Prosciutto and White Rose Nectarines with Green Almonds

Browsing through my neighborhood farmers' market this morning, I discovered that one of the fruit vendors was selling green almonds. The botanical kinship between almonds and stone fruit is apparent when you see green almonds - they look like immature peaches:












I immediately thought of the cover of Judy Rogers' "The Zuni Cafe Cookbook."











With white nectarines in season, I decided I needed to try her recipe for "Prosciutto and White Rose Nectarines with Green Almonds."

Paring through the flesh of the green almonds with a knife brings you down to a thin shell and the nutmeat:

The green almonds are similar to blanched, raw almonds - which is what Judy recommends using you can't get green almonds. The green almonds have a soft crunch and some vegetal notes - I was thinking of very fresh, uncooked green beans.


Here's what Judy says: "The rose scent, faint bitterness, and long flavor of a ripe white nectarine reveals flavors in prosciutto that you can miss when you taste the ham with sweeter fruit... During the few weeks a year we can get them, I do like to serve this dish with green almonds. Pried from their fuzzy pods and painstakingly peeled, tender unripe almonds have as delicate flavor as I know, one that reads best against something savory rather than sweet."

Isn't that beautiful?

The perfumed, meltingly soft, honeyed white nectarines play off very interestingly against the salt and fat of the prosciutto. And the green almonds take the dish another direction with their soft crunch, nuttiness, and vegetal notes. A very interesting tasting!

Fresh Hijiki

At the Granville Public Market in Vancouver, British Columbia, I spotted fresh hijiki. I was surprised by how green the fresh hijiki was. Compare this to the black dried hijiki pictured below for the "Assorted Vegetables with Sun-dried Radish" recipe .

I don't remember ever seeing fresh hijiki in the U.S. or in Japan. The vendor said the hijiki had been harvested in the Vancouver area. The hijiki was crunchy and briny inside, like seawater. Unfortunately, I didn't think U.S. customs would let me bring a fresh sea vegetable into the country, so I didn't get to try cooking with it.

Temari Zushi

This vegetable sushi dish uses pickled blossoms of myoga (a rhizome related to ginger, but I think has more of a peppery taste), shitake mushrooms braised in soy sauce, and fresh avocado slices.

Here are fresh myoga blossoms, imported from Japan:

I sliced the myoga lengthwise, blanched them in boiling water, and put them in a lemon juice-based pickling liquid:

After pickling overnight, the myoga turn a bright scarlet color:

The feedback I provided to Elizabeth was that I wasn't entirely satisfied with the balance of flavors in my execution of this dish.

The myoga was quite tart after being picked in the full-strength lemon juice. Next time, I'll reserve a third of the rice and season it with less rice vinegar in anticipation of the picked myoga.

I also thought the shitake mushroom would be better braised in less soy sauce to avoid overshadowing the flavors of the mushroom and sushi rice.

Creamy Bamboo Shoot Soup with Asparagus

Takenoko no Surinagashi

For me, bamboo shoots are mostly about the crunchy, fibrous texture. This recipe purees the bamboo shoots to shift the focus to their mild, woodsy flavor.

The soup is enriched with kombu stock, thickened with pureed tofu, garnished with blanched asparagus, and seasoned with light soy sauce, white miso, and sansho pepper.

After pureeing, the soup remains somewhat grainy - bamboo shoots have a lot of fiber! But, I enjoyed the focus on the flavor of fresh bamboo shoots. The umami-rich earthiness of this soup contrasted nicely with the fresh asparagus and the bite of the sansho pepper.