April 14, 2013

Fukinoto and Yomogi Tempura/フキノトウとヨモギの天ぷら

Last night, my son said he wanted to have fukinoto tempura, so I decided to make fukinoto tempura, as well as yomogi (mugwort) tempura, for supper tonight, in place of my wife.
昨晩は、息子がフキノトウの天ぷらを食べたいと言うので、今日の夕飯には、妻の代わりに私がフキノトウの天ぷらやヨモギ(よもぎ、蓬)天ぷらを作ることにしました。
 
So, today, around noon, I went out to get some yomogi. Fortunately, my wife got a bag of fukinoko from her sister in the morning.
というわけで、今日、昼ごろ、ヨモギを取りに出かけました。運よく、フキノトウは午前中に妻がお姉さんからもらってありました。
 
My kobushi tree almost bloomed.
うちのコブシの木はもう花が咲きそうです。 

I went to the river bank, but unfortunately, I found NO moyogi there!
川岸に行きましたが、あいにく、ヨモギは全然ありませんでした!
Kanzo (daylilies) were too small to pick.
カンゾウはまだ小さくて採れませんでした。

Fukinoto (butterbur sprouts):
フキノトウ:
Young shoots of itadori (Japanese knotweed):
イタドリの若芽:
There was hardly any snow left in the snow dumping site.
雪の堆積場にはもう雪は殆ど残っていませんでした。
I remembered that I had some yomogi in my small yard.
うちの小さな庭にヨモギが少しあるのを思い出しました。

You can see both tsukushi and sugina in the photo below.
次の写真にはツクシ(土筆、つくし)とスギナ(杉菜、すぎな)が見えます。
Tsukushi and sugina are the same plant, horsetail. Because of the name, however, some Japanese seem to believe that sugina (sugi = cedar, na = greens) is related to cedar.
ツクシとスギナは同じ植物ですが、スギナ(杉菜)はその名前のせいで、日本人の中には、杉と関係あると思っている人がいるようです。

Luckily, I found these yomogi in my yard.
運よく、うちの庭にヨモギがありました。
Before three thirty, I finished preparing the ingredients for tempura.
3時半までに、天ぷらの具の下準備が終わりました。



Close-up:
クローズアップ:

At five in the evening, I started to make tempura. I didn't use all the fukinoto or yomogi. Because I'm on a diet, I just can't continue to eat leaftover tempura for lunch for days.
夕方5時に、天ぷらを作り始めました。フキノトウとヨモギは全部使いませんでした。ダイエット中なので、何日も昼食に残りの天ぷらを食べ続けたくないので。
I boiled the two packets (2 x 300 g) of inaka (lit. country) soba (buckwheat noodles) that I recently bouth at the 100-yen shop. Shown in the photo is about half the soba I boiled.
最近100円ショップで買った田舎そばを2パック(2 x 300 g)茹でました。 写真に写っているのは茹でたそばの約半分です。
The soba was much better than I had anticipated.
そばは思ったよりずっと美味しかったです。

Fukinoto tempura is bitter, and you can have two or three pieces only. Like I said previously, I think that yomogi tempura is much better than shiso (perilla) tempura.
フキノトウの天ぷらは苦いので、二つか三つしか食べれません。前にも言いましたが、ヨモギの天ぷらはシソの天ぷらよりずっと美味しいと思います。

4 comments:

  1. You eat day lilies too? Which type of kanzo?
    Here mugwort, bittercress, sorrel, dandelions and garlic mustard are sprouting in my garden (edible weeds). I learned we don't have the same mugwort (ours is much more bitter as in Japan) so I am not going to eat the leaves. But we use the blossoms as dried herb rub for goose dishes.
    My plum tree and peach tree are flowering and the cherry and nashi will start soon - the next days I guess. Today we had + 25 C!

    (And your magnolia has been pruned. The always tell don't prune magnolias trees, but I prune mine too before it is getting to big).

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  2. Kiki: I can't tell which type; I only know it's called kanzo.
    See the 4th and 6th photos here:
    http://hiro-shio.blogspot.jp/2010/05/sansai-day-for-my-family.html
    It's really tasty.

    If your mugwort is bitter, why not try to remove some of the bitterness by soaking in water for hours or overnight?

    +25C? It's like summer!

    Yes, pruned. It is obvious to you? I didn't want to, but I had to. Unfortunately, there are electric wires just above the tree, and besides, the big leaves are quite annoying in late autumn, when they fall.

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  3. Concerning your post in 2010: Hard to tell which kind of lilies. Lily leaves are looking all the same (need a flower), but your son kept you quite buisy (laugh).

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  4. Kiki: There are two varieties of kanzo in Japan, yabu kanzo and no kanzo. My son says he is not sure but thinks that the kanzo is yabu kanzo.
    http://had0.big.ous.ac.jp/plantsdic/angiospermae/monocotyledoneae/liliaceae/yabukanzou/yabukanzou.htm

    No kanzo:
    http://had0.big.ous.ac.jp/plantsdic/angiospermae/monocotyledoneae/liliaceae/nokanzou/nokanzou.htm

    ReplyDelete