Stewed Komatsuna Mustard Spinach and Deep Fried Bean Curd

When I went to Fujiya Japanese grocery store before the end of the year, I saw Komatsuna leaf! After thinking for a while, I bought some, as it is rare to find them here in Vancouver. Komatsuna is a Japanese mustard spinach and contains at least four-time much calcium as spinach does.

With them, there was a dish that I wanted to make and eat. That is Ni-bitashi. I tried to find right words or a phrase in English, but I couldn’t. It literally means boil and soak. You can use various ingredients for Ni-bitashi. The most common recipe would probably be the one using spinach or Komatsuna with deep fried bean curd.

Deep fried bean curd is Abura-age, while deep fried tofu is Atsu-age. Although some people call both as deep fried tofu, I distinguish those two ingredients as separate translations.

I found a recipe from the Cookpad site. This was my first cooking of the year. I also made something else, but I will introduce next time.

Stewed Komatsuna Mustard Spinach and Deep Fried Bean Curd

The taste was good as it looks (to me). I like this recipe. I could use spinach instead of Komatsuna if I can’t find any. But I hope I can find Komatsuna again!

しみじみおいしい❤小松菜と油揚げの煮浸し by ちさぷー (Japanese)

[Ingredients (probably for 4 serves)]

– Komatsuna 1 bunch
– Deep fried bean curd 1 (I used 3 small ones.)
# Water 1 or 1.5 cups
# Dashi powder 1 teaspoon
# Soy Sauce 1 tablespoon or more
# Mirin 1 tablespoon
# Sake 1 tablespoon
# Sugar 1 teaspoon

[Recipe]

1. Rinse Komatsuna, cut the root ends, cut them into 5cm length. Separate leaves and stems. Do Yunuki* for deep-fried bean curd, and cut it into 5-mm thin pieces.
2. Put all of # marked ingredients in a pot and boil. Once it’s boiled, add deep fried bean curd and stems of Komatsuna and cook for a few minutes. Add leaves of Komatsuna and cook a bit. When boiled again, turn the heat off and leave it for a while. (This is to make deep dried bean curd and Komatsuna soak in seasoning.)
3. Serve in a bowl. It would taste better in next day.

*Yunuki is a preparation to remove excess oil and greasy smell from the fried products. You can do it as follows: put it in the strainer and pour boiled water a lot, or boil it in a pot with hot water for 1 to 2 min.

The recipe provider says “Komatsuna causes less scum when you cook, so you don’t need to boil them in a preparation step before cook. Instead of deep fried bean curd, deep fried tofu or deep fried fish cake, or even small dried fish can be alternative.”