Miso Kanpura (Sweet Miso Baby Potatoes)
Quick answer
- Total time
- 40 min
- Level
- Easy
- Servings
- 4 servings
- Ingredients
- 6
About this dish
Miso kanpura is a Furudono, Fukushima dish that cooks very small potatoes in their skins and coats them with sweet miso.
Read more
Farmers developed it to use potatoes too small to ship rather than discard them. The scrubbed potatoes are rolled in oil until the skins soften, then simmered with just enough water to cook the centers. Once nearly all the water has evaporated, sugar, mirin, and miso are added and reduced to a glossy coating. It was often made after the late-July potato harvest and again with stored potatoes during winter. The sweet, savory finish allows it to serve as either a home side dish or a filling snack.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Step
Leave the small potatoes unpeeled and scrub away all soil with a brush.
Select potatoes of similar diameter and set aside any noticeably larger ones.
- 2Control
Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat and add the potatoes.
Shake the pot to roll them continuously for 5 to 6 minutes, until the skins are evenly coated and begin to wrinkle.
- 3Control
Pour in enough water to barely cover the potatoes, cover, and simmer over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
Roll them once or twice; remove the lid when a skewer slides easily into the center.
- 4Control
Keep the pot over medium heat and reduce until only about 2 tablespoons of water remain.
Add the sugar and mirin, roll the potatoes, then dissolve the miso into the remaining liquid.
- 5Control
Reduce the heat to low and shake the pot for 2 to 3 minutes more.
Turn off the heat when the glossy miso coating clings evenly to the skins and no thin liquid remains.
Practical Cooking Checks
The cues that matter most while cooking.
- Key technique
- Small potatoes are rolled in oil with their skins on.
- Finish cue
- Turn off the heat when the glossy miso coating clings evenly to the skins and no thin liquid remains.
- Avoid this
- Sugar and miso burn quickly over high heat.
- Substitution
- After adding them, keep the heat low and shake the pot instead of stirring hard enough to break the potatoes.
- Storage and reheating
- It was often made after the late-July potato harvest and again with stored potatoes during winter.
Cooking decision evidence
Calculated Charim data and applicable official food safety guidance.
This recipe
40min, 6 ingredients
Category median
27min, 8 ingredients
Based on 206 recipes
Use-up ingredient planner
Turn these ingredients into two more meals
The overlap excludes basic seasonings. Open the next recipe and your selected dishes will stay with you.
Saba Misoni (Japanese Miso Mackerel Recipe)
miso, mirin
Miso Potato (Fried Potatoes with Sweet Miso Sauce)
miso, mirin
Iya Dekomawashi Miso Skewers
small potatoes, miso