Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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A braised Western-style dish wraps up our series introducing root vegetable dishes that can be enjoyed in winter.

The cooking style that makes use of the ingredients' water content is called “etuver” in French. Just adding a small amount of water brings out a rich, sweet flavor inherent to root vegetables.

“In Japan, simmering and boiling are taken for granted. But this is possible because we have water in abundance,” says Kuniaki Arima, who supervised the cooking aspect of the recipe. 

Etuver, created in a region where water is scarce, makes sense as it also retains the ingredients' flavor and nutritional value.

To make it, ingredients are heated as in a sauna. To retain a certain texture, turn off the heat is when they still feel “a bit hard.” The dish may be enjoyed right away, but the flavor settles in when left for a while.

The finished dish has a subtle sour taste that enhances the flavor of the root vegetables and has a taste somewhere between simmered and pickled.

It can also be enjoyed cold a few days after preparation. After I made it, the amount seemed at first a lot for two people but the varied textures of the dish were addictive and the plate became empty before I knew it.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Kuniaki Arima in the cooking aspect and Midori Kasai in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients and cooking utensils (Serves two)

1 turnip (100 grams), 6 cm of daikon radish (150 grams), 1 small carrot (100 grams), 10 to 15 cm of gobo burdock (50 grams), 3 to 5 cm lotus root (50 grams), 1 clove garlic, 5 mm chili pod, 1 tsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp wine vinegar or vinegar

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1. Peel root vegetables with soft skin except for turnip. In “rangiri” style, chop them into chunks that are smaller than bite-size. Rangiri is a style where vegetables are cut randomly at various angles so that each piece has multiple cut surfaces (PHOTO A).

Cut garlic in half, remove germ and crush by pressing with flat side of kitchen knife so aroma rises easily.

2. Pour olive oil in frying pan with diameter of 20 cm to 22 cm. Place garlic cut surface facing down. Transfer aroma of garlic to oil over very low heat and warm frying pan at the same time. Once garlic colors, turn sides and heat for about 30 seconds. Spread oil.

3. Add carrot, burdock and lotus root to pan and mix with spatula. Add daikon radish, turnip and chili and mix so oil coats ingredients (PHOTO B).

Add sugar, salt, wine vinegar, 70 ml water and raise to medium heat. When it comes to a boil, turn to low heat and place lid (PHOTO C).

4. After about five minutes, turn over the sides and cook for another five minutes. Prick with bamboo skewer and turn off heat when vegetables are still slightly hard. Leave for a while. Before eating, add black pepper, yuzu zest or Italian parsley if available.

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Kuniaki Arima is the owner-chef of Passo a Passo, an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Fukagawa.

Midori Kasai is a professor at Ochanomizu University and chairwoman of the Japan Society of Cookery Science.

ARRANGED VERSION

In this dish, wine vinegar used in the dish of vegetables braised with sweet vinegar is replaced by 10 grams of butter and 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce. Have 450 grams of root vegetables ready. Carrot, bright red “Kintoki” carrot, daikon radish, purple daikon radish, burdock and Romanesco (a kind of cauliflower) were used in the images. Cut them into 2-cm dices and cook in the same manner as the dish braised with sweet vinegar.

COOKERY SCIENCE

In areas where water was scarce, cooking utensils that did not require water developed. An example is the Tajine pot from Morocco with a cone-shaped lid. Water that evaporates from the ingredients is cooled at the upper part of the lid, turns into water droplets and returns to the pot. This way the ingredients can be cooked without burning. The pot works efficiently since the cover has a larger surface area than flat lids.

Q&A

A woman from Mie Prefecture has a question about reducing the burdock's strong taste.

Question: Is preventing discoloration the only reason the burdock is immersed in water? I had been immersing it in water for about five minutes thinking the process was meant to reduce its harshness. Perhaps I've been sapping it of its key flavor.

Answer: The harshness of vegetables, called “aku” in Japanese, is a general term for components that give off astringency or bitterness as well as matters that turn the ingredient brown. They include components that are not suited for eating. An example is the harshness of edible wild plants (“sansai”) that is removed using baking soda or ash.

On the other hand, the harshness of burdock is a type of polyphenol and is desirable. Since it will be lost when immersed in water, the process of removing it is not necessary if you don't particularly mind how the dish looks.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column