# Kenojiru ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Kenojiru

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Tsugaru area

## Main Ingredients Used
Daikon radish, carrot, burdock root, bracken, bean curd, dried bean curd, soybeans, kelp, miso

## History, Origin, and Related Events
This is a typical local dish of Tsugaru region. There are various theories about its origin, such as that it is called "kuyu-no soup" because "ku (porridge)" is called "ke (rice porridge)" in Tsugaru dialect. It is said that chopped ingredients were eaten as if they were rice in the days when rice was precious. Some say that it has been passed down since the time of Tame-nobu, the founder of the Tsugaru Clan, about 400 years ago. Originally, it was a small New Year's dish that was prepared for the men when their wives, who were busy taking care of the family and guests during the New Year's holiday, would return home for the holidays. As a nutritious preserved food, it was eaten for days after the frozen soup was broken down and reheated.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
It is a vegetarian food eaten during the koshogatsu season to pray for good health and good fortune for the year, and is also called "Tsugaru no nanakusa-gayu. It is also a preserved food that women make and keep at home to relax during the New Year's Day. On the morning of the 16th day of the first lunar month, it is offered to the Buddha and eaten with the whole family. It is customary to make a large quantity in a large pot and reheat it for four or five days. It is a "mother's taste," with ingredients and preparation methods differing from household to household, and local women often get together to talk about "ke-no-jiru.

## How to Eat
Cooking begins with chopping a large amount of root vegetables, wild plants, and mushrooms into fine dices. In the old days, they were chopped into heaps in wooden buckets or horse feed troughs. In a large pot, sardines are grilled and dried, and grilled kelp is added to the ingredients and water. It is also characterized by the inclusion of "zunda," mashed soybeans. It is preserved well, and the more it is reheated, the more the extract of the ingredients soak into it and the more flavorful it becomes, so it is customary to divide it from the large pot into smaller pots and eat it over several days.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
(Overview of the people who have passed down the tradition, preservation groups, use of SNS, and modern efforts such as commercialization, etc.)In recent years, the process of chopping ingredients into 5mm cubes has been shunned and opportunities to cook it at home have declined, but packs of pre-chopped soup ingredients are now sold at supermarkets, helping to revive this local food. In 2003, the Hirosaki Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Food, Beverage, and Tourism Committee established the "Tsugaru Koe-no Shiru Preservation Society" to promote and educate the local community.

## Ingredients
- Daikon radish: 2 kg (2 pcs.)
- Carrot: 600g (about 1／3 of a daikon radish in appearance)
- burdock root: 350g (1／4 of a daikon radish)
- bracken: 500g (1／3 of a daikon radish)
- Japanese butterbur: 600g (1／3 of a daikon radish)
- deep-fried tofu: 150g (1／3 of a daikon radish)
- Frozen tofu: 800g (1／3 of a daikon radish)
- Soybeans (boiled or steamed): 600g (about 1／3 the amount of daikon radish)
- Kelp (for soup stock): 2 sticks
- Kelp (for garnish): 1 stick
- Aka-miso (red miso paste): 400g

## Recipe
1. 1. Put kelp and water for broth in an iron pot and leave it overnight to make broth. The amount of water should be enough to cover all the ingredients.
2. 2. Boil the warabi out of water and let it cool. Soak Japanese butterbur in water and remove salt.
3. 3. Grill the kombu for garnish over a flame and crush by hand. Thaw frozen tofu at room temperature.
4. 4. Grind soybeans finely in a mortar to make zunda.
5. 5. Cut burdock root into thin strips, and cut bracken into 2 cm lengths. Dice radish, carrot, frozen tofu and butterbur, and finely dice fried tofu.
6. 6. Take out the dashi kelp, put daikon radish, carrot and burdock root in an iron pot with dashi broth, heat and simmer slowly from water. When cooked, add the daikon and frozen tofu, and mix with a spatula.
7. 7. When it comes to a boil, add the zunda from 4, give it a stir, and continue to cook.Dissolve the miso and add the strawberries, deep-fried tofu and kombu for garnish.
8. 8. When mixing, use a spatula to prevent the ingredients from falling apart.Make a large quantity to reheat and divide into several servings.

## Provider Information
provider : "Guidebook for the transmission of food culture" (Aomori Prefecture)

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