Sansai

[torakris]

I have never seen dried warabi either, the very few times I have bought warabi I buy it water packed (mizu-ni 水煮).

I usually cook it with a Korean flavor, I saute it with sesame oil then slowly simmer it with soy sauce, sake, sugar and garlic, finally tossing it with sesame seeds.

[Hiroyuki]

It's almost mid-April, but we had the first fukinotou (butterbur sprouts) this spring, mainly because of the heavy snowfall this winter. My wife made fukinotou tempura and fuki-miso for supper. I wasn't like this when I was in Tokyo, but now I can never feel spring has come unless I have some fukinotou. I learned from a site that 'spring bitterness' is good for the body. I must admit that fukinotou are quite bitter and are not particularly tasty, but my body needs them at this time of year.

[JasonTrue]

Fiddlehead fern fronds are available for a limited period in Seattle this time of year. I picked some up about two weeks ago and made this:

Simmered fiddlehead fern fronds with homemade ganmodoki

We have some more this week but I suspect the dish will be western-ish.

[Hiroyuki]

We live near Uono River. After the snow has melted, we started to see a lot of plants with purplish red leaves cropping up in the field by the river, and only today, we learned the plants were itadori and they were edible! To be more precise, their sprouts and young stalks are edible and even their roots are used as a medicine. I also learned that the people in Kochi prefecture like to eat itadori.

I will post a picture of an itadori dish when I make it.

Sorry that itadori is considered an invasive plant in Europe.

Japanese knotweed was first introduced to Europe and North America in the late 19th century for ornamental use, for planting to prevent soil erosion, and sometimes as a forage crop for grazing animals. It is typically considered an invasive plant or weed where it has been introduced, and is a frequent colonizer of temperate riparian ecosystems, roadsides and waste places. It can be found in 39 of the 50 United States (PUSDA) and in six provinces in Canada. The species is also a common invader in Europe, and in the U.K. it was made illegal to spread Japanese knotweed by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

from here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed

[Hiroyuki]

For those of you who are not familiar with itadori, here is a picture of it:

The plants with reddish leaves.

By the way, cherry blossoms are in full bloom now in my area.

[helenjp]

Somewhere today, I was reading about a foreigner in Japan who discovered that itadori is related to rhubarb (poisonous leaves, edible stems), and used it as an acceptable substitute for rhubarb in desserts!

[Hiroyuki]

Somewhere today, I was reading about a foreigner in Japan who discovered that itadori is related to rhubarb (poisonous leaves, edible stems), and used it as an acceptable substitute for rhubarb in desserts!

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Some people make itadori jam!

[Hiroyuki]

The photo upthread was taken two days ago, and today, the itadori were about the right size, about 30 to 40 cm in height. My son and I collected some and brought them home. My son, daughter, and I first peeled the stems.

Then, we put them in boiling water for a few minutes. We were surprised to see them turn to green. Then, we put them in cold water. We were surprised again to see them turn to subdued green.

We tasted them and found them still very sour. We have to keep them in water overnight to remove sourness, with several changes of water if necessary.

[Hiroyuki]

I changed the water once before I went to bed last night. I tasted it this morning and found that sourness was completely gone . I was disappointed because I wanted to make some itadori jam...

I ended up making stir-fried pork with itadori. The seasoning was the same old soy sauce, mirin, and sake (1:1:1) mixture.

[torakris]

They look a bit like fuki, what did they taste like?

I would love to try them as a jam, I wonder if I can find them around here...

[Hiroyuki]

They look a bit like fuki, what did they taste like?

I would love to try them as a jam, I wonder if I can find them around here...

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My wife told me they were like fuki in shape. They really didn't have any flavor left except some earthy smell. The texture was somewhere between fuki and bamboo shoots.

[Hiroyuki]

This is the akunuki (harshness remover) that I usually use to remove aku from sansai.

Today, I collected some warabi and removed aku from them.

[helenjp]

I was interested to see those itadori, Hiroyuki.

I saw some from Akita prefecture, but they were picked younger, and pickled in salt - so they looked like completely flat straps!

[Hiroyuki]

Yesterday, my son found asparagus and udo growing on the premises of an abandoned mushroom factory located only about 20-second (not 20-minute) walk from our house. They must have been planted by someone but neglected for years.

I took the photos below after we picked more than ten udo and some asparagus shoots.

I wasn't sure how to prepare udo, and I cut off the white roots to eat and discarded the rest. I later googled and found that almost every part of udo was edible! I won't make the same mistake again.

For those of you who are not familar with udo, here is some information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aralia_cordata

Edited May 14, 2006 by Hiroyuki (log)

[nagitokyo]

I am from country-side area(Wakayama). So during school excursion, some of my friends picked up Udo and akebi and were eating udo raw just after pealing.

My husband said when he moved from Osaka to Nara,he was surprised at his classmates eating udo after school.

Last Saturday, I ate Kogomi at my friend's home. That was my first experience. (but so tasty)I think the kind of Sansai differs from home and area people live.

[helenjp]

I've often heard (but never experimented!) that many sansai are quite palatable if eaten straight out of the ground, and that aku-nuki is only necessary if time elapses between picking and eating.

Yesterday we had a dokudami (houttuynia cordata, a type of lizard's tail) salad, using the small, fresh leaves and leaf-buds, with a sweetish vinegar dressing, and mixed with cucumber and naga-imo.

I've heard that Japanese dokudami is more orange-citrus tasting, and that vietnamese dokudami is more minty-coriander in taste. You can certainly taste a faint coriander flavor, and my son who dislikes fresh coriander wasn't very keen on it. It's quite a strong taste (like shiso plus orange), and a bit tongue-numbing eaten alone, but good with other vegetables. I believe it is good in soup too.

[Hiroyuki]

We got a bunch of kinome from a neighbor, who said he and his family went to Kawaguchi, Niigata, to collect kinome.

As I said elsewhere in the Japan Forum, in Niigata and other prefectures, kinome refers not to young leaves of sansho but those of akebi trifoliate (mitsuba akebi in Japanese).

They are quite bitter. A common way to eat them is to boil them for a short time, soak them in water to remove bitterness, and serve them on a plate, often with katsuobushi and a raw quail egg on top, and pour some soy sauce (or ponzu).

[nagitokyo]

This month's inflight magazine of ANA introduces Kinoko and Sansai shop in San Francisco. It says they sell Kogomi,Zenmai, Shiitake,Enoki,Nameko,Maitake,and Shimeji.

Far West Fungi

1 Ferry building.

#34 San Francisco

http://www.farwestfungi.com

[helenjp]

Looks like son2 (12) may be going on a survival camp (taking no food or fuel) in Fukushima over summer, with his school natural sciences club.

I only know the edible wild plants that grow around towns and villages, and in the warmer parts of Japan - and most of the popular ones are spring foods anyway.

So now I'm curious - what wild foods are available in summer?

[Hiroyuki]

Looks like son2 (12) may be going on a survival camp (taking no food or fuel) in Fukushima over summer, with his school natural sciences club.

I only know the edible wild plants that grow around towns and villages, and in the warmer parts of Japan - and most of the popular ones are spring foods anyway.

So now I'm curious - what wild foods are available in summer?

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I have no idea, either. My search for sansai ends around mid-June.

I found this webpage (Japanese only), which is created by a shop located in Yamagata.

I wish I could go to Mt. Takenoko in Naeba to get bamboo shoots!

[helenjp]

Thanks - looks like a summer hiker would be better off hunting wild boar!

[sanrensho]

Hiroyuki recently posted some photos of his yomogi tempura in this thread.

I have access to a good amount of fresh yomogi this year, thanks to some transplanted plants and the arrival of warmer spring weather. However, I'd really like to find some uses for it other than mochi.

Do you have any favorite or unusual recipes that use fresh yomogi? A quick Google search in Japanese brings up a lot of recipes for mochi (rice cakes), and also some recipes for baking in breads and cakes.

I'm especially interested in recipes that don't involve mochi or breads.

Edited May 15, 2007 by sanrensho (log)

[Chihiran]

My grandmother drinks yomogi puree every morning. It tastes terrible, but it's supposedly good for... something. the stomach maybe?

I only eat yomogi in mochi or udon. The tempura idea sounds good though! And the one yomogi chiffon I tried didn't taste very good. It was a strange color too!

[sanrensho]

My grandmother drinks yomogi puree every morning. It tastes terrible, but it's supposedly good for... something. the stomach maybe?

Ouch, I don't think I could *ahem* stomach that!

I guess my fallback plan is to boil and puree, then freeze for later use or mochi making. It's too bad that we don't make tempura often.

[Hiroyuki]

I had a book on yomogi, and yomogi tempura was in that book. You can also boil yomogi leaves for some time and eat them as ohitashi (with katsuobushi and some dashi/soy sauce/mirin sauce, for example) and put them in miso soup.

My parents used to gather large amounts of yomogi, let them dry, put them in a cotton bag, and then put the bag in the bathtub to make "yomogi buro" (yomogi bath). This is supposed to be effective to almost everything including skin diseases.