Temple Cuisine

Vegetarian Kaiseki at Hachi Ju Hachi Restaurant

2010-07-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

Chef Jin Suzuki isn't so happy when a customer comes to Hachi Ju Hachi and asks for California rolls and spicy tuna rolls to go. He's a classically trained Japanese chef, and you get the impression that he'd be much happier if he could just stop serving American-style sushi rolls entirely. He'd much rather introduce you to traditional Kansai-style sushi pressed in a wooden box. And he'd really appreciate it if all of his customers took the time to sit down and enjoy the food that he puts so much work into preparing.

Suzuki-san isn't interested in modernizing Japanese cuisine. He prefers to work with traditional Japanese ingredients and techniques to produce refined Kansai-style cuisine. He eschews food processors and other modern kitchen tools, preferring to use traditional Japanese equipment and techniques. he prepares his own tofu in house and even boils down seawater to produce his own sea salt.

On one visit, Suzuki-san brought out a dumpling of kabocha squash enrobed in mochi, which he had flash fried. The dumpling was served on a braised slice of daikon in a pool of dashi and garnished with a tangle of tororo kombu filaments. He explained that the dish was prepared without any meat or fish in the traditional Buddhist style. We inquired about his interest in shojin ryori and learned that he was a Buddhist and loved to prepare vegetarian dishes.

I wanted to return to Hachi and Hachi for an entire traditional shojin ryori kaiseki meal and see what Suzuki-san could provide within the constraints of no meat, no fish, no eggs, and no garlic or onions.

Here are a few dishes from the first shojin ryori kaiseki meal Suzuki-san said he's prepared since leaving Japan:

An early course was maitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and yuba (tofu skin) in a rich kombu dashi. Suzuki-san's kombu dashi augmented with mushrooms had remarkable depth and a rich uamami flavor. Adding a few drops of lime juice provided a bright counterpoint to the earthiness of the broth.

Another dish we really liked was marinated, pressed tofu, which was fried, grilled, and served with a maitake mushroom and a shishito chile. Somehow, pressing the tofu created a texture similar to shredded meat.

This dish featured braised lily bulb, which had a flavor reminiscent of chestnuts. The lily bulb was served on braised baby bok choi and a braised slice of daikon in more of Suzuki-san's flavorful kombu dashi.

Recipe: Gratin of Greens and Smoked Cheese

2010-05-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been harvesting a lot of beets from my garden plot to clear out space for summer crops. I've noticed that most people buying beets at my neighborhood farmers' market immediately discard their beet greens, but they're very good to eat. Beets are botanically related to chard, and beet greens can be prepared in the same manner as chard.

In this recipe, I'm using a bechamel sauce to add some richness to the greens. Smoked cheese and herbs make this dish savory enough to satisfy meat-eaters, and baking it in a gratin dish with bread crumbs provides form and a nice textural contrast.

2 cups milk
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
a few sprigs of thyme (optional)
1 1/2 pounds of beet greens, chard, or spinach, washed and well drained
1/4 cup buter (1/2 stick) + enough to butter the baking dish
1/4 cup flour
8 ounces smoked mozzarella or another smoked cheese
2 cups bread torn into rough pieces, preferably from a rustic loaf
3 Tbs. olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a gratin dish or baking dish.

2. Reserve a teaspoon of thyme leaves. Put 3 cloves of garlic and the remaining thyme into a small saucepan with the milk. Over low heat, bring the milk to steaming. Turn off the heat, cover the saucepan, and allow the aromatics to steep in the milk.

3. Tear the greens as needed into large pieces. Place the greens in a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight lid over low heat. If you've just washed the greens, there should be enough residual moisture to cook the greens. If you're using pre-packaged, washed and dried greens, add 1/4 cup of water. Turn the leaves over occaisionally and stir until the greens are tender.

4. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Whisk in the flour until smooth and cook for about a minute over low heat. Strain the hot milk into the butter and whisk until smooth. Continue stirring and cook over medium heat until the sauce has thickened.

5. Stir the cheese, greens, 3/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and any pot liquor from the greens into the sauce. Adjust seasonings to taste. Pour the mixture into the gratin dish.

6. In the food processor, pulse the bread, olive oil, reserved garlic and 1/4 tsp. of salt until you get coarse bread crumbs. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the gratin.

7. Bake for about 30 minutes until the gratin is bubbling and nicely browned.

Bread and Butter Pickles

2009-09-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

I started cultivating a plot of vegetables at my neighborhood community garden a year ago. I'm enjoying the experience of producing my own food, but it's a venture rife with uncertainties. Sometimes the seeds won't germinate. Or the birds will wipe out the seedlings. Perhaps the tomatoes will thrive, but the eggplant will refuse to set fruit.

I was fortunate to get a good crop of cucumbers. To utlilize the abundance, I put up a few quarts of bread and butter pickles using Elise's recipe. Here are the cucumbers coming up to boil with onions (also from my garden), vinegar, sugar, and spices. (A special thanks to my friend, Suzanne, for giving me the mandoline with the fancy crinkle-cut blade!)

In addition to the Blenheim apricot jam from my previous post, I've also home-crafted Santa Rosa plum jam, Black Tartarian cherry jam, August Flame peach jam, Mark Bittman's tomato jam, pickled green beans, and tomato sauce with garlic and basil this season.

Blenheim Apricot Jam

2009-07-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Blenheim apricots are a food treasure of the Santa Clara valley. Although they're small and often pale skinned with a green tinge, they're widely regarded to be the superior tasting apricot variety and have an incredible fragrance and intense flavor. Blenheim apricots are too delicate to ship and difficult to find even in California, but they're well worth seeking out.

I bought two flats of "jam quality" imperfect fruit from the C.J. Olsen Farmstand in Sunnyvale, CA last weekend. Andy's Orchard in Morgan Hill, CA is another local source for Blenheim apricots, and there are some farmers' market vendors who offer Blenheim apricots.

Since the harvest season for Blenheim apricots is only a few weeks for each orchard, I preserved my Blenheims by making jam. I learned to appreciate artisanal jams from buying small batch conserves and fruit butter from June Taylor's stand at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market and eventually taking a jam making class with her last year.

I'm very pleased with the fresh-tasting but intensely flavored result of my jam making labors:

If you're interested in trying Blenheim apricot jam, June Taylor's very limited availability Blenheim apricot conserve is amazing. Although I haven't tried their product, welovejam offers an apricot jam, which has gotten great reviews.

Recipe: Matcha Shortbread

2008-12-25T12:19:00.001-08:00

Matcha powdered green tea is traditionally whisked into hot water to make a frothy beverage, but I think matcha's herbal and tannic notes complement sugar and butter nicely in western desserts.

I took the French Laundry / Bouchon Bakery shortbread recipe from Claire Clark's Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts and reworked it into the following matcha version.

1/3 cup + 1 Tb granulated sugar (75 g)

1 1/2 Tb matcha green tea powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups flour (225 g)

1 stick + 3 Tb butter, cut into small pieces (150 g)

1/4 cup additional granulated sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit (180 degrees centigrade)

2. Put the 1/3 cup + 1 TB granulated sugar, matcha, and salt into a food processor and process for about 15 seconds.

2. Add the flour and pulse until incorporated. Add the butter and pulse until incorporated into a loose mass.

3. Turn the dough out onto a service and knead a few times until the dough comes together. Flatten the ball and roll it about 1/3 inch think.

4. Cut the dough into about 15 rectangles and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 20 minutes - the shortbread should just be beginning to color.

5. Remove from the oven and use a strainer or sifter to dust the shortbread with the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Let the shortbreads cool on the baking sheet.

Quesadillas De Flor De Calabaza

2008-12-22T00:12:00.000-08:00

There are many wonderful things to eat in Oaxaca, Mexico, but one of my favorites was this simple quesadilla with squash blossoms.

This senora had set up shop on the sidewalk making quesadillas de flor de calabaza over a charcoal fire.

She pressed the masa dough using a handmade wooden tortilla press and cooked the tortilla on the comal. After flipping the tortilla over, she added quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese), squash blossoms, and epazote (an anise-flavored herb).

She folded the quesadilla in half and turned it over on the comal a couple more times until heated through.

To finish the dish, she added a spoonful of salsa roja or salsa verde inside the quesadilla. Wonderful!

Radishes with Chèvre, Nori, and Salt

2008-08-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

I was intrigued by the unusual combination of goat cheese and nori in this recipe from Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu Restaurant.

In this dish nori flavors the goat cheese, contributing umami and balancing the soft lactic acid in the cheese. The nori-enriched goat cheese contrasts nicely with the crisp, peppery radish slices and an assertive mustard dressing.

The other way I like to eat radishes is sliced thinly on an Acme baguette with unsalted butter and sprinkled with flakes of Maldon salt:

Udon with Vegetables and Tofu in Shitake Broth

2008-08-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

Kenchin Udon

This soup features fresh udon (soft wheat noodles), fresh shimeji mushrooms, dried shitake mushrooms, daikon radish, carrots, snow peas, yu choy (a mild Chinese green), and two types of tofu:

Abura age is thin, fried tofu - also used to make inari sushi (tofu pouches stuffed with sushi rice).

And yuba is a tofu skin which forms on simmering soy milk and is dried into thin sheets:

Although I liked the variety of vegetables and tofu in this udon dish, I didn't think the shitake/kombu broth had much depth. It's difficult to create full-flavored vegetarian broths, and traditional buddhist cooking has the additional constraint of not using onions either.

I like the idea of augmenting the udon with a healthy selection of vegetables and tofu, but I would add some dried fish (katsuo-bushi or iriko) to enhance the stock, since I consider the broth to be the sublime pleasure of soup noodles. Or perhaps Elizabeth will be able to rework the shitake/kombu broth to be more flavorful.

Recipe: Risotto of Fresh Peas and Pea Shell Infusion

2008-08-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

I developed a recipe for the pea risotto I described in a previous post for those of you who are more comfortable working from more explicit directions. Enjoy!

Risotto of Fresh Peas and Pea Shell Infusion

2 pounds fresh peas, in the shell

1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Shell the fresh peas, reserving both the peas and the shells.

Roughly chop the pea shells. Microwave the pea shells in two batches in a glass bowl or dish for three minutes, adding 1/2 cup water to each batch. Add 4 cups water total and the salt to the pea shells and puree them in batches in a food processor or blender.

Line a colander or sieve with a clean dishtowel. Place the colander in a large bowl or pot and pour in the pureed pea shells. Allow the infusion to drain through the dishtowel for about two hours. Gently squeeze the towel to extract some additional liquid; you should have about five cups.

Saute the chopped onion in a saucepan over low heat until translucent. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Add two cups of the pea shell infusion and bring to a simmer, stirring occaisonally. Continue adding additional infusion, about a cup at a time, as the rice absorbs the liquid just until the rice becomes tender. If you run out of the infusion, just use water.

While the risotto is cooking, blanch the peas in boiling water for about two minutes. Drain the peas and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking.

Once the risotto is done cooking, gently stir in the parmesan cheese and peas. Serve. Enjoy!

Lemon Verbena Poached White Peaches with Red Miso Sauce

2008-08-09T01:09:00.001-07:00

Hakuto No Dengaku

I saw Elizabeth's recipe for "Poached Peaches in Lemon-Ginger Miso Sauce" in her published cookbook, Washoku, and decided I needed to investigate her improbable pairing of white peaches with red miso sauce.

In this recipe, the white peaches are simmered in a syrup flavored with ginger and lemon. Elizabeth's recipe calls for lemon zest and lemon juice, but I decided to substitute lemon verbena since I thought the lemon verbena would better accentuate the perfume of the white peaches.

Tree-ripened white peaches are wonderfully fragrant, but I often find this low-acid fruit to be one-dimensionally sweet. In this recipe, the ginger and contrasting miso sauce provide some structure to the fruit.

The red miso sauce is softened by adding the poaching syrup to it, but it's still quite assertive - pungent and salty. Just a smear of the red miso sauce is enough to create an interesting contrast with the fruit, emphasizing its sugar and fragrance.

Koya Tofu Braised with Shitake and Vegetables

2008-08-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Koya-Dofu To Hoshi Shitake No Taki Awase

This dish features koya tofu (pronounced dofu in this context) - a freeze-dried tofu attributed to the Buddhist monks at Mt. Koya near Osaka.

The koya tofu is available as shelf stable dry cubes:

When reconstituted in warm water, the koya tofu softens and becomes resiliently and absorbent. In fact, they resemble small latex sponges!

Another uncommon ingredient in this dish is gobo (burdock root). I'm wondering how gobo is cultivated to allow it to grow to a full yard in length?

In this dish, the koya tofu is braised with shitake mushrooms, lotus root, gobo, carrots, and snow peas. Gently seasoning the dish with soy sauce, sake and sugar allows the textures and flavors of the tofu and vegetables to remain distinct and clear.

Risotto of Fresh Peas and Pea Shell Infusion

2008-07-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

One of the aspects of appreciation that Elizabeth discusses in "Kansha" is fully utilizing your ingredients and avoiding waste.

Fresh peas are a treat, but I've always been bothered by the disappointingly small yield. After shelling a bag of peas from my local farmer's market, I had 1/3 peas and 2/3 pea shells by weight.

So, what can you can do with the pea shells?

I decided to steal an idea from the wonderful "Peas & Shoots in Shell Consomme'" featured on an early June tasting menu at Ubuntu restaurant in Napa, CA:

Ubuntu's chef, Jeremy Fox, shows appreciation for the garden by using peas, pea tendrils, and a pea shell consomme' to create some complexity and interplay. We've got two forms of mint: fresh chocolate mint leaves and fresh mint oil. For me, the most unexpected elements of this dish were bits of white chocolate, which provided some creaminess and accented the sweetness of the peas, and some toasted chopped macadamia nuts to provide some crunch and a counterpoint to the brightness of the vegetables.

I found this dish to be the perfect expression of Spring. Jeremy nurtures and amplifies the pure flavors of the peas using exceptional technique and careful composition. In my opinion, Ubuntu is serving the most innovative and delightful food in the San Francisco Bay Area right now.

After enjoying the tasting menu at Ubuntu, I got a chance to talk to Jeremy and asked how he'd achieved such an intense and pure flavor in his clear pea shell consomme'. He generously explained the process, which turns out to be similar to making tomato water.

I wasn't interested in trying to replicate Jeremy's Pea & Shoots in Shell Consomme', but I decided to rework pea risotto using what I'll call a pea shell infusion.

I think Jeremy said that he blanched his pea shells. I believe this is necessary to denature the natural enzymes. Otherwise, I think the enzymes would go into overdrive after the food processor broke down the cell walls and incorporated oxygen. I didn't want to take the time to bring a pot of water to boil, so I just microwaved the peas shells in a covered bowl with some water. I'm also thinking that this minimal water approach would preserve more flavor than traditional blanching in a pot of water.

I pureed the pea shells with some water in my food processor, and transferred them to a towel lined sieve

And let the liquid drip through:

Resulting in the following.

Note that my pea shell water has a green tint compared to Jeremy's crystal clear rendition. I think this is due to my towel letting the fine sediment through. I probably would get a result like Jeremy's if I let it drip through a coffee filter, but I just didn't want to bother.

The pea shell infusion tasted wonderful - a clean, sweet vegetal elixir. I used the pea shell infusion in place of stock to create a bright, flavorful risotto. I added the blanched fresh peas and finished the dish with some shaved parmesan.

I love the contrast of the bright green peas against the white risotto and the surprise of discovering that the risotto itself tastes of peas. I think a stock-based risotto would tend to overwhelm the delicacy of the peas.

Click here for the recipe.

A final comment: I found it interesting that Elizabeth and Jeremy (neither of whom are vegetarian) profess similar motivations for their current work:
Elizabeth: "One of several important themes of [Kansha] is the variety and richness of a plant-based diet. Kansha is not about abstention -- doing without meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy. Rather, it is about abundance -- of grains, legumes, roots, shoots, leafy plants (aquatic and terrestrial), shrubs, herbs, berries, seeds, tree fruits and nuts. Further, kansha is about the clever and respectful transformation of natural resources into nourishing food."

Jeremy: "Celebrating the natural bounty of the earth, Ubuntu is less about a philosophy of no meat and instead a celebration of our own biodynamic gardens, what shows up at the door and relationships with the local farms in Napa. Chef Jeremy Fox looks forward to offering vegetable-inspired meals and supporting the local community while simultaneously presenting extraordinary, innovative cuisine to be enjoyed by both omnivores and herbivores.

http://www.ubuntunapa.com/

The Dirty Bird

2008-07-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

A Review of Le Pigeon Restaurant - Portland, OR

Le Pigeon has a point of view. When I visited the restaurant in May, the "foie gras profiteroles" on the dessert menu board immediately caught my attention. I read this as a challenge from the chef, Gabriel Rucker, and decided that I needed to take him up on his dare.

I had arrived at the restaurant early since I didn't have a reservation. The crew of tattooed chefs and their ambitious food take center stage at Le Pigeon. Seating is on bar stools around the open kitchen or at a few communal tables. Gabriel was sitting at the bar working out the menu with the other chefs when I came in, although he didn't stay for the service.

My meal started with a salad of arugula, potatoes, and beef tongue. There were a lot of big flavors happening on the chipped thrift store plate that the chef, whom Gabriel addressed as Bones, handed directly to me as I sat at the kitchen bar. Braising brought out livery, organ meat flavors in the tongue, which played off the peppery arugula, sharp and piquant pickled red onions, tender potatoes, and bright lemon zest. The salad was pushed further with an aggressive dressing of sherry vinegar and coarse sea salt.

For my entree I chose the pan-seared halibut served on asparagus and peas, generously napped with Oregon white truffle butter and finished with sherry vinegar and a generous amount of sea salt. As with the salad, the halibut dish was about big flavors balanced with assertive acid and salt.

And the foie gras profiteroles. Bones explained to me that the foie gras ice cream was made by folding melted-down foie gras and white port into a custard base. The foie gras ice cream was served in three freshly baked choux shells, drizzled with a burnt caramel sauce, grated dark chocolate, and sea salt. The salt registers first, followed by the burnt caramel, the dark chocolate, and the chew of the pastry shell. Next, the fruitiness of the white port comes into focus followed by the unctious foie gras. Wow. The most ambitious dessert I've ever had. Wonderful.

Le Pigeon has a point of view. Don't expect subtlety or crowd-pleasing, common denominator cooking. But if you're up for an adventure, Gabriel Rucker and his crew challenge Le Pigeon diners with exhilarating, no-holds-barred cooking.

http://www.lepigeon.com/

Prosciutto and White Rose Nectarines with Green Almonds

2008-06-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Assorted Vegetables with Sun-Dried Radish

2008-05-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Gomoku Kiri-Boshi Daikon

This recipe uses a few Japanese ingredients that you might not be familar with.

Kiriboshi- Daikon, sun-dried daikon radish strips:

Hijiki, a dried sea vegetable:

Shirataki, noodles formed from konnyaku yams:

Shirataki has a gelatinous or slithery texture to it. It's a naturally non-caloric food.

In this recipe, the dried ingredients are reconstituted and steamed with the shirataki, fresh carrots, and fresh green beans. The seasonings include aromatic sesame seed oil, sugar, soy-sauce and shimchimi togarashi (a Japanese spice mixture that includes dried chile, orange peel, white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, sansho pepper, nori, and dried giner).

The result looks like a noodle dish, like Korean chap chae. The strands of dried daikon, hijiki, and shirataki provide interesting contrasting mouthfeel. The carrots and green beans provide color and crunch.

Kabocha Soup with Japanese Flavors

2008-05-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Kabocha no Surinagashi

Kabocha is a round, orange-fleshed squash with a green skin, similar in taste to butternut squash. Pureed squash makes a soup with a satisfyingly rich texture.

Elizabeth's version for Kansha takes squash soup a Japanese direction by using kombu stock, light-colored soy sauce, and white miso. The Japanese flavors counterbalance the sweetness of the kabocha in an interesting way.

Spicy Soy-Braised Bamboo Shoots and Fried Tofu

2008-05-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

Takenoko to Atsu Age no Arima Ni

For this recipe, I went to my local Chinese market to buy fresh bamboo shoots. Here's a fresh bamboo shoot:

Like artichokes, bamboo shoots have an inedible fibrous exterior, which must be removed.

Raw bamboo shoots also contain toxic hydrocyanic acid (or prussic acid). Boiling the bamboo shoots eliminates the toxin. I don't know whether the heat denatures the hydrocyanic acid or whether the acid goes into solution and is removed when the bamboo shoots are drained. I do know that raw bamboo shoots are very bitter; I assume the bitterness is due to the hydrocyanic acid.

I simmered the bamboo shoots in water about 45 minutes and then peeled back the outer layers. Unfortunately, the interior still tasted bitter to me, so I simmered the bamboo shoots a second time.

After trimming the simmered bamboo shoots, here's what I got.

I used the tender vestigial leaves at the tip for Fresh Bamboo shoots and Rice - Takenoko Gohan.

I cut the conical portion into wedge-shaped combs for the braised bamboo shoots with tofu.

The spiciness in this recipe comes from sansho, sometimes called a type of pepper, but it's really the berry from the prickly ash plant. Sansho is lemony, but also has a tongue-numbing quality to it.

Elizabeth's recipe calls for whole sansho berries, which I wasn't able to find in my Japanese market - although I could find the powdered sansho. I substituted Szechuan peppercorns, which are related to sansho, but I believe they're a different botanical variety.

For several years, Szechuan peppercorns were illegal to import into the U.S. because of concerns they could harbor citrus canker. A few years ago, the U.S. decided to allow heat-treated Szechuan peppercorns into the country.

Packages of Szechuan peppercorns contain both the black seed and the husks. In Chinese cooking, the husks are considered the desirable part, and the seeds are often discarded. With sansho, the seed is considered the desirable part of the spice, and the husk is discarded. Szechuan peppercorns have a citrus overtone, but I don't think they taste as lemony as sansho.

For this recipe, I fried fresh extra firm tofu instead of using imported packaged fried tofu. I braised the bamboo shoots and tofu with soy, kombu dashi (kelp stock), and Szechuan peppercorns.

In the finished dish, I think the Szechuan peppercorns add a nice contrasting brightness to the umami-rich soy/dashi flavors. The crunch of the bamboo shoots is also a nice textural contrast to the satisfyingly chewy fried tofu.

I liked the recipe, but preparing the fresh bamboo shoots takes some time. I'd like to try this recipe with the boiled bamboo shoots packed in plastic bags with water. I'm sure the prepared bamboo shoots don't have the delicacy of the fresh bamboo shoots, but I'm not sure the difference would be very apparent after braising them with soy and sansho.

Black Rice with Edamame

2008-05-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

Kodai Kuromai to Edamame

This recipe was an opportunity to browse the local Mitsuwa supermarket and find Japanese black rice. Here's what I found:

I believe Japanese black rice is different than the Thai black rice used used for the sticky black rice with mangoes and coconut cream sauce, but I don't have any Thai black rice in the pantry right now to make a direct comparison.

The preparation method for the Japanese black rice is certainly different than Thai black rice. A small amount of Japanese rice is added to white rice for flavor and color. I cooked the Japanese black/white rice in my neuro fuzzy logic rice cooker. With Thai sticky black rice, you soak the rice overnight and then steam it in a basket.

I love the dramatic contrast between the dark purple rice and the pale green edamame in the finished dish.

Mixed Vegetables Braised with Thick Fried Tofu

2008-05-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

Chikuzen Ni

The first recipe I tried from Elizabeth's draft was Chikuzen Ni or Mixed Vegetables Braised with Thick Fried Tofu. A chicken version of chikuzen ni, titled "Soy-Stewed Chicken with Vegetables", is included in "Washoku".

The vegetarian version uses thick fried tofu instead of chicken. The dish also include gobo (burdock root), carrots, konnyaku, shitake mushrooms, and edamame. Gobo is a fibrous root vegetable with a woodsy, herbal fragrance when raw. The gobo I purchased was about 30 inches long and an inch in diameter and still carrying some dirt. Konnyaku is a chewy (actually, somewhat rubbery) processed food made from the konnyaku yam.

Although packaged fried tofu imported Japan is available at my local Japanese market, I've found the oil tastes stale or rancid by the time it gets to California. So, I decided to purchase fresh locally-made tofu and fry it myself.

This is a fairly easy dish to make, if you can procure the gobo and konnyaku. The is a satisfying umami-rich dish with a nice variety of textures, shapes, and colors.

While you're waiting for "Kansha" to be published, try the chicken version published in "Washoku".

Welcome to the Temple Cuisine Blog!

2008-05-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Temple Cuisine, the blog I'm starting to document my recipe testing for Elizabeth Andoh's work-in-progress cookbook, "Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegetarian Traditions".

Elizabeth is the author of "Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen", which I highly recommend for her well-tested recipes capturing homestyle Japanese cooking.

Here's Elizabeth's description of Kansha:

"Kansha means 'appreciation,' and is evident in many aspects of Japanese society and daily living. In a culinary context, the word acknowledges nature's bounty, as well as the efforts and ingenuity of the people who transform that abundance into marvelous food. In the kitchen and at table, as well as in the supermarket and garden, kansha encourages us to prepare nutritionally sound and aesthetically satisfying meals while we avoid waste, conserve energy, and sustain our natural resources.

"Kansha is one of several aspects of washoku, the indigenous food culture of Japan based upon notions of balance (color, flavor, and method of food preparation) that assure nutritional and aesthetic harmony at table. As with my previous book, Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen, KANSHA will introduce readers to a culinary concept as well as the food associated with it.

"Although a keen appreciation of food does not require me, or my readers, to choose a plant-based diet, I have (in this book) decided to celebrate Japan's vegetarian traditions. In particular, I have taken inspiration and instruction from shojin ryori (Buddhist temple cuisine), primarily as practiced in private homes and served at temple restaurants.

"One of several important themes of the book is the variety and richness of a plant-based diet. Kansha is not about abstention -- doing without meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy. Rather, it is about abundance -- of grains, legumes, roots, shoots, leafy plants (aquatic and terrestrial), shrubs, herbs, berries, seeds, tree fruits and nuts. Further, kansha is about the clever and respectful transformation of natural resources into nourishing food."