Dashi-Steeped Spinach (ほうれん草のお浸し, Hōrensō no Ohitashi)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide pot
• •Bowl of cold water
• •Shallow dish for steeping
• •Small Japanese side bowls

Instructions

1. 1

   Wash the spinach

   Wash the spinach in several changes of cold water, especially where the stems meet. Sand hides there. Keep the stems attached if they are tender, because they give sweetness and a pleasant bite. Trim only the dry ends.

2. 2

   Mix the dashi

   Stir together the dashi, usukuchi shōyu, and mirin in a shallow dish. Taste it before the spinach goes in. It should be clear, lightly salty, and a little round from the mirin, because the greens will soften the seasoning as they steep.

   Use real dashi here. The broth is not a background flavor in ohitashi, it is the thing the spinach drinks.
3. 3

   Blanch stems first

   Bring a wide pot of water to a boil and add the salt. Hold each spinach bunch by the leaves and lower the stems into the water for 20 seconds, then lay the leaves in for another 20 to 30 seconds. The stems need a small head start so the whole bunch finishes at once, tender but still bright green.

4. 4

   Chill and squeeze

   Lift the spinach into a bowl of cold water. Swish it gently, then drain and line the stems together. Squeeze from the stem end toward the leaves until the bundle feels damp but no longer drips. Be firm, not brutal. If water remains, it will dilute the dashi and the whole dish will taste tired.

   This squeeze decides the dish. Dry greens can drink seasoned dashi; wet greens only make weak broth.
5. 5

   Cut and steep

   Cut the spinach into 2-inch lengths, keeping the stems and leaves roughly aligned. Lay the pieces in the seasoned dashi and turn them once so every cut face meets the broth. Let them steep 10 minutes, or up to 1 hour in the refrigerator. Longer is not better past that point; the color dulls and the leaves lose their clean edge.

6. 6

   Plate with broth

   Lift the spinach out in neat bundles and set them slightly off-center in small bowls. Spoon over a little of the steeping dashi, just enough to pool lightly at the bottom. Finish with katsuobushi if using, and serve cool or at room temperature.

Chef Tips

• •Choose spinach with glossy leaves and firm stems, not limp bunches with yellow edges. Sourcing first, always. This dish has nothing hidden.
• •For a meatless table, use konbu and dried shiitake dashi and leave off the katsuobushi. That is honmono in the temple-kitchen line, not a compromise.
• •If using regular dark soy sauce instead of usukuchi shōyu, start with 2 teaspoons. It has a deeper color and can darken the broth faster than you expect.
• •Serve in small portions. Ohitashi is a quiet green note beside rice and soup, not a heap of spinach pretending to be lunch.

Advance Preparation

• •The seasoned dashi can be mixed a day ahead and kept refrigerated.
• •The spinach can steep up to 1 hour before serving. After that, drain it and store it separately from the broth to protect the color.
• •Leftovers keep one day refrigerated, though the green will dull. Serve them cool rather than reheating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 95g)