Spring Green Pea Rice (豆ご飯, Mame Gohan)

Green peas have a short, honest season. Catch them when the pods are still firm and glossy, and mame gohan is almost finished before the rice cooker is closed. This is shun, the ingredient at its prime, doing the work a heavy hand would only spoil.

The dish looks plain because it is plain. That doesn't mean careless. The one detail that decides it is how you treat the peas: shell them yourself, then use the pods to season the cooking water if you have the time. The pods carry a clean sweetness that the peas alone can't give, and the rice drinks it quietly.

Some cooks cook the peas with the rice from the start, which perfumes the whole pot but turns the peas olive and soft. I prefer a small compromise that is not a shortcut: simmer the pods for flavor, cook the rice in that green broth with konbu, then fold in briefly cooked peas at the end. You get the fragrance of the old way and the color of spring still looking like spring.

Mame gohan sits beside grilled fish, miso soup, and a small pickle without asking for attention. It is the rice course speaking in season. No sauce, no decoration, nothing hidden. Leave it room, and let the green do the talking.