Bamboo Shoots with Kinome Miso (木の芽和え, Kinome-ae)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Suribachi and surikogi, or a mortar and pestle
• •Deep pot for boiling bamboo
• •Fine-mesh strainer lined with a clean cloth
• •Small saucepan
• •Bamboo skewer, for checking the shoot

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dashi

   Wipe the konbu with a damp cloth, but don't wash it. Put it with the 2 cups cold water in a small pot and bring it up slowly over low heat, about ten minutes. Pull the konbu when the water trembles and small bubbles climb the sides, before it boils. Bring the water to a gentle boil, add the katsuobushi all at once, take the pot off the heat, and leave it alone for two or three minutes. Strain through a cloth and let it drip without squeezing.

   That pale dust on the konbu is flavor. Boil the kelp and the dashi turns bitter; squeeze the flakes and it turns oily. The clear stock is what you're guarding.
2. 2

   Boil the bamboo

   If using raw takenoko, scrub the husk, cut a diagonal slice from the tough tip, and make one shallow lengthwise slit through the outer layers. Put it in a deep pot with the rice bran and dried chile, cover generously with water, and simmer gently for 60 to 90 minutes, until a skewer slides into the thick base. Let it cool in the cooking liquid, then peel away the husk, trim any tough root end, and rinse off the bran. Raw bamboo needs this long first cooking; it pulls out harshness, makes the shoot safe to eat, and keeps the sweetness clean.

   If your bamboo is already boiled, rinse it and skip this step. Pre-boiled takenoko is a sensible stand-in; canned slices are useful in other cooking, but they won't give this dish its spring fragrance.
3. 3

   Cut and season

   Cut the peeled bamboo into bite-size wedges, keeping some pieces from the tender tip and some from the denser base. Put 1 1/2 cups dashi in a small pan with 1 tablespoon mirin, the usukuchi, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add the bamboo and simmer quietly for 8 to 10 minutes, then let it cool in the broth. This isn't to make the bamboo taste salty; it's to give its sweetness a dashi backbone before the green miso touches it.

4. 4

   Cook the mirin

   Put the remaining 1 tablespoon mirin in a small pan and let it bubble for 30 seconds, then cool it. This is nikiri mirin, cooked-off mirin. It keeps the sweetness and loses the raw alcoholic edge, which would bully the kinome. A small pan looks silly for one spoonful, yes. Use it anyway.

5. 5

   Grind the kinome

   Set aside the smallest kinome leaves for garnish. Put the rest in a suribachi with a pinch of salt and grind until the leaves darken and smear green against the ridges. Add the white miso, rice vinegar, cooled mirin, and 1 teaspoon sugar, then grind smooth. Loosen with 1 to 2 tablespoons dashi until the paste coats a spoon thickly. Taste. It should be fragrant first, then sweet-salty, with just enough vinegar to lift it.

   Grind the leaves before the miso because the heavy paste keeps them from breaking properly. Kinome's scent fades quickly once crushed, so do this close to serving and don't replace it with sanshō powder.
6. 6

   Dress and serve

   Drain the bamboo well and pat away surface broth if it looks wet. Fold the bamboo through the kinome miso with a light hand, just enough to coat the cut faces. Mound five or seven pieces in a small bowl, set a fresh kinome leaf on top, and serve within 30 minutes. The dressing should cling, not pool. If it sits too long, the color dulls and the scent walks away, and there is no polite way to call it back.

Chef Tips

• •Ask for bamboo shoots dug that day if you can. The cut base should look moist and pale, the husk tight, the shoot heavy for its size. Bitterness rises after harvest, so cook it the day you buy it. Sourcing first, always.
• •Buy kinome as close to serving as possible. The leaves should be small, soft, and bright, not leathery. To wake a garnish leaf, clap it once between your palms before setting it on the dish; we do this for scent, not theater.
• •If raw bamboo isn't in reach, use pre-boiled takenoko from a Japanese market and season it in dashi. That's a sensible stand-in. Sanshō powder is not; it changes the dish from leaf-green and fragrant to merely peppery.
• •For a meatless table, make the dashi with konbu and dried shiitake and leave out the katsuobushi. The temple kitchens knew what they were doing; with good kinome and white miso, it's honmono, not compromise.

Advance Preparation

• •Raw bamboo can be boiled one day ahead. Keep it in its cooling liquid in the refrigerator, then peel, cut, and season it in dashi on the day you serve.
• •Dashi keeps two days refrigerated. Warm it gently for the seasoning bath, and keep a spoonful or two cold for loosening the kinome miso.
• •You can mix the white miso, vinegar, sugar, and cooled mirin a few hours ahead. Grind in the kinome and loosen with dashi just before serving, because the leaf's fragrance is the point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)