Forest floor and sea bed

Peering beneath the knee-high canopy of the garden by our front door this morning has, thrillingly, revealed the first crookneck squash, bright yellow and swelling admirably among a juicy forest of green. Beautiful skies today. A shade of hopeful, unbroken blue. Nurtured from seed, the initially unhappy cancellation of our annual end of year trip means that this time, we will actually be here to guide them through the heat and, even better, to harvest them at the ripe, right moment. I’ve just the broth in mind. I’ll miss New Zealand’s particular brand of cool, isolated wilderness this year but there is an up side to each down it would seem.   

Tokyo Deli is pleasant stroll from our lushly-planted front door. Last week, an airtight package of ‘Mountain Vegetables’, sansai, came home among the bags of bancha tea, bonito flakes and yet more arame. Traditionally, sansai are gathered by hand; a combination of wild mountain vegetables that are, for export purposes perhaps, dressed in mirin and soy. Fresh, clean, young shoots of things like bracken, fiddlehead ferns and horsetail; miniature caps of enoki and black fungus chopped into short lengths; tiny sweet pieces of bamboo. Plants that push through the earth and quietly unfurl in the damp, cool air of Japan’s mountain forests. I’d never come across them before.

They are, like their hushed mountain setting, beautiful.

This then, is an excellent antidote to the heat and excess that is very nearly upon us. It has, for me, all the healing elements I wish for: fine black strands of arame, meaty slices of shiitake, sharp, hot ginger and that quintessential culinary symbol of virtue, brown rice. Some aduki beans simmered in this way would be good (they always are) as would chunks of flaked tuna, but a bowl of this, with virtuous vegetal things, from forest floor to salty sea bed, is all I want between celebratory glasses.

Brown rice with shiitakes, ginger and arame

Recently Rosa Jackson mentioned a soy-based dressing that I simply couldn’t get out of my mind. Offered salt or sweet, invariably I lean toward the former so this simple infusion – of soy sauce and cider vinegar with, among more familiar things, thyme and rosemary – is just right. Plain soy sauce or tamari are excellent substitutes, though a splash of lemon juice, cider or rice vinegar may be needed for balance.

1 cup medium-grain brown rice
10 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and drained
1 cup arame, soaked and drained
2 carrots
A large thumb of ginger, peeled
1 crisp, young zucchini
Pale sesame oil
1 x 120g packet of ‘mountain vegetables’ (optional, naturally)
This dressing, or this, or just plain tamari, to serve
Pink-pickled ginger, to serve
Natto miso, to serve (optional)

Cook the rice in 2 cups of water, brought to a boil. Clamp the lid on tightly the moment it boils then reduce the heat to your stove’s lowest setting. Leave, untouched, for 40-45 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, lift the lid, fork it around a bit and cover until required.   

Soak and drain the mushrooms (30 minutes) and the arame (for 10). Slice the shiitake caps thinly and tip both murky liquids into the garden.

Slice the carrots and ginger into matchsticks. Slice the zucchini into slightly thicker batons. Heat a little sesame oil in a frying pan and fry the carrots and ginger until the carrot takes on some colour. Toss in the zucchini, the shiitakes and the arame and stir-fry for about 3 minutes – just long enough to get the flavours going.

Drain the mountain vegetables (if you’re lucky enough to have them) and add to the pan. Work in the rice, adding a large spoonful each time, stirring and frying after each addition. Add a tablespoon or more, to taste, of the dressing or whatever you are using in its place. Eat, hot, from deep bowls garnished with pickled ginger, natto miso if you have it and pass more dressing separately.       

Comments

[kathryn]

Lovely, lovely as ever Lucy. Yet again you're encouraging me to push my seaweed boundaries - I'm such a tentative user.

But that dressing idea . . . I can see why it won't leave your head.

[Wendy]

Now, the dish sounds divine and exactly what I'm craving this week. It's panto time at school and my meals are grabbed on the run in between zipping pupils into costumes and yelling at villagers to stop talking back stage.

What do you mean by natto miso? I know both miso (as in the soup base) and I know natto (as in the vile, vile fermented bean mixture my Hokkaido students used to inconsiderately eat for breakfast) but natto miso is new to me.

[another outspoken female]

I feel healthy just looking at that. Osmotic culinary goodness at its best :)

[Johanna]

This is just the sort of dish that would make a vegetarian very happy at a Christmas celebration in Melbourne where everyone decided to eat seafood (I would struggle to think of a good vegetarian alternative if my family was into that sort of feast)

Sorry to hear your end of year trip is cancelled - hope you get time to relax and enjoy some of Melbourne's great summer entertainment like shakespeare in the botannical gardens and moonlight cinema or even jazz at the zoo! These things always pass by too quickly.

[Head Cook]

Its really awesome food, The pictures are excellent. I am seeing different varieties of ingredients here.

Thanks for posting
Julia

[chelsea]

You are so lucky to find those delectible mountain veggies; I've never seen such thing around these parts. And goodness, gracious - fiddlehead ferns! I love those special little treats. This dish looks wonderful.

[Callipygia]

I like bracken- such an unusual hard to place flavor! Seeing that this kind of reminds me of bibimbap, I'd guild the lily with a fried egg.

[Lucy]

Push those boundaries, Kathryn.

Wendy. Panto Season sounds quite fun, really. Natto is disgusting, truly so, but natto miso is yum:

'Unlike natto, natto-miso contains salt and is prepared with whole barley and soybean Koji, Hijiki or Kombu seaweed and ginger. It has a sweet, salty fruity flavour with a soft chewy texture due to whole grains and whole soy beans.'

It's kinda like a chutney, I guess. Very good. And I promise you, nothing like natto. Ick.

[Lucy]

AOF - Darls, I'm doing my best to keep you glowing in a virtual way.

Johanna, you are so right - seaweed gives you a vegan taste of the sea rather than fishy-flesh. There is much to do here, right here at home. And I will miss my almost-in-laws HUGELY, but a hol at home in a new big backyard is equally good. Moonlight Cinema...big yay.

Hi Julia, and thanks. Glad to be of service.

Chelsea, I got excited like a small person does at Christmas when I saw them. Goodness. It was very nearly embarassing. I'd pop some in the post if I could - you'd like their freshness, methinks.

Calli, yes, I don't know how to describe the ferns, other than they taste clean and green. Do you know, I very nearly did guild my lily just so?

[Ricki]

That looks astoundingly good. Arame is my favorite sea veggie and I love it in salads--I was thinking this was a cold dish by the photo and then saw the recipe. But I might still try it as a salad--what a wonderful mix of flavors and textures!

[Lori Lynn @ Taste With The Eyes]

I don't know why but I feel so calm after reading this post. I have had hijiki, but not arame. The whole dish sounds lovely.

[Sophie]

Spot on Lucy, this does sound perfect for a night in amid all of the other excess at this time of year.

Must expand my seaweed repertoire!

[Lucy]

Ricki - cold it's quite lovely, too. Love that sweeter, gentler, arame more than the other kinds of seaweed.

Lori Lynn - I was hoping to inject a little corner of pre-festivities calm in here. I'm so pleased it worked!

Sophie - all that excess just drives you mad in the end, I reckon. Much better to come home to ingredients that are exotoc, but light.

[Rosa]

How gorgeous Lucy! So glad Etsuko's dressing has made it into your cooking; I love that combination of Asian and Western flavours.

[Robbie]

hi Lucy from Robbie in Gippsland..forgive me but what are "mountain vegetables"?

[Lucy]

Hi Robbie, somehow I missed your comment...up in the introduction to the recipe you'll find what they consist of - a good Japanese grocer should be able to help.