Minari-namul (Blanched Water Dropwort)

Minari belongs to spring markets, piled in damp bundles with the roots still smelling of clean mud. Cook the month you're standing in. If the stems are thin and lively, make this namul tonight. If they are thick, hollow, and tired, buy spinach or soybean sprouts instead and wait for better minari.

This is the plain cooked namul, not the tart vinegared chomuchim. That matters. Chomuchim wakes the table with vinegar and gochugaru; minari-namul should keep the green herbal smell whole, with soy and sesame sitting underneath. The dish lives or dies in the blanching. Too short and the stems taste raw. Too long and the leaves collapse into string.

Season it in its own bowl and taste it before it ever meets rice. Every namul deserves that much attention. Notebook 18 says 300 grams trimmed minari takes 1 tablespoon soup soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, and one small clove of garlic. 손맛 is real. I still measure it, so it can be handed on.