Kinpira

Burdock cut in matchsticks, soaked to stop it browning, and fried before any liquid goes in.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 300 g burdock root
• 150 g carrot
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 dried red chilli, sliced
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. INTO WATER THE MOMENT IT IS CUT. Burdock browns within a minute of meeting air and the whole dish goes grey. Have a bowl of water ready before the knife touches it, and change the water once when it clouds.
2. SCRAPE, DO NOT PEEL. The flavour is just under the skin, so the back of a knife or a crumpled ball of foil is right and a peeler takes off too much.
3. Cut into matchsticks along the length, 5 cm by 3 mm. Cut across, it is woody.
4. Drain and dry the matchsticks. Wet burdock steams instead of frying.
5. FRY BEFORE ANY LIQUID. Both oils in a hot pan, burdock in alone for 3 minutes, then the carrot for 2. The surfaces should blister slightly and smell nutty. Liquid added to raw burdock simply boils it.
6. Chilli in for the last 30 seconds of frying.
7. Sake, mirin and sugar in and bubbled away almost completely, 1 minute.
8. Soy in, tossed constantly, 2 to 3 minutes, until the pan is dry and everything is glossy.
9. It should be DRY. A kinpira sitting in sauce has not been cooked long enough -- the seasoning belongs on the vegetables, not under them.
10. Sesame seeds off the heat. Good warm, better at room temperature, and better again the next day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes