Vol. 13
Boiled Spring Vegetables Dipped in Sauce (Ohitashi)
春野菜のお浸しの作り方

　Spring vegetables each have different aromas and textures and it all tastes good individually.

　But if you combine several kinds of spring vegetables, you can enjoy a variety of tastes from these lightly colored spring vegetables and it becomes a very rich dish.

　The best way to enjoy the aroma, I think, is to make an Ohitashi.

- Appropriate amount of bamboo shoots, fuki (Japanese butterbur), kogomi (ostrich fern), urui (hosta montana), seri (Japanese parsley), warabi (pteridium aquilinum), nemitsuba (Japanese honeywort with roots)
- Proportion of 8 to 1 to 1 of bonito stock (katsuo dashi,) light-colored soy sauce and mirin
- Kinome sprouts to taste

1. Prepare the spring vegetables

　For this recipe, we will use kogomi, urui, seri, bamboo shoots and fuki.　Other than these vegetables, the dish, of course, will be delicious by adding nemitsuba, warabi or fukinotou (butterbur sprouts) prepared individually.

● Kogomi is the easiest edible wild plant to prepare since it doesn’t have much bitterness and can be eaten by just boiling it.　It has a delicate aroma and a rather slimy texture.　Cut off the hard part of the stem and then cut in half.　Boil briefly in salted water.

● Urui also called “gibooshi” is like kogomi, an edible wild plant easy to eat.　It has sweetness and slimy texture like wakegi (green onion).　You can find cultivated ones at supermarkets recently, which has less bitterness and easy to eat.　Take off the outer leaves and boil briefly in salted water from the stem first.

● Seri is well-known as one of the seven spring herbs and is perhaps the most easiest of the edible wild plant to find in supermarkets.　The aroma and texture of seri is delicate and you need to be careful not to over boil.　Just boil briefly in salted water and immediately rinse with cold water and allow the vegetable to cool.

● Cut the boiled bamboo shoots into bite-size pieces.

● Boil the fuki and remove the threads and cut into 3cm lengths. You can also cut it diagonally to make it look better.

2. Remove excess water and dip in the sauce

　Squeeze seri and urui and cut into 3 cm lengths.　It is important to squeeze the vegetables again after cutting it then put it in a container.　Next, remove excess water from kogomi and fuki gently with a towel, as these vegetables cannot be squeezed.

　After all the spring vegetables are prepared, place them in a container and cover with the ohitashi sauce and leave for several hours.　The best time to eat would be from after 2 to 3 hours until the next day.

Sprinkle the kinome sprouts on top to taste.　Once you eat, you will experience a variety of textures and aromas of the vegetables making this ohitashi a very rich dish.

（レシピ・写真： 冨田唯介　英訳： 中西 直）

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