Mountain Potato

[torakris]

tororo with nameko (slimy -in a good way- mushrooms) and scallions

[torakris]

maguro yamakake

raw tuna with grated mountain yam seasoned with soy sauce and wasabi

[Robinjw13]

Yes, I have...it tastes a little more earthy than mountain potato, and is a little crisper and less slimy...but I have to admit it didn't make that much of an impression!

←

I too have had it, I see it mostly mixed in with rice.

It wasn't bad but not worth searching for...

←

I'd agree with those comments. The taste may be nothing special but believe me the effort in harvesting compared to digging down for the root counts for a lot! For me a better use is for planting to make a new crop (I think the wait will be 2 to 3 years!). These last few weeks I found many wild yama-imo tubercles in Saitama and also a smaller, rounder, green version on a climbing plant growing in the same location- would anyone know what these may be?

[OnigiriFB]

I've never had this before and have read a bit about it here and in Bourdain's Cook's Tour book where he says it's nasty. I'm curious and in another thread I posted about finding fresh mountain yam at my local asian market. I didn't pick it up this time but thought if you all could help me I might next time. Question is for someone who has never tried this what would you do with it? What cooking method/flavoring shows this vegetable at it's best. I like slimy food so I'm not worried about that and have never disliked any japanese cuisine I've had so far. So what do you experts out there think I should do? In Garlic and Sapphire Ruth Reidl talks about a hand roll with this in it and she made it sound wonderful but not sure if that would be the best way to try this out the for the first time or not.

[sanrensho]

I'm partial to eating yamaimo fresh as a salad. Peel, slice and chop into matchstick size pieces. Top with nori (optional) and dress with your favorite rice vinegar-based dressing. A citrus or ume dressing works nicely for this application.

Edited January 15, 2006 by sanrensho (log)

[OnigiriFB]

I'm partial to eating yamaimo fresh as a salad. Peel, slice and chop into matchstick size pieces. Top with nori (optional) and dress with your favorite rice vinegar-based dressing. A citrus or ume dressing works nicely for this application.

←

Thank you sanrensho. Could you tell me what it taste like?

[torakris]

Yamamaimo doesn't really have much of a taste, it is sort of like a slimy jicama as it has a nice crunch.

I would avoid eating it grated (tororo) the first time as this seems to be the way it first eaten by many people and they never touch it again. I don't gaga on many foods but wow the first time I had it it was like eating nose snot. I wish I could describe it better...

I do match stick salads a lot but it can be tricky if it is your first time working with it as they can slide all over the place when you are trying to cut them. Any easy salad is to cut it into chunks them put them in a ziploc and whack it with a rolling pin, then season it with your favorite dressing, veggies, etc. There should be a picture of this salad upthread (by the way, I have merged this thread with a previous thread)

It is also good deepfried then added to a simmered dish, it loses all of its sliminess this way.

Also be careful when handling it as people find it makes their skin unbearably itchy.

[dougery]

maguro yamakake

raw tuna with grated mountain yam seasoned with soy sauce and wasabi

←

Mmmmm... Now that's the way to go!

[Hiroyuki]

Also be careful when handling it as people find it makes their skin unbearably itchy.

←

That's why some people wash their hands in vinegar water after handling it or even put on rubber gloves before handling it. As for me, I avoid touching it and leave the work to my wife, who seems not susceptible to the substance (calcium oxalate crystal).

[sanrensho]

Thank you sanrensho. Could you tell me what it taste like?

I'd say Kristin nailed it, it doesn't really have a taste. The texture is cruchy like Asian pears with the stickiness of natto.

I bet it would also go well with cilantro and some of the citrusy dressings used in Thai cooking, although I haven't tried it myself.

[torakris]

last night a nagaimo and wakame salad with Korean style seasonings (chile pepper, soy, vinegar and sesame oil)

[peter_nyc]

Today I finally tried to make at home one of my favorite dishes of all time, yamakake. So, I grabbed some nagaimo, nori, wasabi, sushi-grade tuna, and quail's eggs from a favorite Japanese market and rushed straight home to experiment.

Everything turned out great except for one very important factor: the consistency of the grated nagaimo. It was very, very liquidy. I used the finest grate on a standard box grater, and it ended up way too watery. My attempts to use a less fine grate were unsuccessful since I ended up with small chunks of potato in the end product (not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was looking for). How could I obtain that perfect consistency I've enjoyed so many times before? I ended up cutting it into matchsticks for a delightful alternative, but I'm still very much interested in figuring out what went wrong!

Are there other varieties of patato that would be better for the grated type of yamakake?

[Hiroyuki]

Today I finally tried to make at home one of my favorite dishes of all time, yamakake.  So, I grabbed some nagaimo, nori, wasabi, sushi-grade tuna, and quail's eggs from a favorite Japanese market and rushed straight home to experiment.

Everything turned out great except for one very important factor:  the consistency of the grated nagaimo.  It was very, very liquidy.  I used the finest grate on a standard box grater, and it ended up way too watery.  My attempts to use a less fine grate were unsuccessful since I ended up with small chunks of potato in the end product (not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was looking for).  How could I obtain that perfect consistency I've enjoyed so many times before?  I ended up cutting it into matchsticks for a delightful alternative, but I'm still very much interested in figuring out what went wrong!

Are there other varieties of patato that would be better for the grated type of yamakake?

←

Grating it finely is a good practice. Did you put the grated nagaimo in a suribachi (mortar) and knead it well with a surikogi (pestle) until sticky?

Maybe the problem is the quality of the nagaimo. Wild nagaimo (called ji-nen-jo 自然薯 in Japanese) is quite sticky when grated, and is also very expensive.

[peter_nyc]

Grating it finely is a good practice.  Did you put the grated nagaimo in a suribachi (mortar) and knead it well with a surikogi (pestle) until sticky?

Maybe the problem is the quality of the nagaimo.  Wild nagaimo (called ji-nen-jo ??? in Japanese) is quite sticky when grated, and is also very expensive.

←

I did not use a suribachi and surikogi. I have wanted one for a while, so I think this might be the excuse I was looking for.

As for the nagaimo, I'm guessing it wasn't the highest quality (although it was somewhat expensive). But I'll just have to try to find other sources and start comparing.

[torakris]

The suribachi is really the best way to do it, but I have also had good results with my microplane....

I use the 2 way grater one, 3rd one down.

I think your yamaimo was fine , you just tried to grate it too finely.

[helenjp]

peter-nyc, occasionally nagaimo gets very watery when grated if the imo is not fresh. This seems to me to happen more often with the cylindrical nagaimo than the flat fan-shaped yama-imo.

If the skin of the nagaimo seems unusually reddish rather than very light tan, it may not be fresh.

[JasonTrue]

I made this non-slimy dish, nagaimo no negimiso dengaku last night. It's put under the broiler (on low) with a bit of salt on one side for a few minutes, then flipped, and I added my dengaku miso.

This time, after boiling the miso, mirin, and sugar, I added some minced negi. Then I topped the nagaimo, broiled it again until it bubbled, and served with some fresh chopped negi.

It was a pleasant side dish... juicy, a little soft, and sweet-salty.

[helenjp]

That looks delicious! Thinking of rings of naga-imo, I've seen chopped tuna sashimi (maguro no tataki) served on top of slices of nagimo - usually it's served with slivers of naga-imo on top of the tuna.

[JasonTrue]

Thank you. I haven't often eaten non-tororo forms of nagaimo, but one time I had a dish of mostly raw vegetables and some very lightly sumibi-grilled nagaimo with various condiment options: mugi-miso, salt, and some kind of seasoned mayonnaise, at Yuuan in Nishi-Shinjuku.

We got an incredible deal at the supermarket last week on nagaimo... I guess they don't sell a lot of it at that shop, which is a mainstream upscale supermarket owned by a Nikkei guy. They were listing it at $2.98 a pound on the sign in the produce department, about $3/lb less than typical at the Japanese supermarket in Seattle. Even better, it came out on the register at $2.98 per stick, for a piece about 2.5 lbs in weight. I wonder if someone misentered the pricing data... It was fresh and good quality, so it was a wonderful surprise.

That looks delicious! Thinking of rings of naga-imo, I've seen chopped tuna sashimi (maguro no tataki) served on top of slices of nagimo - usually it's served with slivers of naga-imo on top of the tuna.

←

[torakris]

Jason, that really is mouthwatering! I am going to give that a try.

Speaking of tuna and maguro...

one year for our new year's osechi I took thick sticks of nagaimo and wrapped them with pieces of smoked salmon, they were then sprinkle with olive oil, lemon juice and asalt and pepper. The sliminess was barely noticeable.

[Kiem Hwa]

Nagaimo Yam Juice

My Marukai advertisment has a recipe for Nagaimo Yam juice, where peeled nagaimo is blended with milk and honey, and optional cinnamon powder.....

Has anyone ever tried Nagaimo juice? I do like Nagaimo, but.......

[torakris]

Nagaimo Yam Juice

My Marukai advertisment has a recipe for Nagaimo Yam juice, where peeled nagaimo is blended with milk and honey, and optional cinnamon powder.....

Has anyone ever tried Nagaimo juice?  I do like Nagaimo, but.......  

←

I have to admit that sounds a little bit gross to me....

[JasonTrue]

I believe some Koreans drink a powdered nagaimo drink as a tea... not sure exactly how it's flavored, though.

Nagaimo Yam Juice

My Marukai advertisment has a recipe for Nagaimo Yam juice, where peeled nagaimo is blended with milk and honey, and optional cinnamon powder.....

Has anyone ever tried Nagaimo juice?  I do like Nagaimo, but.......  

←

I have to admit that sounds a little bit gross to me....

←

[GlorifiedRice]

made some tororo soba for lunch yesterday, lots of wasabi and scallion, damn this is good stuff!

←

Okay is Tororo JUST grated yamaimo?

If not what else is in it?

And what is in HOT tororo soba?