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

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When you see heads of fresh green lettuce offered at reasonable prices, you may be tempted to buy one but hesitate out of concern that you may not be able to eat it all.

This week we offer ideas on using the outer leaves and the core in a soup and the rest in a salad so that just a few people can eat up an entire head of lettuce in no time.

First comes the salad. By dressing the lettuce in oil, vinegar and salt in this order, you get to enjoy the crisp freshness. Think of it as placing the vinegar and salt on the lettuce dressed thinly with oil. The order is key because if the salt is sprinkled on first, the osmotic pressure will cause the lettuce to release moisture and turn soft.

Remember that the ratio of oil and vinegar should be 2 to 1. If the olive oil plus wine vinegar are replaced by salad oil plus cereal vinegar such as rice vinegar, the flavor will be milder and suit the Japanese-style main dishes.

Caesar is the name of the Italian immigrant chef who invented this salad. Although culinary encyclopedias list anchovies and mustard as ingredients for the sauce, our recipe requires more familiar ingredients. The salad also offers protein contained in bacon, egg and cheese. It is a dish you will feel like eating on a regular basis.

SPRING VEGETABLES HARVESTED EARLY

According to a spokesperson for Tokyo Seika, the leading wholesaler of vegetables and fruits, spring vegetables grew well in general due to the warm winter and shipment began about 10 days earlier than usual.

While the spring lettuce is harvested in April and May, summer and fall lettuces are gathered from June through September. So that it reaches the consumers seamlessly, the farmers in different areas grow their lettuce at different periods. But since the harvest of the spring lettuce was early this year, the supply of lettuce could be slightly reduced in early to mid-May.

As for the bamboo shoot that was introduced in the previous installment, many of the production areas are in the “on” year of the alternate bearing and tend to have plentiful harvests. On the other hand, the asparagus that grows well by exposing it to the cold in winter and allowing it to remain dormant did not get enough dormancy and therefore the yield is said to be modest.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

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

* Ingredients (Serves two)

1 small head of lettuce, 4 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 clove garlic, 40 grams bacon block, 1 hard boiled egg, some Parmesan cheese, 3 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp wine vinegar or regular vinegar, a pinch of salt

About 205 kcal and 0.9 grams salt per portion

1. Peel off two to three outer leaves of lettuce. Insert tip of kitchen knife around core and scoop it out. Set these aside to make soup. Tear rest of lettuce into bite-size pieces (PHOTO A).

2. Pour 2 tsp olive oil on lettuce and mix (PHOTO B). Add wine vinegar and mix, then sprinkle with salt and mix lightly.

3. Remove calyx from cherry tomatoes and cut in half. Chop boiled egg into dices of 2 cm on a side. Serve lettuce, cherry tomato and egg on plate.

4. Finely slice garlic and cut bacon into 1.5 cm dices. Add 1 tsp olive oil and garlic in frying pan and place on low heat. Once aroma rises, add bacon and cook until lightly brown (PHOTO C). Place garlic and bacon on lettuce and top with cheese. If cheese grater is available, grate cheese, if not sprinkle powdered cheese.

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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

Lettuce soup

Add the outer leaves of the lettuce at the end to retain the vivid color. Add 400 ml water, 1/2 tsp each of sake and soy sauce, 40 grams of sliced bits of pork, 50 grams bread (equivalent to a slice of six-slice loaf of bread) and the core of lettuce to a pot and place on medium heat. Cut outer leaves into pieces of 4 cm on a side. Cut 4 cherry tomatoes in half. When pork is cooked and bread has become sufficiently soaked, add tomato and lettuce and turn off heat. Serve in bowl and pour drops of olive oil if preferred.

COOKERY SCIENCE

When the lettuce is cut and left to sit, the cut surface turns brownish. This happens because when the cells are cut and damaged, the polyphenols in the cells come into contact with the enzymes and also undergo oxidation by being exposed to the oxygen in the air. When the lettuce is torn by hand, it tears along the cells so less damage is inflicted than when it is cut with a knife.