Using Mikurashima Island Ingredients! Creating Newly Arranged Everyday Recipes!

The traditional cuisine preservation society on Mikurashima Island has recreated various traditional foods that have been handed down from generation to generation, publishing them on CookPad, an online recipe website. At the same time, the society worked on developing new, modern recipes based on the traditional menu.

The first thing discussed between the members on the island and the food coordinator expert was defining what "newly arranged" meant. At first, they discussed whether or not to modernize the traditional recipes of the island, but some people argued whether doing so had any meaning since the traditional menu is already perfect as it is. Although some ingredients are easy to obtain on the island, it was decided to use ingredients that lacked a variation in cooking. They chose kabutsu (a type of bitter orange), ashitaba (a type of herb) and yomogi (Japanese mugwort). Younger generations are familiar with these ingredients and thus the society began developing easy-to-recreate recipes.

Look at the following newly arranged recipes using these three ingredients.

(Credits: CookPad "Better than Lemon Salt!? An Aromatic and Magical Salt")

Let's start off with the island's citrus fruit, kabutsu. The fruit is generally known as daidai; the preservation society developed this recipe up until last year. Using kabutsu salt as a condiment allows cooks to create flavor in all sorts of dishes. The skin of the fruit is usually thrown away but this recipe doesn't waste the skin and can be easily created using a microwave.

(Credits: CookPad "Avocado, Cream Cheese and Ashitaba Herb Genovese Sauce")

The ashitaba herb has a special fragrance, so this recipe was developed like basil to be used in a sauce. The above recipe shows the ashitaba herb being used as a Genovese pasta sauce. In addition, the herb can also be used in salsa verde (https://cookpad.com/recipe/7428965), another Italian sauce that originally uses parsley. These sauces are a wonderful combination of traditional Mikurashima Island food and Italian cuisine.

(Credits: CookPad "The Easiest Recipe! Processing and Storing Yomugi")

Yomugi or Japanese mugwort is not a dish but how to process and store it are listed on the website. Many recipe websites call for yomugi in powder form or fine powder form that are available in the markets. As such, the society created a recipe on how to make a yomugi paste and store it. By doing so, people can easily create yomugi snacks and desserts such as cheesecakes or yomugi daifuku, a type of rice cake.

These newly arranged recipes for traditional Mikurashima foods do not focus on unconventional recipes but rather everyday meals that can be enjoyed by many people. These recipes were chosen because they use the island's ingredients and have familiar flavors. Enjoy traditional Mikurashima foods and use these recipes; you will surely deepen your understanding of the regional culture on the island.