Sansai

[torakris]

Here are some nice pictures of various sansai:

http://www.geocities.jp/wakabayashi3990701...1/esansai1.html

[tissue]

Here are some nice pictures of  various sansai:

http://www.geocities.jp/wakabayashi3990701...1/esansai1.html

I tried various types of sansai in little restaurants on the way to Hakone for hot springs. That is definitely an experience I won't forget.

[torakris]

sansai are really incredible, they can be quite difficult to find in stores (though cultivating them is becoming more common) thus they are pretty much a restaurant speciality (unless you live in the mountains!!). Each area of Japan has their own varieties and their own ways of preparing them.

[Hiroyuki]

... (unless you live in the mountains!!).  Each area of Japan has their own varieties and their own ways of preparing them.

You got me. I don't live in the mountains, but I do live in the country, so it's always a pleasure to pick up some sansai at this time of the year. Sansai in the Snow Country is known to be delicious because of its less "aku" (I don't know the exact equivalent for that word in English. Dictionaries tell you it's "harshness".). I've already had the first taste of fukinoto this year: My son and I went out to pick tens of them and my wife deep-fried them. This is my favorite way of cooking fukinoto, but my wife likes fuki miso, too.

I'm looking forward to eating ohitashi of tsukushi (horsetails) soon. (Spring is late in coming in the Snow Country.)

A word of caution: Eating too much fukinoto makes you itchy all over! Eat it sparelingly.

[helenjp]

Fukinoto tempura...that takes me back 20 years or so, when my friends set up house and kiln on top of a mountain ridge in Wakayama, overlooking what remains of the old capital at Asuka.

My friend was an enthusiastic researcher of the Kokinshu, who marveled at the flowers and plants that had sprung straight from classical poetry onto the muddy path that led from the road up to their isolated house.

Her poetic meditations lasted till spring, when she discovered that most of this "poetry" was edible. After that, it was books away, pots and pans to the fore!

[Hiroyuki]

Yesterday, my daughter and I went for a walk and picked up some fukinoto and tsukushi (horsetails).

(土筆　つくし　tsukushi

a reproductive shoot of the field horsetail.

according to Microsoft Bookshelf Basic Ver. 3.0, preinstalled on my computer)

My wife made fukinoto no tempura and tsukushi no kinpira.

To make tsukushi no kinpira, you must first boil the tsukushi to get rid of "aku" (harshness) (I still don't know the exact equivalent in English), then fry them with oil, Japanese sake, soy sauce, and sugar.

[torakris]

I too have struggled with an English equivalent of of the word aku and am still unsure. Harshness or bitterness is the closest I have come.

Fukinoto tempura, I love this, my husband's aunt has made this for us a couple times, she grew up the daughter of ryokan (traditional Japnese inn) owners in central Fukushima Prefecture and cooks incredible food. Any sansai I have eaten have come from her house, she is amrried to my MIL's brother and unfortunately my MIL who grew up in a shitamachi area of Tokyo doesn't cook at all.....

[Hiroyuki]

Kogome are in season here in Shiozawa!

Boil them. Kogome have no "aku". Eat them with mayonnaise.

http://www.shonaimai.or.jp/sansai/recipe_02.html

http://www.mountaintrad.co.jp/vege/w000501.html

Edited April 21, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[Pan]

Are those a type of fern? (My other thought was some kind of stem plus bean?) I can't read Japanese but do recognize the Kanji character for "mountain" twice on the subject line (?) of the 2nd link. (Mandarin "Shan"= Japanese "San," and the "San" pronunciation is also heard in parts of China [e.g. "Toy San"]). However, that doesn't tell me what this plant is related to.

[Hiroyuki]

Yes, a type of ferm, or shida シダ in Japanese.

http://www.sansaiya.com/sansai/kogomi.html

This is a very interesting site, if you have a Japanese friend who can read it for you.

[torakris]

Are those a type of fern? (My other thought was some kind of stem plus bean?) I can't read Japanese but do recognize the Kanji character for "mountain" twice on the subject line (?) of the 2nd link. (Mandarin "Shan"= Japanese "San," and the "San" pronunciation is also heard in parts of China [e.g. "Toy San"]). However, that doesn't tell me what this plant is related to.

The character you are seeing is 山菜 sansai, literally "mountain vegetable" and kogome are one type.

[Pan]

The types of ferns I've eaten have all tasty funky in a ferny spory kind of way, and I haven't really liked any of them much - ramps least of all. The Malays on the East Coast of the Malay Peninsula traditionally ate some varieties of ferns, especially the smallest called pucuk paku (literally, "fern shoot"). I would have eaten it again if someone had presented it to me last summer, but it's not something I miss. Now, cashew leaves, on the other hand...

[Hiroyuki]

I have just found that kogome are eaten in North America and other parts of the world.

Fiddlehead (of ostrich fern)?

http://www.biology.tohoku.ac.jp/lab-www/pl.../Fiddlehead.htm

More photos of kogome:

http://aoki2.si.gunma-u.ac.jp/BotanicalGar...usa-sotetu.html

Both are in Japanese only.

They are really yummy. This morning, I got a phone call from my sister-in-law, and she told me she would give us some kogome. I just can't wait!

[Hiroyuki]

よもぎ Yomogi (mugwort)

Yomogi is used to make kusamochi (草もち　or 草餅), so it is also called mochigusa (餅草 or もち草).

Photos of yomogi:

http://www.hana300.com/yomogi.html

http://home.catv.ne.jp/dd/goken/ya/yomogi1.htm

Photos of kusamochi

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/kasyuan/443310/439452/

Yomogi is also used to make moxa.

I used to make yomogi tempura when I was single.

[smallworld]

What's moxa?

[Hiroyuki]

Moxa, or moguza in Japanese, is used in okyu (お灸）, or moxa cautery.

You apply moxa to a person's skin and burn it. It is believed to be effective to certain ailments such as a stiffed neck and certain mental problems with children such as bed-wetting.

Some related photos:

http://www2.plala.or.jp/baian/honmachikita/tool2.htm

http://www.sennenq.co.jp/Pages/products/moxa_top.html

[torakris]

smallworld

you might know this better as moxibustion

[torakris]

here is some information on moxibustion in English:

http://www.findarticles.com/g2603/0005/260...icle.jhtml?cf=0

[Hiroyuki]

Moxibustion... I've never heard of such a word. Thank you, torakris (not trakris ).

I only have bad memories of moxibustion, though...

[smallworld]

Thanks for clearing that up, guys. Yes, Hiroyuki, "moxibustion" is the correct word, I supposed "moxa" is a Japanized short form.

My husband also has bad memories of okyu. Seems to be used just as much as a punishment for naughty children as for a treatment!

My husband used to use okyu for his sore back and stiff shoulders. There is now a convenient type that looks like a tiny fat stick of incence standing on a round sticky pad. You just light the tip and stick the pad to your skin. Supposed to be safer than traditional moxibustion, with less risk of burning. But it DID burn, slightly, leaving marks all over his back, so I made him stop.

I tried it too and the sensation ranges from pleasant to painful, depending on the type and where it's used. Made sore spots feel better temporarily, but didn't seem to have any long-lasting effects.

I'll take a massage or a nice hot bath over moxibustion any day!

[Hiroyuki]

warabi (bracken)

I wonder how many of you have actually removed aku (harshness) from warabi. Ash used to be used for that purpose, but now, baking soda is more common. I use a product specific for that purpose, called sansai no akunuki 山菜のあくぬき.

photos of wrabi and warabi soaked in baking soda water to get rid of aku:

http://www.ic-net.or.jp/home/ds-chizu/tokuswarabi.htm

I also wonder if different peoples have different ways to remove aku from sansai (wild plants).

[helenjp]

bracken is a traditional food of Maori people in New Zealand. My memory of the correct drill is hazy, but I think the roots were soaked in running water before use. I don't recall hearing about the shoots, and now I can only remember the Japanese way of using ashes.

Bracken fern is a big link between NZ and Japan for me. Apart from the food, and bracken fronds as a design motif in the art of both countries, I have vivid memories of eating salted long-grain rice using home-made bracken stem chopsticks, dressed in a crepe paper kimono with crepe paper flowers pinned in my hair...we start school in NZ on our 5th birthday, and I started school just in time to study Japan and participate in the culminating Japan festival. The teacher couldn't believe that anybody could eat plain, unflavored shortgrain rice, so she did it her way! I do believe that she told us that bracken shoots were eaten in Japan, so she must have done some homework.

[Hiroyuki]

Here is a photo of some fiddleheads of ostrich fern (kogome in Japanese), which are still entirely covered with brown skins.

[Hiroyuki]

This afternoon, I went out into the bushes to gather some bracken ferns.

Bushes and the condo where my family live:

Ferns in the bushes (sorry, I'm not a good photographer.)

In about one hour or so, I gathered a handful:

You have to get rid of aku (harshness) with some baking soda and boiling water:

You have to wait untill tommorrow...

[Hiroyuki]

Then I rinse them in water and put them in a colander. They are now ready to serve.