Shinshu-style steamed dish

When people say Shinshu-mushi (Shinshu-style steamed dish), the orthodox version is usually a fish fillet wrapped around soba noodles, but for this original take, we made soba-gaki, a buckwheat dough, from buckwheat flour and taro, and ladled it over the fillet instead. Buckwheat flour alone won't turn smooth and pourable unless you add quite a lot of water, so we added grated taro as a binder, hoping people would also enjoy the fluffy texture it gives.

1. Rinse the tilefish (amadai) in sake-salted water. (Photo shows the ingredients.)

2. Sprinkle the shimeji mushrooms with sake-salted water and grill them in the oven (tenpi).

3. Deep-fry the millet gluten cake (awa-fu) plain, drain off the oil, then let it soak and absorb the seasoning.

4. Boil the ginkgo nuts and lily bulb (yuri-ne) ahead of time.

5. Char the surface of the bell pepper, peel it, and boil it ahead of time.

6. Combine 40g of buckwheat flour with 5 tablespoons of water and 100g of grated taro.

7. Arrange the ingredients in the serving vessel, ladle the combined buckwheat-flour-and-taro mixture over them, and steam.

8. Combine the boiled whole buckwheat groats with the thickened seasoned dashi sauce (bimi-an), and ladle it on top.

9. Garnish with the bell pepper and wasabi.