Preparing Gobo

Tags

burdock root, gobo root, Grimm, Let Your Hair Down, Monroe, New Year's Soup, ozoni soup, vessen

Gobo, is the Japanese word for Burdock root and it is a rather delicious tuber-type vegetable that we like to put in soups mostly – although you can eat it however you like, as long as you prepare it to be edible first.

My mother was able to come visit us all the way in England for Christmas and we made so many lovely things to eat and shared so many precious memories together!

Every year, without fail, I made a big ole’ vat of New Year’s Soup or Ozoni and this is the first year in the last three that I have had any gobo or burdock root to put in it. Basically, its next to impossible to find here (not a very popular ingredient for cooking, more medicinal than anything) and I had to special order it from a small shop in London and the smallest section I have ever seen of it cost nearly double what I spend on a “full-size” stick of gobo root so it was certainly dipping into the ole wallet to make something so near and dear to my heart. My mom even made her own omochi and brought it all the way from the United States to put in our ozoni! Can you tell how important this tradition is for us?

One of these years I will have some lotus root and bamboo to put in it too, but for now, we stuck with our regular ingredients plus the elusive gobo.

You may have heard that burdock root has medicinal properties. If you dig up the root out in the wilderness and chew on it, then it has a numbing and pain relieving quality to it. There was even an episode of Grimm where Monroe gives it to a vessen (Let Your Hair Down) to relieve pain.

The vessen in “Let Your Hair Down”

Monroe is a handy guy to have around, err vessen…

So a little guide to preparing your own gobo for a great big bowl of ozoni? You can find the gobo in nearly any Asian market that stocks fresh fruit and veg. My mom “posed” through each step to bring you this guide!

First, scrub the skin on the gobo root thoroughly under cold, running water then peel the skin away and rinse the gobo root in cold water. 

Next, cut the gobo root into fourths or roughly 2-3 inch sections. You want them to be about as long as the tines of your fork.

Fill a medium size bowl with vinegar. Just simple, distilled white vinegar will do although you can use whatever clear vinegar you have on hand. Set it near your cutting board. 

Take each section and cut it in half. Then thinly slice each of the halves, place the slices in the bowl of vinegar. Repeat until you have cut all the gobo root this way. 

Leave the gobo root slices soaking in the vinegar for about ten minutes, stirring either with a spoon or your hands, every now and again until the vinegar has drawn out as much of the dark colored liquid from the gobo root. The vinegar should change from clear to some shade of grey or even black. This makes the gobo root edible.

Once you have finished soaking the gobo root, rinse it thoroughly in cold water and put it in whatever you are making. If you are making ozoni, you want to put the gobo root in just as soon as you have the broth boiling so that it has the most time possible to cook. You want it to be tooth-tender or just al-dente. 

That’s it! Easy as that, you have delicious gobo root for your ozoni soup! 

The “Tangerine Factor”….

Tags

Chinese food, Chinese take-out, fried chicken, fried rice, orange chicken, orange sauce

Have you ever tried to learn Mandarin? ….

One of the things about moving to a different country is the lack of access to your favorite take-out foods and favorite restaurants that have become a bit too long (and expensive) of a journey to partake of.

To rectify this conundrum, one must figure out how to make these foods for themselves.

This is the situation that brought us to this fantastic orange chicken recipe.

For me, Chinese and Mexican foods are the ones that I really  miss the most and spend the most time trying to re-create exactly the flavors and bits of each dish that I love so that it is like going to the restaurant but in your own home. Let me be the first to tell you that you should look no further, if you are looking for a great orange chicken recipe. We LOVE this one and it will be a part of our “Asian Take-Out Night” meals from this point on.

I can tell you that we made this for the first time and then when the leftovers ran out, sometime around the end of lunchtime the next day, we immediately began making another batch and extending our “leftover” experience a bit more. Each person had to have equal portions and we all supervised this process together… that’s how good (and how important) this recipe was to all of us! We served this with fried rice,… another dish we had to make more of to accompany each juicy morsel of orange-y goodness!

So look no further! Just get into the kitchen and whip up a batch of this fruity, chicken-y delight! You WON’T be sorry!

Ingredients for the Chicken:

• 1-1/2 to 2 lbs of chicken, cubed (we chose skinless boneless thigh)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 C All-purpose flour
• 1/2 C cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground red cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• vegetable oil for frying

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch, salt, peppers and ginger together. Dip the chicken bits in the egg then dredge in the cornstarch mixture, placing them on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Add the oil to a frying pan and heat. Fry the chicken bits in batches until golden brown, draining on paper towels.

Ingredients for the Sauce:

• 1-1/2 C water
• 1/4 C lemon juice
• 1/3 C rice vinegar
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 2 TBS orange juice
• 1 C brown sugar, lightly packed
• zest of one large orange (at least one packed TBS)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp ginger, julienned
• 3 TBS cornstarch

Measure the water, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce and orange juice into a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer then remove 1 TBS of sugar from the 1 C measure and add it to a small bowl with the 3 TBS of cornstarch, mix with a fork.

a beautiful amber sauce, reducing and bubbling away!

Add the remaining sugar, zest, garlic and ginger to the saucepan and raise the heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Add the 2 TBS of water to the bowl with the sugar and cornstarch, mixing well until there are no more lumps. Add it to the sauce and stir until the sauce has thickened (happens almost instantly). Once the sauce is thick and bubbling, strain the sauce to remove the bits of ginger and garlic, then pour it over the chicken in a large bowl, tossing to thoroughly coat each piece. Add 1 tsp of red chile flakes and thinly sliced green onion rings to the chicken (optional) and toss, serving over rice.

Ingredients for Fried Rice:

• 4 C cooked, day-old, long grain rice (white or brown, your choice) at room temperature or cold
• 2 C frozen mixed veggies
• 1 C onion, diced
• 1 C cabbage, finely diced
• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 2 TBS sesame oil
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a large, flat frying pan with tall sides. Heat the sesame oil and cook the eggs to a medium scramble. Remove and set aside.

In the same pan, add the onion and cook until it is opaque and softened. Then add the frozen veggies and cabbage and cook for about three minutes. Add the soy sauce and rice, stirring constantly to break up the clumps of rice and mix it thoroughly with the other ingredients.

Lastly, add the eggs back into the rice and stir it into the rice until it is uniformly distributed and heated through. Taste for salt and pepper – you may also want to add a bit more soy sauce until it is to your liking. Remove from the heat and serve immediately!