Shoyumame — Japan

Shoyumame is a dish of dried broad beans that are roasted until parched, then left to soak in a marinade built mainly from soy sauce and sugar, with mirin and sake usually added for depth. The beans firm up as they cool and take on a dark, glossy coating, closer in texture to a savoury snack than to a cooked vegetable side. It is reported from the Kagawa prefecture of Japan, where it counts among the foods associated with the region, served alongside meals or offered with drinks rather than treated as a standalone course. It is sometimes confused at a glance with shoyunomi, a different dish from Nagano, Niigata, Yamagata and Kagoshima made of steamed black beans fermented in soy sauce with rice malt, though the two are prepared quite differently. The dried beans are roasted in a dry pan until fragrant and slightly parched, then the hot beans are poured over with a marinade of soy sauce, sugar, mirin and sake that has been briefly simmered to dissolve the sugar. Left to soak overnight, the beans firm up as they cool while absorbing the marinade, and are stirred occasionally so each one darkens evenly. What separates one batch from the next is chiefly the balance of sweet to salty in the marinade, how long the beans are left to soak, and whether sake is included at all. A shorter soak leaves the centre of the bean paler and softer, while a longer rest produces a firmer, more deeply coloured bean throughout.