Takenoko Gohan -- The Taste of Spring and Everything Growing

Spring in full swing and the apartment is alive with growth — the shiso on the balcony sprouting, Miya growing out of her shoes every two months, my blog readership climbing past twenty-five hundred. Everything is growing. Everything is in motion. The only thing not growing is the apartment itself, which is the same small space it has always been, now containing a toddler, two adults, a cat, and my slowly expanding collection of Japanese kitchen tools that are taking over the counters like a ceramic army.

I made takenoko gohan this week — bamboo shoot rice, the quintessential spring dish, using fresh bamboo shoots from Uwajimaya. The shoots are boiled, sliced, and cooked in the rice with dashi and soy sauce, infusing every grain with the clean, woodsy flavor of new bamboo. It is the taste of April. It is the taste of newness. Fumiko makes it every spring when the shoots arrive, and I make it now, in Portland, with shoots that came from a different forest and a different country but that taste, somehow, the same. The flavor of spring is universal. It is one of the few things that does not require translation.

Brian went to a beer conference in Denver this week. Three days. I had Miya alone, which is familiar now, comfortable even — the rhythm of solo parenting, the two-person dance of mother and daughter, the meals made and eaten without the variable of a third person whose preferences and presence alter the choreography. I made Japanese food all weekend. Miso soup. Rice. Tofu. The apartment was quiet and mine and I wrote three thousand words in three days and the writing came from a place of ease, not effort, which is how I know the writing is real now, how I know it is not just a hobby but a calling, the word I have been afraid to use because "calling" implies a magnitude I do not feel worthy of. But the words call. They call every day. And I answer.

Lin came over for dinner on Saturday and we ate takenoko gohan and talked about our writing and our daughters and the way life has a tendency to reveal its shape only in retrospect. She said, "You are going to write a book." I said, "I am thinking about it." She said, "You are going to write a book." She said it twice because she meant it twice. I believe her. I am beginning to believe myself.

This is the recipe I kept coming back to that week—the one I made for Lin on Saturday night, the one that filled the apartment with that clean, earthy smell while Miya played on the kitchen floor and I wrote between stirs. Takenoko gohan is not a complicated dish. It asks very little of you except presence and good ingredients, and maybe that’s why it felt so right for a week where everything was growing quietly and steadily, including me.

Takenoko Gohan (Bamboo Shoot Rice)

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups Japanese short-grain rice (such as Koshihikari)
• 1 cup fresh bamboo shoot, boiled and thinly sliced (or one 8 oz can whole bamboo shoots, drained and sliced)
• 1 and 1/2 cups dashi stock
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 piece kombu (about 2 inches), optional
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish
• Kinome (young sansho pepper leaves) or shiso, for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Rinse the rice. Wash the rice in several changes of cold water until the water runs mostly clear. Drain and let it rest for 15 minutes.
2. Prepare the bamboo shoots. If using fresh bamboo shoots, peel and boil in water with a handful of rice bran (nuka) or raw rice for 1 hour until tender. Let cool in the liquid, then slice thinly. If using canned, simply drain, rinse, and slice.
3. Season the cooking liquid. In a measuring cup, combine the dashi stock, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and salt. Stir to dissolve.
4. Assemble in the rice cooker or pot. Place the rinsed and drained rice in your rice cooker or a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid. Pour the seasoned dashi over the rice. Arrange the sliced bamboo shoots on top of the rice in an even layer. Place the kombu on top if using. Do not stir.
5. Cook the rice. If using a rice cooker, select the regular or mixed rice setting. If cooking on the stovetop, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to the lowest heat setting, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let steam, still covered, for 10 minutes.
6. Fluff and serve. Remove and discard the kombu. Gently fold the bamboo shoots into the rice with a rice paddle, being careful not to crush the grains. Serve in individual bowls, garnished with sesame seeds, sliced green onions, and kinome or shiso if you have it.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 2g | Carbs: 72g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg