When I came home, I decided to find out more of the dish she described to me. I remembered words like 'little oil', 'cut gobo', 'fry, add mirin, sugar, miso, and sesame seeds when finish'. She also mentioned 'carrot' and 'colour'. I suppose she meant I could add some carrot to give the dish colour. I usually put garlic and onion in my cooking, and when asked if I could add them, she tersely said 'no onion, no garlic!' (As an aside, do you know that there is a sect of Buddhists who do not have garlic or onions in their vegetarian diet?) Oh, one more thing - 'can put red chilli, no seeds' she said. The fresh red chilli is to be de-seeded and cut up into matchstick size like the gobo. This is to give the dish some heat, colour and add a bit of spicy-ness.
Try it and see what you make of it. Cook a small amount, and what you can't finish you can put it in the fridge for later.
The recipe nearest to what the lady described is below - burdock with miso - and is taken from www.norecipes.com.
James
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August 19, 2008
For those not familiar with gobo (or burdock), it’s one of those wonder-veggies that has loads of fiber, iron and calcium. When lightly sauteed it’s got a pleasantly fibrous crunchy texture without being stringy or tough. When cooked for longer periods of time it will get tender while retaining it’s structure. Flavor wise, gobo is earthy, minerally, and just tastes “healthy”, but not in an overpowering medicinal kind of way.
If you don’t have a Japanese market near you, you may have a hard time finding it, but it’s the taproot of a common “weed” that grows all over the world. Here in NY, you needn’t look further than a patch of dirt disturbed by humans and you’ll find it growing all over the place.
“Kinpira” is type of Japanese dish that involves sauteing then simmering root veggies cut into thin strips. Kinpira Gobo is a very common side dish served with rice that’s typically seasoned with mirin, soy sauce and sugar. For my version I used miso and ground sesame seeds to compliment the earthiness of the gobo. It’s not a traditional preparation, but the flavors are very Japanese.
This isn’t really intended to be served as a main dish, but rather as “okazu” or something that goes along with rice and your main dish. A typical Japanese dinner might include a small grilled fish, a few types of okazu, a bowl of rice and bowl of miso soup.
1 gobo (burdock root about 2-3 feet long)To prepare the burdock you’ll need to scrub it thoroughly with a rough sponge or a food brush. If you don’t have either you could run the blade of a knife along the root at a 90 degree angle to scrape the brown skin off. You could use a vegetable peeler but these roots are relatively thin so if you use a peeler there won’t be much root left to eat.
1 Tbs oil
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbs mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)
1 Tbs white miso
3 Tbs water
3 Tbs ground toasted sesame seeds*
Cut burdock will start turning brown on contact with air, so it’s best to work in small batches and put the cut burdock in a bowl of water. Cut off a 2″ length of burdock using a sharp knife and slice in to 1/16″ slices lengthwise. Then cut the slices in the other direction lengthwise to form thin matchsticks.Soak the matchsticks in water until you’re ready to use them.
When it’s cooked, add the ground toasted sesame seeds, stir, then plate. You can garnish with some whole toasted sesame seeds and chili flakes.
* To toast sesame seeds, just add sesame seeds to a pan and heat the pan using a swirling motion to keep the seeds moving at all times. It will turn a nice golden color and will smell like sesame when it’s done. To grind, you can use a spice grinder, a pepper mill, a food processor, or if you like to kick it old skool, use a mortar and pestle.
