Monthly Memo From Doi's Culinary Philosophy
Original text by Doi Yoshiharu
Translated by Yoshiko Fukuda
April-Uzuki
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Spring has arrived! Now finally, I can appreciate this peaceful and relaxing season for brief amount of time. As I have been saying spring is all about young buds and sprouts. Various shoots, such as bamboo shoots, asparagus, and edible wild plants, are in season and they taste the best around this time. Until late winter, Spring is readily anticipated and what was preserved slowly gets exhausted. The transition in season becomes clear when the scenery changes in to a misty light green color. Then one can start witnessing varying colors on land, from frosty green to tawny green, and as the weather gets warmer the atmosphere will gain more diversity, providing much more brighter colors.
●Spring Hills and Fields
In fields where warm spring sunlight envelops the atmosphere, young buds of different plants start to appear, like tsukushi (young shoots of field horsetails), yomena (aster), seri (dropwort), mitsuba (Japanese parsley), kanzou (licorice), gishi(otherwise known as akou-gishi; a tall tree that loses all its leaves in spring right before it starts growing new buds), tanpopo (dandelion), yamabuki (mountain butterbur), yomogi (mugwort), and other edible wild plants. All sorts of picked wild plants are parboiled together and after draining and squeezing of any excess water, they are mixed with sesame and miso paste. In this method even if plants that are not necessarily edible can get mixed in, but still taste palatable. When those abundant spring tastes are served on traditional red lacquered bowl, they seem to epitomize what a Japanese salad should look like. Even a plentiful serving appears light. In these kind of dishes, one can enjoy the original taste of spring buds because the dressing is only lightly flavored.
For most Japanese salads, it is a basic rule that the actual dressing should take place right before serving. This is to avoid ruining the taste of the dressing with water from the ingredients. Therefore, the best time to dress a salad can be said to be right before eating, done by the eater himself. That is why there are not many restaurants which serves the 'perfect' salad but when they do, it demonstrates how much they care about the customers.
When walking in the woods around this time, taranome (buds of aralia) and koshiabura (name of a tall tree that grows to be about 10 meters; its new buds are edible) can easily be found and gathered. When taranome is fried, the harshness gets milder and it becomes an ideal menu that provides moderate amount of fat to our body. However, that does not signify that all wild plants in Spring should be made into a tempura. That is because only good quality plants can sustain some of its harshness and distinguish their taste even after getting fried.●Udo Soup
When I go up to the mountains I always bring canned mackerel and miso paste with me. After I gather some mountain udo I cut them up into big chunks and toss them all into the boiling water. Right away the udo will change its color into vivid green in the pot. Then the mackerel can is emptied out into the pot. Then the whole mixture is flavored with miso. Now the recipe for a delicious udo soup is complete. Engulfed by the rich smell of udo, one can savor the firm texture the mountain vegetable. This is truly one of the best dish ever. I usually ask for three to four "second" helpings. For delicious dishes like this, no one can have their own preferences and dislikes, because they simply do not have a choice. People instinctively like food that is right from nature and cannot maintain their own preferences.●Tsukudani of Kinome
*Tsukudani- preserved food boiled down in soy, usually of seafood;
*Kinome- young leaf of the prickly ash, used as a garnish and for
seasoningAs the atmosphere warms up, people start getting more cheerful compared to how they were acting in the gloom of freezing winter. This period is sometimes referred to as "kinome doki" meaning when kinome starts appearing and is expected by long anticipated eyes. In the Kansai region kinome only indicates young leaves of sansho (prickly ash), but in other regions it points to young leaves of other trees like kudzu, and not only to sansho.
Last year in Myokou Mountain, I picked and gathered enough kinome to fill up the basket I had hung from my neck. With those kinome I made myself some tsukudani. The pungent flavor is lost after boiling in inexpensive soy sauce. Also because of the soy sauce, the kinome will hold itself together tighter and will not break apart even after long boiling. Afterwards, another name-brand soy sauce and oil, sake, and sugar is added to the pot and then everything is boiled down. Finally, a tsukudani of the deep green kinome collected in Shinshu is now done.
Gathering kinome in different mountains in the Kansai area, have made me realize that kinome varies greatly according to the environment it grew in. For example a specific location might provide direct sunlight without any obstacle to hinder its growth. Kinome from Higashi-Katakura of Okayama, had smooth and polished leaves as if they were coated by wax. Furthermore, each leaves were round and concave like a bowl placed upside down on a flat surface. From its appearance it looked hard and coarse yet actually even the thorns were soft and the taste was the best out of all the kinome I had eaten before. That is why I brought that kinome home filled in a plastic bag and applyed them in many menus, from nitsuke (the technique of simmering fish or vegetables in soy sauce and sugar )of fish to meat. I managed to last it for a whole week, and for that whole week I was greatly satisfied only by the thought that there was an extremely appetizing ingredient in my kitchen.
Not only in edible wild plants but also in other ingredients, the characteristics change considerably according to the environment they grew in. That is why sometimes one cannot only rely on people's words about specific ingredients because there might be so much more possibility to that ingredient.●Warabi and Zenmai
*Warabi- bracken, edible fern sprout used in soups and salads
*Zenmai- royal fern
The harshness in warabi can be taken out by following couple of groundwork steps; cover the warabi with straw ash, pour hot water, let it cool. Then afterwards, warabi can be used in any way one wishes. However, the fresh ones that were hand picked should always be made into a ohitashi( a menu where an ingredient, usually a leafy vegetable, is parboiled and after the water is squeezed out, is steeped in soy sauce). Warabi can also be ground up in a suribachi (earthenware mortar) to make tororo ( yama imo or mountain yam creates a sticky paste when it is ground up), which can be poured on top of flavored tuna sashimi.
People who knows the traditional ways, preferred organic straw ash to spread on warabi. Even, potters who value ash glaze on their creations, they go through the trouble of buying old tatami for straw and make their own authentic straw ash. People who knows their own tradition, can distinguish these subtle differences and appreciate them at the same time.
At times when not enough warabi could be collected, zenmai can be mixed in. Then they are boiled together, dried with enough ash spread among them and until the moisture is evaporated away they are hand rubbed continually. The more zenmai is rubbed the more smaller and curlier its gets. But the benefit is that the longer it is rubbed the softer it gets. When little effort like this is added, the value of each ingredient goes up and at markets the ready made warabi like this has an preposterous price. But when you actually does it yourself it seems much more fun. In addition, through putting more effort zenmai lasts for a longer period of time.
For reconstruction of warabi, it can simply be put into the boiling water and then cooled down in water. Later the water can be changed and cooled under trickling water in the sink for overnight. If you do it yourself the dried food will regain a exquisite dark green. Zenmai should be simmered as a whole without cutting it up into bite size pieces. By not cutting it up, the flavor does not seep in through the cut surfaces and the original taste of the zenmai can be savored along with a firm texture. Cutting or not, makes a great difference, because the flavor does not invade the zenmai. By not cutting the genuine taste of zenmai is kept alive. By the way, cheaper zenmai sold at the markets are not actual zenmai but they are made from the runner of yams.●Kyarabuki
*Kyarabuki- peeled butterbur simmered in soy sauce
At the point where the woods end, mountain butterbur grows in a cluster. Even in a short period of time, one can collect more butterbur than he can carry with both hands. Collectors who knows subtle differences in taste will go look around the shades under the tree for soft butterburs. People who will cook the collected butterburs afterwards, will clean the ingredients as they collect. Others who knows the distinction between the good and the bad, will cleverly pick only the delicious ones. These mountain butterburs do not need to get their skins peeled like the sato butterburs. For sato butterburs, peeling sometimes took up half the day but for mountain butterburs the skin is also tasty that peeling them off would be a waste. Buying a vegetable knowing that all its skin is going to waste seems to be a waste but that is all forgiven when butterburs are boiled with rice bran just like bamboo shoots, and softened to a wonderful texture and flavor.
Mountain butterburs stewed in an iron pan is called kyarabuki. The mountain butterbur gains iron from the pan after a period of simmering and when its done, it gains a glowing dark color like the aromatic wood, alloeswood or kyara. After I cooked kyarabuki, I just could not finish the savoring dish all at once, that I stored half of it in a jar. However,I soon found out that the taste could never be preserved. The appearance did not alter much but the original taste was obviously lost. Hence, I realized that delicious food should not be saved for later enjoyment, but should be indulged all at once.●New Vegetables
During Spring vegetables are of paler green color compared to other darker colored vegetables like lettuce, spring cabbage, chive, garlic that start appearing from April. But during this season, onions will start fattening its roots as soon as they start blooming flowers. The skin of new onions is still white, soft and succulent, holding abundant water. Hence those onions are hung to dry until they get brown so they will not rot away from their own water.
Two best ways to eat new spring onion is to slice it and eat it raw or to make kakiage (mixed tempura) out of it. However these onions should not be used for curry, where it is sauteed in mass amounts, because it holds too much water and additional flavor does not settle easily.
New spring cabbage should be eaten raw or after quick parboiling. However, they are not fit for okonomiyaki (a type of thin pancake with a mix of ingredients from meat, seafood to vegetables; in this menu cabbage is essential). For okonomiyaki the best type of cabbage are the ones that were harvested a year before, or what is called "hine". At markets in Tokyo, it is hard obtaining these voluminous and solid cabbages, even for a whole entire year. That limits down a chefs ability because other recipes become incomplete like cabbage roll which also requires a hine cabbage.
Hine cabbages, onion from Awaji, golden sweet potatoe from Naruto, and other distributed vegetables have to be ordered from Osaka. Both the burdock stalk and carrot leaf which are extremely delicious have to be ordered from Osaka even though they are in season.
New spring vegetables should be enjoyed for their succulence and scent. The same thing goes for early summer bonito. Of course it is said that the bonito that returned in Autumn is palatable because of its fatty meat. However, summer bonito and autumn bonito is nothing to compare because they are just two different things. Even if they are the same kind of fish, they are enjoyed in two completely contrasting ways. It is an inadequate statement to say that only fish that put on fat is delicious.
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