Probably the very last of the wild spring vegetables, undeniably not the easiest to find in a shop, and a very fun one to go and pick in the forest. We discovered henon 淡竹 (hachiku) when our friends in Tsunan invited us to go and pick them in late May 2010, and I remember it at as a lot of fun foraging them. Unfortunately after that, rare were the times we had a chance to eat some. And I longed for eating some, but didn’t venture in unknown forest to try to search for some. So you can easily imagine how happy I was when I found some at one of the local farmers cooperatives we shop in Chiba. Henon is a sort of bamboo shoot. But contrarily to takenoko the are thin and even more tender. And they don’t have such tartness. They are much more refined.
With more than 10 years since I last helped K. preparing them, I was a bit unsure about how to proceed and how to dress them, but I decided to do it my way: simple and rapid.
So, as for other bamboo shoots, I peeled them carefully, blanched them until tender, which takes only about 10min.
Then cut and dressed them. As I was roasting a piece of pork filet I decided to use the jus and deglazed the henon in the jus, where I added 2tbs of soya sauce. The result was exactly what I wanted. I know I could have made a more Japanese-cuisine like preparation, but the pork juice and the soya sauce are a sublime mix for pretty much any vegetable, and the magic worked again this time.
Unfortunately there might not be too often henon recipes here, unless we find a spot to harvest some, but if you happen to find some I more than recommend you try cooking them!!
