Tutorial: Tazukuri
Ah, tazukuri. I’ve loved you for a long time, though sadly, I only recently learned your name. Which is shocking, considering how many times I’ve eaten you and thought to myself, “why don’t I try making this at home? I’d eat it ALL THE TIME!”
I finally learned it (well, obviously), and indeed it’s ridiculously simple. While not exactly health food, it’s healthier than a lot of snacks. If you, like me, are the least bit lactose-intolerant, it’s also a really good source of calcium—one of the reasons it’s so popular in Japan. (If you’re my friend Melanie, I do apologize, and you may not want to read this post. I’ll understand entirely if you skip it. 
)
Follow the jump for more.
What is tazukuri?
Tazukuri is a snack food made of tiny little whole dried sardines (sometimes also called “anchovies” when sold in stores) that are further dry-roasted to make them crispy and crunchy. They’re then cooked very briefly in a hot skillet with a little soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. You can also add sesame seeds if you like. Allow them to cool (or don’t, if you’re really keen on them), and snack away. Perfect bite-sized snacks, filled with protein, vitamins, and minerals. Also slightly sweet and salty. Think of it as an analogue to beef jerky. It’s a great way to make use of these tiny little “throwaway” fish and to preserve them instead of letting them go to waste. Historically, this was a great fisherman’s snack.
Tutorial: Tazukuri
1. Add a few ounces of dried sardines to a dry saute pan or skillet. The bags of dried sardines I’ve seen have all been around 8 ounces. Unless you’re really hungry and/or have a LOT of people who are going to be snacking on these, you probably don’t want to cook that many at once. Also, you’d need a HUGE saute pan or skillet to do it right—you don’t want to crowd these as you’re roasting them.
2. Cook until they start to turn brittle, brown, and dry. You’ll notice that they’ll start to shrink a little as well. Keep turning them and stirring them with a spatula, chopsticks, or a spoon. You don’t want them to burn, and ideally you want to brown them fairly equally on all sides.
3. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. How much? 2 tbsp each of soy and mirin, 3 tbsp of sugar. You can adjust this to your liking, of course. Don’t go crazy with the soy or they’ll be way too salty. Stir the sardines to coat, because the sugar will soon start to make the sauce turn sticky, candy-like, and difficult to stir.
4. Add sesame seeds, if you like. I like sesame seeds, so I added some. Not too many—I still mostly wanted to taste the delightful fish. This makes a wonderful addition to any bento that you think could use a little protein and vitamin-packed snack that’s slightly sweet.
Janaki
