January 26, 2010

Mekabu/めかぶ

Mekabu is the sporophyll of wakame seaweed. It has recently become very popular as a healthy food, and I have refrained from buying it simply because it is touted as a healthy food. Yesterday, however, I purchased one pack just out of curiosity.
めかぶとは若布(わかめ)の胞子葉(ほうしよう)のことです。最近、健康食品として人気があります。私は、単に健康食品と宣伝されているという理由で、買うのを控えていました。でも昨日は、好奇心から1パック買ってみました。

Separate the edible parts from the inedible (very hard) stems.
Left: Inedible stems
Right: Edible parts
食べれない(とても堅い)茎から食べられる部分を分けます。
左: 食べれない茎
右: 食べられる部分

Put the edible parts in a pot of boiling water. They turn to vivid green instantly. Drain immediately.
食べられる部分を沸騰しているお湯に入れます。すぐに鮮やかな緑になります。すぐに水を切ります。

Drained:
水を切った状態:

My wife said she wanted to have the mekabu in miso soup, together with potato, so I decided to make miso soup with it. I simmered potato cubes in a pot. I put some mekabu in the individual bowls.
妻は、めかぶをジャガイモと一緒に味噌汁にして食べたいと言うので、めかぶで味噌汁を作ることにしました。さいの目に切ったジャガイモを鍋で煮ました。めかぶを各お椀に少し入れました。

And I poured some miso soup with potato cubes into each bowl.
そして、各お椀にさいの目に切ったジャガイモの入った味噌汁を注ぎました。

Here is a photo of the carrot and gobo (burdock root) kinpira my wife made as part of supper today.
妻が今日の夕食に作った、ニンジンとゴボウのキンピラの写真です。

4 comments:

Amato said...

I really like your blog, I love mushrooms, and you always have many mushrooms recipes.
I have dried mekabu at home; do you have maybe a tip how to cook it "right"? Last time I tried in miso shiru, but after I cooked for 20 min it was still very hard.
Thank you!
I’m from Germany.
Amato

Ps. I had often problems to leave a comment, it just didn’t work…
Can I use your information about mirin on my blog? (only information, no pictures)
It seems, here in Germany "mirin fu" taste is sold as “hon mirin”

Hiroyuki said...

Amato: Thanks for your compliment! I love mushrooms, too, all kinds of edible mushrooms!
Mekabu is available in Germany? Glad to know that! How to cook mekabu right? Don't cook it! As I said in the post, separate the edible, soft parts from the inedible, very hard stem, and put the edible parts in a pot of boiling water. They will turn to vivid green instantly. Remove from the pot immediately! 20 min is way too long!!! The mekabu will lose its vivid green!
A common way to eat mekabu is to first parboil it, as I just mentioned, and then chop it finely (some use a food proccesser to do this). The mekabu will become very slimy. Don't rinse! Have it as a sunomono (vinegared dish), by seasoning with some vinegar, soy sauce, and dashi or simply with ponzu.

PS. You can use any information about anything in my blog without asking me first, provided that you don't commit plagiarism (laugh).

Amato said...

Thank you for the information, but I cant buy fresh mekabu here, I have only dried and shredded.If I cook it for 20 min it is still very hard...

And, no, I dont commit plagiarism.:-)
I blog in German, and blogs like yours provide great information for people interested in japanese cooking.

The comment problem: you cant imagine how much I wanted to leave a comment here.:-)
I tried 4 times in last months, and it never did work.I created extra a blogger account, because it just didnt work with my google account.I hope other people dont have the same problem.
I had also problems leaving comments if I used the Opera browser, now I use fire fox, and it works.
Strange, isnt it?

Hiroyuki said...

Dried mekabu! I hadn't thought of that! I did a quick Google search, and all the sites I've checked say that you can reconstitute dried mekabu by soaking it in boiled or hot water for 2-5 min (depending on the site). Some sites also say that you can also reconstitute it by soaking it in cold water for 5 min.
So, it's really strange that you can't soften it even after cooking it for 20 minutes.

I really can't help you solve your problem about posting comments because I'm no expert on computers!