Quail Egg on Grated Mountain Yam is another simple side dish using grated mountain yam (tororo). It is just a quail egg cracked onto grated yam. This is actually even simpler than Grated Mountain Yam on Tuna (Maguro no Yamakake).
Quail is called ‘uzura’ (うずら) in Japanese, so this dish is called Uzura Tororo (うずらとろろ). Many households serve tororo without an egg. Simply grate a mountain yam, mix it with soy sauce or a dashi-flavoured soy sauce, and serve. But the addition of a quail egg makes the dish look more attractive as well as being nutritiously superior.
Tororo is often eaten with hot cooked rice as a topping. The slimy texture might be alien to my readers, but this simple dish is considered to be an easy-to-eat delicious food for Japanese people. It is probably because the rice and tororo slide into your stomach easily.
It is also a good food to eat when you feel tired because it is nutritious.
The main nutrients in mountain yam includes vitamin B and C, Potassium, iron, zinc, and dietary fibre. It also contains digestive enzymes such as amylase and diastase, which help you to digest food. The sticky substance comes from glycosylated proteins called mucins, which help break down proteins.
So, it is worth trying even if it’s slimy.
WHAT’S IN MY QUAIL EGG ON GRATED MOUNTAIN YAM
You only need a mountain yam and a quail egg as a minimum to make the dish, but you need soy sauce to eat it.
- Grated mountain yam
- Quail egg
- Aonori for topping (optional)
- Vinegar water – enough to submerge the mountain yam
Mountain yam can be nagaimo (Chinese mountain yam), ichō imo, or jinenjō. I used nagaimo today. Please refer to my post Sautéed Mountain Yam (Nagaimo), 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.
For one serving, I used about 100g/3.5oz of grated mountain yam and 1 egg.
Aonori is optional but you probably want to add a topping so that the dish looks more appealing. Instead of aonori, you can use kizami nori or finely chopped chives.
HOW TO MAKE QUAIL EGG ON GRATED MOUNTAIN YAM
You probably don’t need instructions for this dish, but I will jot down a few lines to be consistent with other posts. I even added a video!
- Peel and grate mountain yam.
- Put grated mountain yam in a serving bowl.
- Crack a quail egg and place it in the centre of the mountain yam.
- Sprinkle aonori over it and serve with soy sauce.
- To eat it, pour soy sauce over the yam and mix the ingredients.
You can put Quail Egg on Grated Yam on cooked rice like the photo below. It is a simple rice dish that Japanese people enjoy.
I hope you try this unique vegetable in a very Japanese way.
Yumiko
Watch How To Make It
This is a very simple dish of Grated Mountain Yam (Tororo) with a raw quail egg on it. Sprinkle aonori to add colour to the dish, and serve with soy sauce. Watch the video.
Also check out another tororo recipe, Grated Mountain Yam on Tuna.
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.
- 200g/7oz mountain yam (note 1)
- 2 quail eggs (note 2)
- 1 tsp aonori (optional, note 3)
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Peel and grate mountain yam (note 4), then transfer it into small serving bowls.
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Using a spoon or chopsticks, make a small dent in the centre of the grated yam in each bowl so that an egg, particularly the yolk, will stay on top.
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Crack a quail egg and put it in the dent. It’s ok if egg white spills out, as long as the yolk is in the middle.
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Sprinkle aonori over and serve with soy sauce.
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To eat it, pour some soy sauce over, mix with the yam and the egg together (note 5).
1. I used nagaimo (Chinese mountain yam) today, but you can use a different kind of mountain yam. Please see the varieties of mountain yam with pictures in my post Sautéed Mountain Yam (Nagaimo).
2. If you are not fond of raw egg, you can omit the quail egg and just serve grated yam with aonori. It is still delicious.
3. You don't have to have aonori, but I think adding a topping makes the dish visually more appetising. The fragrance and flavour of aonori is also a great addition to the dish. Instead of aonori, you can scatter kizami nori or finely chopped chives.
4. The flesh of mountain yam is very slippery. I use a piece of kitchen paper to hold the peeled yam root. That stops the yam root slipping from your hand when holding it.
5. If you have hot cooked rice, put some of it on the rice and eat it together with a mouthful of rice. It’s so good.
6. Nutrition per serving. It assume a teaspoon of soy sauce is poured over.
serving: 115g calories: 99kcal fat: 1.1g (2%) saturated fat: 0.3g (2%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g monounsaturated fat: 0.4g cholesterol: 76mg (25%) sodium: 316mg (13%) potassium: 533mg (15%) carbohydrates: 20g (7%) dietary fibre: 0g (0%) sugar: 0.1g protein: 3.4g vitamin a: 2% vitamin c: 0.5% calcium: 1.2% iron: 4.7%
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.
When I have tororo over rice, I feel like I need a substantial meat dish or a fish with a rich sauce to go with it. Perhaps because I know that the mountain yam can help digest the meat easily. Kakuni is one of the perfect main dishes for today’s meal. If you prefer seafood, Simmered Mackerel in Miso would go well.
To counter the heavy meat dish, I picked Cucumber and Seaweed Sunomono as a small salad. Kenchin Jiru supplements vegetables.
- Main: Kakuni (Japanese Simmered Pork Belly) – or Simmered Mackerel in Miso.
- Side dish 1: Quail Egg on Grated Mountain Yam (Uzura Tororo) – today’s recipe.
- Side dish 2: Cucumber and Seaweed Sunomono (Vinegar Dressing) – or other light salad.
- Soup: Japanese Vegetable Soup (Kenchinjiru) – or any miso soup of your choice.
- Rice: Cooked Rice.
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