Mountain Vegetable Sticky Rice (山菜おこわ, Sansai Okowa)

Sansai okowa belongs to the weeks when the mountains wake first: warabi curled like small fists, zenmai dark and wiry, takenoko pale and sweet under the knife. Their bitterness is not a flaw. It is spring announcing itself before it becomes polite.

If okowa has seemed like special-day food that belongs to someone else's kitchen, set that thought down. The method is plain: soak mochigome, steam it, then feed it seasoned dashi in stages. The rice is glutinous, so it wants time to drink before it goes over heat. Skip the soak and the outside turns sticky while the center stays stubborn, like a student who brought the wrong notebook.

We keep the sansai lightly seasoned because the point is their small mountain edge, not a sauce. Simmer the vegetables just long enough to take on dashi, soy, mirin, and sake, then let the steamed rice carry them. This is the method, not the menu: one spring rice beside soup and a grilled dish, or a bowl on its own when the season is worth honoring. Watch for the grain. When each one is glossy, translucent at the edges, and chewy without a white core, the okowa is ready.