofu and konnyaku topped with sweetened miso called "Dengaku-miso". Mainly white miso made in Kyoto and red miso in Nagoya are used for it. Soybeans are the main material for any kind of miso, but the difference of each miso is produced by the malt which is used.  Rice-malt is often used in eastern Japan, barley-malt in Kyushu and soybean-malt in Nagoya. It is not too much to say that 49 prefectures of Japan have each local miso.

The green dengaku-miso is sweetened white miso with rubbed leaves bud of Japanese pepper which smell frech green. The brown one is sweetened red miso with a little ground Japanese pepper. The yellow one smells very aromatic with a pinch of Yuzu peel. Please don't forget to peel the Kabu in hexagon as Japanese cuisine values the appearance.