Grated Mountain Yam is a quick and delicious side dish made simply by grating a mountain yam and pouring it over an ingredient. Mountain yam is a long, slender root vegetable and when grated, it turns into something quite unexpected and unique, with a very sticky and slimy texture.
I recently posted a recipe, Sautéed Mountain Yam, in which I explained a little bit about the mountain yam varieties that Japanese people often use. You can use any of those three mountain yam varieties to make Grated Mountain Yam.
I decided to post yet another mountain yam recipe shortly after Sautéed Mountain Yam so that you can enjoy a few different dishes using mountain yam before the season is over in Australia.
Grated Mountain Yam is generically called ‘tororo’ (とろろ) in Japanese. The word ‘tororo’ (とろろ) came from the texture of the grated yam.
ABOUT JAPANESE ONOMATOPOEIA
Japanese people are very good at expressing sound, appearance, and texture using repeated sounds or words. It is called onomatopoeia in English. But in the case of Japanese onomatopoeia, it often uses the same sounds/words twice, which is a bit different from the English onomatopoeia. Repeated words/sounds are usually written in Katakana.
For example, ‘ting-a-ling’ or ‘jingle’ are the words for expressing the sound of a gentle bell in English. But in Japanese, it is ‘rinrin’ (リンリン or りんりん). The state of glittering is expressed as ‘giragira’ (ギラギラ or ぎらぎら) or ‘kirakira’ (キラキラ or きらきら) depending on how strongly the object is shining and sparkling. The strong sun shine in summer is ‘giragira’, and the shining stars are ‘kirakira’.
When something is sticky and/or slimy, people express it as ‘torotoro’ (トロトロ or とろとろ), ‘dorodoro’ (ドロドロ or どろどろ), ‘nebaneba’ (ネバネバ or ねばねば), ‘betobeto’ (ベトベト or べとべと), ‘betabeta’ (ベタベタ or べたべた), etc. Each word implies a slightly different state of the stickiness.
For example, torotoro is used for something like the sauce of a cream stew or curry, while dorodoro is used for a bit thicker state, like the chocolate melted in the sun or magma pouring from a volcano. When you touch the melted chocolate with your finger, your finger becomes betobeto with the chocolate.
The Japanese name for Grated Mountain Yam, tororo came from the word for soft and slimy texture, torotoro. The word ‘tororo’ is also used for the shaved kelp called tororo konbu, which I used in my Hiroshima Okonomiyaki recipe, because it becomes soft and slimy when put in liquid.
Two popular Tororo Dishes
Traditional tororo dishes are so simple to make that I decided to post two popular recipes using grated Mountain Yam:
- Grated Mountain Yam on Tuna (Maguro no Yamakake)
- Quail Egg on Grated Mountain Yam (Uzura Tororo)
This post contains Maguro no Yamakake. Please see the separate post for Uzura Tororo (photo below).
Although tororo is poured over the tuna, today’s dish is not called tororo in Japanese. It is called ‘maguro no yamakake’ (マグロの山かけ). ‘Maguro’ (マグロ) means tuna and ‘yamakake’ (山かけ) translates to mountain yam poured over something. Yamakake is made up of two words – mountain (‘yama’, 山) and pour (‘kakeru’, かける). The word ‘no’ (の) is something like ‘with’ in this context.
There are two totally opposite ways of making Maguro no Yamakake.
Method 1: Marinate diced tuna to give flavour to the tuna, then pour tororo over the pile of tuna.
Method 2: Add flavour to the tororo, then pour it over diced fresh tuna.
I used Method 1 for today’s recipe.
WHAT’S IN MY GRATED MOUNTAIN YAM on tuna
The best part of today’s dish is the flavour combination of marinated diced tuna and sticky grated mountain yam.
- Diced sashimi quality tuna
- Grated mountain yam
- Kizami nori
- Wasabi paste (forgot to include in the photo)
Tuna Marinade
- Soy sauce
- Mirin
I used a very slender, dark brown mountain yam, which looks like a Japanese yam called jinenjō because the grated yam is thicker than other varieties. But you can use other varieties such as nagaimo (Chinese mountain yam), ichō imo, or jinenjō. Please refer to my post Sautéed Mountain Yam, which explains these mountain yams with pictures.
You need to use a very fine grater to make tororo. I used a Japanese round ceramic grater, but a microplane grater or the finest side of a square grater works fine too.
A knob of wasabi paste gives you an extra dimension to the flavour, but you can omit it if you prefer.
HOW TO MAKE GRATED MOUNTAIN YAM on tuna
It’s really easy to make but I made a video for this.
- Put diced tuna and the Marinade ingredients in a bowl or a zip lock bag. Marinate for 15 minutes.
- Peel the mountain yam and grate it.
- Transfer the marinated tuna pieces to a serving bowl and pour the grated yam over it.
- Sprinkle kizami nori over the yam and put a small knob of wasabi paste on the side of the bowl.
Depending on the type of yam you use, grated mountain yam sometimes becomes brownish as you grate it. The change of colour is caused by the oxidation of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase. You can prevent oxidation to a certain degree by leaving the peeled yam in vinegar water (1 tablespoon vinegar in 2 cups water) before grating it.
To eat Maguro no Yamakake, pour a small amount of marinade over the grated yam and eat a piece of tuna with the yam. Alternatively, you can add marinade to the pile of tuna before pouring on the grated yam so that you don’t need to pour the marinade over the yam.
It is also delicious to have Maguro no Yamakake on freshly cooked rice. If you serve it in a large bowl, it becomes Maguro no Yamakake don. But in the case of yamakake don, it is easier to eat if you slice the tuna thinly or dice it into smaller cubes.
Yumiko
Watch How To Make It
Grated Mountain Yam ('tororo' in Japanese) is a quick way of making a delicious side dish by simply grating a mountain yam and pouring it over an ingredient. Maguro no Yamakake is a popular dish because it is so easy to make and tasty. Just pour tororo over a pile of marinated tuna pieces with a bit of garnish on top. Simple but so delicious. Watch the video.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 150g/5.3oz tuna (sashimi quality)
- 120g/4.2oz mountain yam (note 1)
- Kizami nori (note 2)
- Wasabi paste (note 3)
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Dice tuna into 2cm/¾” cubes. It’s OK to have slightly different shapes as long as the size of the pieces is similar.
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Put the tuna and the Tuna Marinade ingredients in a bowl or a zip lock bag. Marinate for 15 minutes, during which turn the tuna over a couple of times.
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Peel mountain yam and grate it using a very fine grater (note 4).
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Transfer the marinated tuna to a serving bowl, making a mound. Reserve the marinade.
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Pour the grated yam over the tuna, leaving 1/3 of the tuna uncovered rather than covering all of the tuna with the yam (this is just my plating style).
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Scatter kizami nori over and put a small knob of wasabi paste on the side of the bowl.
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Serve with the marinade in a small container. If needed, pour a small amount of marinade over the yam to eat. (Note 5)
1. I used a less watery mountain yam that is much thicker and stickier than nagaimo (Chinese mountain yam) when grated. Varieties of mountain yam that Japanese people often use are listed in the post Sautéed Mountain Yam (Nagaimo).
2. Instead of kizami nori, you can use aonori or finely chopped chives.
3. I put a knob of wasabi paste on the side of the bowl so that you can omit wasabi if you prefer not to have it. If you are happy to have wasabi, you can dilute wasabi in the marinade as an alternative method. This method is probably easier if you are going to mix wasabi into the ingredients.
4. The peeled flesh of mountain yam is very slippery. I use a piece of kitchen paper to hold the peeled yam root. This stops the yam root slipping from your hand when holding it.
Depending on the type of yam you use, grated mountain yam sometimes becomes brownish as you grate it. The change of colour is caused by the oxidation of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase. You can prevent oxidation to a certain degree by leaving the peeled yam in vinegar water (1 tablespoon vinegar in 2 cups water) before grating it.
5. Alternatively, add some marinade to the bowl when the tuna pieces are placed in it so that you don’t need to pour the marinade over the yam.
The marinade has a quite strong soy-flavour, so don't pour too much.
6. Nutrition per serving. It assumes you consumed all the marinade with yamakake, which is unlikely.
serving: 172g calories: 207kcal fat: 0.5g (1%) saturated fat: 0.1g (1%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.1g monounsaturated fat: 0.1g cholesterol: 29mg (10%) sodium: 481mg (20%) potassium: 667mg (19%) carbohydrates: 26g (9%) dietary fibre: 0.1g (0%) sugar: 13g protein: 20g vitamin a: 1% vitamin c: 0% calcium: 0.9% iron: 5.4%
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
The most popular combination of main dish to go with Maguro no Yamakake is Tempura. Given that the time required to make yamakake is so short, I thought it would be OK to go to a little extra effort to cook Tempura. You can also control the volume of the main dish easily.
I think that miso soup is best suited for yamakake, and soba noodles can be a good alternative to the rice.
- Main: Tempura – or Kakiage (Mixed Vegetable Tempura).
- Side dish 1: Grated Mountain Yam (Tororo) – today’s recipe, Grated Mountain Yam on Tuna (Maguro no Yamakake).
- Side dish 2: Pickled Carrot and Daikon Recipe (Kōhaku Namasu) – or other light salad.
- Soup: Miso Soup of your choice from Miso Soup Ingredient Combinations or your favourite ingredients.
- Rice: Cooked Rice – or Zaru Soba (Cold Soba Noodles).
Alex says
Hi Yumiko san,
Just wated to thank you for such lovely recipes.
I lobe that you posted about OCha-tsuke, because I love it. It brings all the spirit of austerity of Kyoto, it is soul warming!
Arigatou gozimasu!
Alex
Yumiko says
Hi Alex, I like ochazuke too. A simple dish like that can be the most delicious food.