PROJECT Home-Style Meals with Ichiya-boshi

Dec 7, 2022 | Kitchen PROJECTS, Year-Round

Making a Home-Style Meal featuring ichiya-boshi 

Traditionally, bountiful catches of fish were gutted, salted, and set out to dry in order to extend their shelf life. The generic term for these sorts of fish is himono, literally “the dried thing,” though these air-dried fish are actually quite moist to the touch, and wonderfully succulent when broiled. Air-dried fish are also known as ichiya-boshi (literally, “dried overnight”).

Air-dried fish are increasingly available in Asian markets outside Japan (look in the refrigerator or freezer section of the store). Try making a meal with air-dried fish in YOUR kitchen.

Download this Guide to Buying & Storing Ichiya-Boshi.

Download this Basic Broiled Air-Dried Fish recipe.

For help constructing a meal scroll down to Assembling a Meal featuring ICHIYA-BOSHI where you’ll find lots of suggestions.

Assembling a Meal featuring ICHIYA-BOSHI

A simple, home-style Japanese meal most often follows the ICHI JŪ SAN SAI format of one soup + 3 dishes… and rice. Download a recipe for Ordinary Miso Soup

Many other recipes can be found in WASHOKU (Cooked White Rice pg 137; Rice with Mixed Grains pg 139; Soy-Braised Hijiki and Carrots pg 187; Lemon-Simmered Kabocha pg 204) and KANSHA (Spicy Stir-Fry pg 122; Wakame with Tart Ginger Dressing pg 147; Sour Soy-Pickled Ramps pg 200; Quick-Fix Pickles pg 195 & 196).

On this website, in Kitchen Culture there are still more possibilities such as: Ohitashi spinach and Kimpira and Carrot-Ginger Rice.

Head to the Kitchen Culture page for more about ichiya-boshi fish.

My December 2022 NEWSLETTER is about Ichiya-Boshi comfort food from the sea.

Summer Festival Food: YATAI

Summer Festival Food: YATAI

Throughout Japan summertime is a time for natsu matsuri: summer festivals. And that means hanabi 花火 (fireworks), mikoshi 神輿 (portable Shinto shrines paraded through the streets during festivals), and bon odori 盆おどりdancing in addition to yatai 屋台 food stalls. Lilting...

Hand-Stretched Noodles

Hand-Stretched Noodles

Hand-Stretched Noodles  手延べ素麺 TÉNOBÉ SŌMEN As the heat and humidity of summer settles in, appetites begin to wane. That’s when chilled sōmen noodles provide solace. Indeed, sōmen have been refreshing heat-weary Japanese since at least the 8th century. Sōmen noodles...

PROJECT: Celebrating Tanabata

PROJECT: Celebrating Tanabata

The Tale of  TANABATA 七夕伝説 The Tale of Tanabata, which originated in China, has been told in Japan for at least 1200 years. The Japanese version tells the story of a cowherd (Kengyū in some versions, Hikoboshi in others, as the star Altair), and the Weaving Princess...

PROJECT Small Plates

PROJECT Small Plates

MAMÉ-ZARA FunCollecting and Using Small Plates Part of the fun of collecting dishes and other tabletop accessories, is to assemble wide-ranging variations within a category. With mamé-zara, one way to do this is focus on a color scheme such as red and then collect as...

Recent Posts & Projects