【Reading】いこみ

【English Name】Ikomi

Ikomi refers to a Japanese-cuisine technique of hollowing out or making an incision in an ingredient and stuffing another ingredient inside. A typical use is stuffing things such as shrimp or white-fish surimi (fish paste) or ground meat inside vegetables such as daikon radish, turnip, pumpkin, or burdock.

It is customarily distinguished by heating method as ikomi-ni (simmered), ikomi-yaki (grilled), or ikomi-age (deep-fried), and there is also a method of making a pouch-shaped incision in freeze-dried tofu (koya-dofu) with a knife to hold the filling. Applications such as stuffing mentaiko (spicy cod roe) into the holes of lotus root are also widely known uses.

When using an ingredient that is originally tube-shaped, such as squid, the name inro-zume is often applied. In Edomae sushi, inro-zushi, in which the body of simmered squid is stuffed with sushi rice and ingredients, has been handed down as a tradition, and inari-zushi, in which fried tofu (abura-age) is stuffed with vinegared rice, also falls broadly within the same lineage.

It is often finished with a kuzu-an (arrowroot sauce) poured over it, and because of its beautiful appearance, it is also incorporated into osechi (New Year's cuisine). Ikomi-gobo, made using horikawa-gobo, a traditional Kyoto vegetable, enjoys persistent popularity as a standard osechi item.