By February. I showed Miya the book. She held it in her small hands and looked at the cover — the chipped bowl, the steam — and said, "That's our bowl." Not my bowl. Our bowl. The possessive was collective and correct: the bowl is ours, mine and hers, Fumiko's and mine, the family's, the kitchen's. The bowl belongs to whoever holds it. Miya holds it now.
She opened the book and looked at the pages and said, "There are no pictures." I said, "There are a few. But mostly it's words." She said, "That's a lot of words, mama." It is. A lot of words. Three hundred pages of words about a woman who spoke mostly in silences and cooked mostly in gestures and who would have found the quantity of words mortifying and the quality of words — well. Fumiko would have checked the recipes. Fumiko would have found the one error in the miso soup recipe (I use less bonito than she did — a personal choice, not a correction) and she would have mentioned it, once, precisely, and then never mentioned it again, and the not-mentioning-again would have been the approval.
I made the book's miso soup recipe — the one printed on page forty-seven, the recipe that has been published and will be public and will represent, in print, the practice that is the center of my life. I followed the recipe exactly as printed and the soup was good. Good. Not the best miso soup I've ever made. Not the version I make at six AM when no one is watching and the measurements are by feel and the instinct is the recipe. But good. Publishable good. The gap between the instinct soup and the recipe soup is the gap between the cook and the writer: the cook uses feel, the writer uses words, and the words are an approximation of the feel, and the approximation is good, and good is what a recipe can be. Perfect is what a practice can be. They are different things.
I sent a copy to Ken. I did not ask if he would read it. I did not ask what he thought of it. I sent it and the sending was the daughter's gesture: here is what I made. The father will receive it. The father will hold it. The father will set it on a shelf. The father may or may not open it. The opening is his choice. The sending was mine.
The miso soup on page forty-seven is the recipe I wrote for everyone else. This stir-fry is the kind of thing I make for myself — fast, bright, barely a recipe at all, the kind of dish Fumiko would have made without looking at anything, her hands knowing what her eyes didn’t need to confirm. When I want to cook from instinct but still have something to hand someone, this is what I reach for: vegetables, heat, a few honest flavors, and the understanding that simple is not the same as easy — it just looks that way when you’ve made it enough times.
Sugar Snap Pea Stir-Fry
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 20 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb sugar snap peas, strings removed, trimmed
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, and red pepper flakes if using. Set aside.
- Heat the pan. Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until shimmering, about 1 minute. The pan should be very hot before the vegetables go in.
- Stir-fry the aromatics. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds until fragrant. Do not let it burn.
- Add the snap peas. Add the sugar snap peas and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. Stir-fry over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, tossing frequently, until the peas are bright green and just tender with a little snap remaining. Do not overcook — the texture is the point.
- Finish with sauce. Pour the sauce over the peas and toss to coat evenly. Cook for 1 minute more until the sauce reduces slightly and clings to the peas.
- Serve. Transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle with any remaining pan sauce, top with toasted sesame seeds and green onions, and serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 110 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 310mg