Pasta with kanzuri, mushrooms, and shrimp

I saw a bottle of kanzuri paste and picked it up. I really cannot remember where. It has languished in my fridge for a few months now. I would eye it occasionally and go, “Hmmm... No action taken. I find that ignoring things surprisingly doesn't make them disappear.

I finally took it out. It is a problem with me: I pick up ingredients often without an end goal, and then figure out what to do with them. My first stop is my cookbook collection, and I struck out. So now I had to use Gemini to learn about the ingredient. What is Kanzuri? Take a photo of the bottle and ask AI.

Kanzuri, a fermented chili paste from Japan, is from the very prestigious Myoko area of Niigata. But then things got interesting. It is a long-fermented chili paste from the region, kept for three years or more. The process is that the ripe red chilies are first preserved in salt for a year. These preserved chilies are then taken out in the second year and laid out on freshly fallen snow to freeze-dry, a process called yuki-sarashi, or “exposing to snow”. The dried chilies are then mixed with koji, yuzu zest, yuzu juice, and salt, and pickled for another year. During the hottest month, August, the mix is stirred to accelerate fermentation. In the third year, the freeze-drying process is repeated. The two freeze-drying steps are important for concentrating their sweetness, reducing the sharpness of the heat, and adding umami. The dried chilies are then ground into a paste and sold.

The paste has a funky odor; my maid thought the bottle was spoiled. We cooked the pasta. But it is this funky smell that tempers the cooking and has bright, spicy citrus notes from the yuzu and a deep flavor.

So now I knew the ingredients and decided on a simple pasta dish, paired with the sea to reflect the pasta's origins. The pasta popped with spice, gentle at first, but growing with each bite into a comfortable level. The shrimp and pasta absorbed the spices beautifully. The small plate portion was definitely not enough, but I do have enough paste for another serving on another day.

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Ingredients:

For the pasta:

10 oz. spaghetti

8 cups of water

A few drops of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 onion, finely diced

6 cremini mushrooms, finely diced

2 tablespoons kanzuri paste

1 tablespoon Kikkoman soy sauce

16 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Pasta cooking water

Parsley, minced, to garnish

Method:

For the pasta:

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, minus 1 minute for al dente. Drain, keeping 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid for later. Toss the drained pasta in olive oil. Set aside.

For the sauce:

Heat the oil in a deep pan and add the garlic. Fry on medium heat until the garlic is light gold, about 1 minute. Add the onions and fry for 3 minutes, until lightly golden. Do not let them caramelize too much.

Add the mushrooms and fry until they are caramelized to a light gold, about 8-10 minutes. Be careful not to burn the onions while cooking; keep the flame low and stir often.

Add the kanzuri paste and soy sauce and mix in well. Add the shrimp and cook for 3-4 minutes, until cooked through but not tough. They should be pink and curled.

Add the pasta cooking water and the pasta, and toss well to coat the pasta with the sauce. Heat through for 3 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Serve immediately, garnished with parsley.