Tag: hijiki

Spring vegetables

March/April is a busy time of the year, this is the end of the fiscal and academic year and the beginning of the new one. It is usually busy at work, with graduation ceremony, budget closing, preparation of the lectures, and new students arrival. It is also A.’s birthday and the time when cherry trees are blooming. The season also to say goodbye to winter and to mushrooms, cabbage, leek and sweet potatoes and welcome all the new spring vegetables. Last week we also had the visit of friends from Germany and Though I was busy I wanted to cook something Japanese and seasonal. Luckily I found some udo, and I remembered a nice recipe with white miso. And since I has some dried hijiki I added them to the preparation (wakame is also great, but I preferred hijiki for the black & white effect. It is a very simple recipe, delicious with very typical Japanese flavors.

Udo with white miso dressing

– 1 udo

– 20g of dried hijiki, or wakame (optional)

– 2tbs of white miso

– 1tbs of sake

– 1tsp of brown sugar

– 1tbs of white vinegar (for removing the bitterness of the udo)

Cut the udo in 4cm pieces. Peel them and slice them finely. If the udo is really large cutting them in half is better. In a large bowl put 500ml of water and the vinegar, add the udo and once in a while give a turn.

In a bowl of tepid water add the hijiki or the wakame to rehydrate them.

In a small pan add the white miso the sugar and the sake and cook at low medium heat while stirring until creamy liquid.

Drain the udo, the hijiki, put in a bowl and stir well, add the miso dressing, stir again and serve.

Haru kiku – 春菊

I’ve seen these beautiful green leaves for a while now but never cooked any before. Cooking is quite a big word for something that is perfect just washed and chopped like lettuce etc… In fact the trigger for trying was a recipe I found in browsing one of my macrobiotic cookbook and I totally loved the recipe at first, not because of the haru kiku but because of the hijiki. Some time ago I bought a little bag of dried hijiki made locally in Isumi. I made a few things with them but I find myself very limited, or I didn’t try enough, so this recipe was saving me. And it is just the season for haru kiku, so of course I found some right away at the local farmers market and I was more than happy to try them!

The original recipe is simply hijiki, haru kiku, olive oil and balsamic vinegar (a little weird for a macrobiotic recipe though…). My recipe goes like this:

Haru kiku and hijiki salad (for 2 as a side dish)

– a handful of haru kiku

– 20g of dried hijiki

– 2 slices of whole wheat or so bread

– 2 tbs of olive oil for frying the bread

– 1 tbs of olive oil for the dressing

– 1 tsp of white vinegar (I used rakkasu)

First rehydrate the hijiki in a bit of water. In the mean time dice the bread and fry it in the olive oil. Wash the haru kiku and cut the leaves from the stalk with the fingers, keep the leaves, trash the stalks. Then brake or cut the leaves in three. Drain the hijiki, add them to the haru kiku in a bowl, add the olive oil and vinegar and stir well, finally add the croutons and stir again. Enjoy as a side dish!

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