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edamame


torakris

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It's that time of year again! Edamame and beer! What a perfect match!

I often see this new variety, kaori mame (fragrance beans), sold at the supermarket this year.

gallery_16375_4595_69362.jpg

I can't tell the difference between this and other varieties, though. :raz:

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I like edamame tofu. I've been seeing it recently in grocery stores. It's about the same color as matcha tofu only it has whole edamame (no pods, just the beans) in it. It's delicious! I have been thinking about using it as part of an ice cream base this summer.

I'm sort of an edamame purist too but I sometimes make hiyayakko with edamame (again out of the pod), cherry tomatoes, green onion, parmesan cheese and a tiny bit of wafu dressing. It sounds weird, but it's really good. I also throw it in salads that I make for my lunch. A common one would be hotate, avocado and tomato salad with some edamame thrown in if I have it around. Or edamame, fresh ham and buffalo mozzarella and/or sundried tomatoes tossed in lemon-olive oil dressing with fresh basil or mint.

My absolute favorite is chamame. Does anyone know when are where I can buy it (I live in central Tokyo)?

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I suggest using just shelled edamame for ice cream, as I suspect the edamame tofu will be too dilute to be very noticeable. Even the very high percentage edamame ice cream I made was fairly subtle.

http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2006/07/01/2455.aspx has a photo

I like edamame tofu. I've been seeing it recently in grocery stores. It's about the same color as matcha tofu only it has whole edamame (no pods, just the beans) in it. It's delicious! I have been thinking about using it as part of an ice cream base this summer.

I'm sort of an edamame purist too but I sometimes make hiyayakko with edamame (again out of the pod), cherry tomatoes, green onion, parmesan cheese and a tiny bit of wafu dressing. It sounds weird, but it's really good. I also throw it in salads that I make for my lunch. A common one would be hotate, avocado and tomato salad with some edamame thrown in if I have it around. Or edamame, fresh ham and buffalo mozzarella and/or sundried tomatoes tossed in lemon-olive oil dressing with fresh basil or mint.

My absolute favorite is chamame. Does anyone know when are where I can buy it (I live in central Tokyo)?

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

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My absolute favorite is chamame. Does anyone know when are where I can buy it (I live in central Tokyo)?

Chamame happens to be a specialty of Niigata, and has been a favorite of mine since I moved here (although it's a little bit expensive than other varieties). Just try any supermarket (the bigger the better) and department store basement.

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I will cook edamame straight up and dust them with kosher salt. Sometimes we play with other seasonings, but we always come back to kosher salt.

I also add roughly chopped edamame to chicken salad sandwiches or pasta salads.

Another favorite is to puree shelled and cooked edamame with some yogurt or sour cream, and black pepper and use it as a dip. Sometimes we do half edamame and half avocado in our guacamole.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I finally tried the recipe for boiling edamame that I learned years ago.

1. Prepare a pot of water and salt the weight of which is 4% of the water.

(I put 2 liters of water in a pot, thus I prepared 80 g of salt.)

Bring the pot to a boil.

2. Put edamame in a bowl and add a small amount (not all) of the salt. Rub the edamame against one another with your hand.

3. Let the edamame stand for 1 hour to let the salt seep through the edamame.

(The initial recipe calls for cutting both ends of each edamame to let the salt seep through. I thought this would be almost impractical (too time-consuming for many people). I googled and found that a similar recipe recommended letting them stand for 1 hour to have the same effect.)

4. Put the edamame in the pot (don't rinse them) and the remaining salt. Boil for 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Drain and put the edamame on a colander. Do not rinse.

6. Cool the edamame with a fan.

The result is the most flavorful edamame I have ever had!

gallery_16375_4595_131734.jpg

Edited to add:

For those of you who can read Japanese, here is a link to one of the recipes I referred to.

Edited by Hiroyuki (log)
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Nothing beats the fresh ones when young and tender, but when not in season I have found that the Trader Joe's brand isn't bad. I'm open to other suggestions for frozen, though--there are plenty of Japanese markets where I live. I have tried a couple of asian brands but found they weren't appreciable better and seemed to have been frozen longer.

One thing I discovered is that kids like edamame, so I packed them in lunches for years and threw them into soups. I made an Asian-style chicken broth w/lemongrass and made chicken noodle soup for my daughter, adding carrots and edamame. There was a period of time when edamame was the only green thing in that kid's diet.

I buy the frozen ones both in the pod and shelled. I like the unshelled for snacking, but find the shelled beans very useful. I cook the pod beans in lightly salted water, then drain them in a colander, run just a bit of cold water over--enough to stop the cooking process but making sure they are still very warm-- and salt well, shaking to coat. I cook the shelled ones the same way, salting afterwards while still warm.

The shelled beans make great salads, dressed with almost anything--lemon, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, whatever. Adding shaved fennel is nice, or even celery in a pinch. I also like shelled beans scattered on soba or udon along with anything else you put on cold noodles. (Or warm noodles.) I take them straight from the freezer in small quanitiies and cook them for the last few minutes in ramen or add them to any "kitchen sink" vegetable soup.

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I love this particular combination: I make a stir fry using shelled frozen edamame, julienned carrots, and baby corn, with a sauce made from soy, chile-garlic paste, sugar, and sesame oil, and the whole thing topped with chopped peanuts. I almost always have these ingredients on hand, it's super-fast to make, and tastes really fresh even though the only actual fresh ingredient is the carrots, so it's a great fall-back dish.

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  • 1 year later...

The other day, I bought a bag of special edamame called ama cha mame (lit. sweet brown beans) produced in Niigata.

Empty bag:

gallery_16375_5796_125347.jpg

Ama cha mame in a bowl, salted before being boiled:

gallery_16375_5796_102679.jpg

I did some googling and found this variety is also called dadacha mame, a specialty of Tsuruoka, Yamagata prefecture.

This variety is more expensive than regular ones, and I found it more flavorful.

I previously posted how to cook edamame here in my blog on Japanese cooking.

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I finally tried the recipe for boiling edamame that I learned years ago.

1.  Prepare a pot of water and salt the weight of which is 4% of the water.

(I put 2 liters of water in a pot, thus I prepared 80 g of salt.)

Bring the pot to a boil.

2.  Put edamame in a bowl and add a small amount (not all) of the salt.  Rub the edamame against one another with your hand.

im confused about step two. what do you do with the water from step one? (and this water is plain, unsalted water, correct?) i ask because it seems you salt edamame without water and you wait one hour but you have done nothing with the boiled water...

"Bibimbap shappdy wappdy wap." - Jinmyo
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Sorry, melonpan. I know I can never be a good technical writer...

Here is a better description of the recipe. Note that I have modified (simplified) the original recipe so it's a kind of fool-proof.

Ingredients:

250 g edamame

40 g salt

1 liter water

1. Rinse edamame in water, drain, and put them in a bowl.

2. Add 40 g salt, and rub edamame well. Let edamame stand for at least 1 hour.

3. Boil 1 liter of water in a pot.

4. Transfer the contents of the bowl (edamame and salt) to the pot. DON'T RINSE EDAMAME. The water now contains 40 g (4%) salt.

5. Boil edamame for 3 min. NEVER OVERBOIL.

6. Drain in a colander. DON'T RINSE EDAMAME. Cool with a fan.

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Here is a better description of the recipe.  Note that I have modified (simplified) the original recipe so it's a kind of fool-proof.

Ingredients:

250 g edamame

40 g salt

1 liter water

1. Rinse edamame in water, drain, and put them in a bowl.

2. Add 40 g salt, and rub edamame well. Let edamame stand for at least 1 hour.

3. Boil 1 liter of water in a pot.

4. Transfer the contents of the bowl (edamame and salt) to the pot.  DON'T RINSE EDAMAME.  The water now contains 40 g (4%) salt.

5. Boil edamame for 3 min.  NEVER OVERBOIL.

6. Drain in a colander. DON'T RINSE EDAMAME. Cool with a fan.

thank you! i guess i could have also gone to the source tooo. but this is definitely nice and generous of you. filing this away! now to find me some edamame...

"Bibimbap shappdy wappdy wap." - Jinmyo
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