🍲 Awa no Itokoni (simmered azuki beans with sweet potatoes)

The dish called "Itokoni" refers to a simmered dish with azuki beans and vegetables. While it is commonly made with ingredients like pumpkin, "Awa no Itokoni" uses sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes are first dried into sweet potato chips and then simmered together with azuki beans, resulting in a gentle sweetness. Incidentally, there are two methods of drying sweet potatoes: "Shiroboshi" involves cutting fresh sweet potatoes and air-drying them, while "Yudeboshi" involves boiling them once before drying. In the case of Awa no Itokoni, the latter method, Yudeboshi, is employed for drying sweet potatoes. In the past, azuki beans were considered a special ingredient eaten on festive occasions, leading to variations like adding alternatives such as small millet to boiled sweet potatoes. During times of sugar scarcity in wartime, Itokoni was prepared without sugar, but later, sugar was added, making it a popular accompaniment to tea and a cherished snack, as well as a side dish. Incidentally, it is said that many households may have grown sweet potatoes in their fields in the old days. Therefore, it is thought that they dried them as a way of preserving them and used them to cook with.