This is the second in a series of quarterly posts from author Elizabeth Andoh. To read the first post in the series, click here - PART ONE: Washoku Kitchen Wisdom from Elizabeth Andoh.
物全食 ICHIMOTSU ZENSHOKU “one thing used entirely”
One of the core values underpinning Japan’s washoku kitchen wisdom is using food fully, consuming all edible parts of a plant or creature, preparing dishes from by-products and kitchen scraps and re-purposing any leftovers: culinary kansha.
In keeping with this notion, Japanese cooks will often feature a single ingredient, preparing it in myriad ways at the same meal. Typically, different parts of the featured ingredient will be treated differently. For example, a bunch of small, white hakurei turnips (increasingly available at farmer’s markets in the United States and in Europe) might be made into a Glory of Turnip Menu (kabu-zukushi “using turnips fully”).
Greg with Elizabeth - from November 2024
If you’d like to try your hand at making such a meal in your own kitchen, begin by slicing off the leafy green tops, leave a tuft of stem attached to each turnip. Use the leafy turnip greens in lieu of spinach to make a side dish sauced in black sesame such as Spinach with Black Sesame. Turnip greens can also be briefly blanched, drained and chopped before tossing with cooked rice to make na meshi (rice with greens).
Cooking with Elizabeth - from November 2024
Use most of the turnips in your bunch for making Turnips with Crumbly Chicken Sauce (NEW recipe). Make the remaining turnips in your bunch into Tokyo Turnip Pickles. Any thicker turnip leaf stalks make a nice addition to miso soup, such as in Miso Soup with Aburaage & Kabocha.
Cooking with Elizabeth - from November 2024