What is the food which you feel spring?
When rape blossom (nano hana) foods come onto the table, I feel spring has come.
Its season is February and March.  It tastes a little bitter.  So I don’t like it very well when I was a child.  But now, I want to eat it if I see it in the market.

We have several cooking method with it, I would like to introduce “karashiae” today.  “Karashi” means mustard and “ae” means combine in this context.

It is combined with sauce which consist of soy sauce and mustard.  We can enjoy its taste of hot flavor from mustard and of bitterness of rape blossom.  It is very interesting.

Ingredients:

• 50g rape blossom
• Sauce
  • 2table spoon soy sauce
  • 1 tea spoon mastard

How to cook:

1) Cut the root of rape blossom and the put them in water.

2) Boil water with a little salt in a pan.  Then put rape blossom in a pan and boil about 2 to 3 min.  (Don’t boil it too much)
Put it in sieve and leave it for a while to make it cool.

3) Combine soy sauce and mustard.  Put boiled rape blossom in the sauce for 10 min.

4) Cut it about 7 to 8 cm.

If you have broth (bonito soup stock is better), it would be better to put it in a sauce.

I am not sure people out of Japan are eating this vegetable.  We sometimes see Japanese style pasta which is using this vegetable.  It is also good.

By the way, its Japanese name is “nano hana.”  If it is translated in English directly, it will be “flower of leave.”  It’s funny.

Enjoy meal!