“Learning to trust your instincts in cooking is the only way to get beyond the recipe, and the more you touch farm vegetables, or the more you observe the seasonal fish available, the more you will be able to do this.”
-Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Nancy Singleton Hachisu learned by necessity how to make use of the products of the land (and sea) in her vicinity. After falling in love with a Japanese farmer during a year abroad in Japan, she got married and started a new life with him in an old, traditional farmhouse in rural Japan. Her acculturation involved not only learning the language and culture of her new home but also familiarizing herself with the seasonal produce and fish, the local food products and the Japanese philosophy surrounding how they should be put together to create a satisfying and aesthetic experience. As she reminds us throughout her first cookbook, Japanese Farm Food (2012), there is nothing esoteric about the whole process. Touch, feel, smell and examine the food–get to know them. Soon, the recipes will become mere templates onto which you can incorporate the ingredients that are fresh and available where you live and onto which you can apply your own touch of creativity or idiosyncrasy.
This spinach side dish is a case in point. The ingredient list is short, the preparation, low-tech (mortar, saucepan, bowl, hands), but the result is a bright dish with complex but balanced flavours. Skip to the recipe now, or read along to find out how best to choose and prepare your ingredients.
Spinach
I don’t recommend using baby spinach for this recipe. They are too delicate for cooking, and their flavour is too subtle and would be overwhelmed by the dressing. Packaged spinach also contain less nutrients than bunches, especially when the leaves are immature, as in the case of baby spinach. If you can get your hands on farmer’s market fresh spinach (or better yet–garden fresh), then you can omit the mirin from the recipe. Spinach grown in good soil will have enough natural sugars to sweeten the dish. On the other hand, spinach grown conventionally (poor soil sprayed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides) or left too long on supermarket shelves will contain much less sugar. You may want to offset the bitterness with a tad of mirin.
Miso
When choosing miso, look for a brand that is fermented the traditional method. The only ingredients listed should be rice (brown in the case of genmai miso), soybeans, sea salt, water and koji (aspergillus oryzae). The soybeans should be non-GMO and preferably organic. If you cannot find genmai miso, you can use a mix of shiro (white) miso and aka (red) miso. Both of these are fermented with a white rice koji, but whereas white miso is a short ferment with a sweet taste, red miso is a long ferment with a much more salty and pungent flavour. I use the Amano brand, because it fits those criteria and is widely available in Victoria. As a bonus, they sell them in large 1kg buckets at Fujiya, the local Japanese grocery. Perfect for a miso aficionado like me!
Eat your Flowers!
For those of you wondering what kind of confetti I’ve sprinkled on my greens, the answer is Dianthus plumarius (commonly known as pinks), a perennial flower from the same genus as carnations, with a spicy aroma and edible petals. I wrote about them here.
This is not a Japanese thing, though the Japanese are masters at honouring the beauty of nature in their dishes. It’s purely a Joëlle thing. If you are familiar with the photography on my blog, you will have noticed that flowers often play a supporting role to my kitchen creations. I look to the garden for props and inspiration and crown my dishes with the jewels that grow around my home. And if I can eat them too, I will!
Suribachi
This recipe calls for a mortar and pestle to grind the walnuts into a paste. There is no better tool for this than a suribachi, the Japanese iteration of a mortar. Suribachi are made of ceramic, with a glazed exterior, and an unglazed interior striated with tiny curved grooves called kushime (comb pattern). This uneven interior makes it ideal for grinding nuts and seeds into fragrant pastes. The accompanying pestle, called surikogi, is usually made of hardwood, which doesn’t damage the delicate ceramic ridges the way metal or granite would. If you are lucky enough to own a suribachi, use it to make the walnut miso sauce. Suribachi are also pretty enough that you can serve the spinach straight from it, instead of dirtying another dish. I don’t have a suribachi yet, so I used my large granite mortar, and then transferred the finished dish to a pottery bowl for serving. Mortars with a smooth interior, like those made with marble or metal, would work less well.
Joëlle
Serves 2-4
Spinach dressed in a nutty, creamy blend of walnuts and miso. A flavourful side dish that showcases the sophistication of simplicity.
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Ingredients
- 3 bunches spinach (about 675 g), preferably organic
- 50g whole walnuts (about 5 tbsp)
- 2 tablespoons genmai (brown rice) miso
- 1½ tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tsp mirin (optional)
- 1 tbsp edible flower petals (optional)
Instructions
- Blanch the spinach -- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, place a bowl of very cold water in the kitchen sink. When the water is boiling, take the bunches of spinach by the leafy part and submerge the stems into the boiling water. Count to ten, then drop the spinach into the pot and cook for a minute more.
- Scoop the spinach out of the pot with a strainer or slotted spoon and place them into the cold water. You can take the spinach with your and hold them under cold running tap water to cool them quickly.
- Squeeze the water out of the spinach, then lay them on a cutting board and cut them into 5-cm (2-inch) lengths.
- Grind 2 tablespoons of the walnuts into small pieces in a mortar to use as a garnish. Set aside in a small bowl.
- Grind the remaining 3 tablespoons of nuts until they have reached the consistency of a paste. Add the miso and rice vinegar (and mirin, if using) and mix until creamy.
- Add the spinach to the mortar and use your hands to gently fold them into the dressing.
- Serve immediately, with the reserved crushed walnuts sprinkled on top, and a few edible flower petals (if you have some in the garden).
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References
Hachisu, Nancy Singleton., and Miura. Japanese Farm Food. Andrews McMeel, 2012.
Robinson, J. (2014). Eating on the wild side: The missing link to optimum health. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
