November carries bunch of nature's harvest. Munching plentiful fall color ingredients is the best thing to do. While Japan doesn't have Thanksgiving traditions, I still love it, almost one of my favorite events of the year as Thanksgiving involves with food and everything comes with food.
Thanksgiving season is just around the corner. These orange-colored beautiful persimmons reminded me of that fact, even being in Japan. No turkey or no pumpkin pie here after the dinner on that day; however, I instantly think of Thanksgiving when I see color of orange.
My friend sent me these pretty persimmons the other day. Perfect orange color persimmons also bring me back to a memory of the house I grew up.
The house I grew up had a persimmon tree and a fig tree. After school, I climbed up these trees with my siblings to pick up persimmons and figs. Although we were fed with snacks prepared by my mother, they were extra handy snacks for hungry kids.
Fu-yu persimmons are nicely wrapped individually with the soft white paper with their name in kanji (Japanese character). I would say that they are probably twice as expensive as regular persimmons because of their limited area of production and their original extra sweetness. I adore this meltingly sweet taste.
Where I live is also famous for producing fu-yu persimmons. This region has been producing fu-yu since late 1800 with a long history. While persimmons have two original tastes; sweet or astringent, fu-yu is completely a sweet type and shares more than half of yield in the market. Round and chubby looking with lots of sweet juice is adorable and fu-yu is known for being easily ripen very soon.
Not only fu-yu persimmons but other brands of persimmons have same nutrition: vitamin C, carotene, potassium, and tannin.
Vitamin C in persimmons is great one in fall ingredients. As a woman, I do love to expect having shiny, flawless, beautiful, healthy, and baby-like skins by eating persimmons. Persimmons can help preventing seasonal cold, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, arteriosclerosis, and cerebral infarction.
Hangover symptoms can be disappeared by tannin in persimmons. Plus, the combination of tannin and potassium with vitamin C can work on hangover more effectively. It is because that tannin decomposes alcohol, potassium induces urination, and vitamin C has an oxidation-reduction effect.
Fu-yu persimmons are sweet ones and there is another type of persimmons: astringent ones. The difference between these two tastes depends on how much tannin in a persimmon is dissolved in a mouth when you bite. The more tannin dissolves, the more the taste gets astringent. The less tannin dissolves, the more the taste gets sweeter. When persimmons are still babies on the tree, every persimmon contains soluble tannin. However, tannin in sweet persimmons like fu-yu turns into insoluble as they grow and astringency doesn't stand out when you bite. What a mechanism the nature gives.
Japanese sweet confectioners use persimmons as a dessert and even home-made dried persimmons are very popular during winter time. But these desserts don't require persimmons being cooked with the heat, either dry or simmer them.
So the persimmon tart made by one of my friends in San Francisco surprised me very much. I guess this was my very first time to taste heated persimmons in the oven. It's a shame and regretful that I didn't get her recipe! Beautifully cut persimmon on the tart was sweeter than eating raw or dried. Heat in the oven enhanced the color of orange. She made this delish tart right after the Thanksgiving season.
We don't have a custom to celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan; however, I used to love Thanksgiving, especially mingling and enjoying great harvest. Talking about persimmons reminded me of my great friend's tart and precious Thanksgiving feast.
Happy Thanksgiving for ones at the Thanksgiving table with families and friends!
The color of fall vegetables and fruits reflect golden leaves as if they are sisters. In these days, most of fresh vegetables and fruits can be available and seen in any season as they are grown in greenhouses.
But I think pears are one of few ingredients that have limited availability at markets. This means that pears can make us realize that they are completely in season when we see them at markets. The season that pears can be most deliciously eaten is the early fall from September to November.
Here are several types of pears now. In Asia, pears have been known as the king of fruits. Pears can moisten our thirsty throats and stomach as well as working as anti-inflammatory. Pears can cool our body temperature so we need to be careful and try not to eat too many at a time.
I asked one of the farmers who produce pears in my area as I have been curious to see how to select best pears to buy.
For pears in reddish color (Hosui, Kosui), select ones that change colors from their natural color to brownish color.
For pears in greenish color (21 century), select ones that are almost translucent when holding them to the light.
Pears that have bisymmetrical shapes are good to choose. These pears don't have variance in taste so that each part of pear has even sweetness.
Select pears that have thick skins and feel heavy.
When leaving pears in a room temperature, they get ripen faster than you think. Keep them in a airtight bag and store in a refrigerator. This way of storing pears can give pears longer life, approximately 2 weeks (But personally, I love to eat pears that are not too chilled in a fridge).
The parts near skins are the sweetest and the parts around seeds tastes sour. Remove the parts around seeds littlie thicker so that sweetness can be maximized.
As a person who always thinks how to survive the real summer with notorious humidity and high temperature, some colorful summer vegetables/fruits are such a therapy to my soul and eyes.
One of the most beautiful (color-wise) summer vegetables is an eggplant, to me. Dark purple gorgeously shines under the sun. Straight, sweet and soft inside of an eggplant is just as gentle as the early fall breeze.
The main nutrient in eggplants is water, vitamins and minerals. Eating eggplants keeps the body temperature lower because of a lot of water. Surely, eggplants are the top ingredients in summer. The purple color of eggplants can control cholesterol which act as same as polyphenol in red wine. As for polyphenol, it prevents risks of any cancers and anti-aging.
Eggplants are low calorie ingredients, perfect for healthy diet. Simply, bake eggplants or cut them in slices and make miso soup. But eggplants go so well with oil, especially olive oil.
When selecting fresh and delicious eggplants, look for stem ends. Tiny thorns of stem ends are supposed to be sharp. Sleek surface and watery inside mean fresh eggplants. And the darker, the freshier. I found that wrapping eggplants individually can keep as much as water inside eggplants.
Eggplants remind me of one particular dish. It's an eggplant hummus. I can't forget about this eggplant hummus I tried in Indonesia. There was such a stylish Turkish restaurant in Jakarta, called Anatolia. I was taken to this restaurant with a lot of positive recommendation and feed backs from local expatriates. I fell in love with not only food they serve but the atmosphere. Everything we ordered was flavorful and speechless. Especially, their eggplant hummus remained on my taste buds. Smoky flavor adds a special savor in hummus. We ordered seconds. Thinking of it makes me travel to Jakarta only for tasting that hummus.
There is a farmer's market near my house that we do most of our grocery shopping. As you might know if you go to any farmer's markets, freshness of vegetables and fruits at farmer's market is quite impressive when comparing to those sold at supermarkets.
At a market, our eyes groove to vivid colors of summer ingredients. Red, green, yellow, orange, deep purple…. Besides many colors that entertain us, every summer ingredient helps us being healthy by playing as a medicinal food.
Due to the nature of summer, we want to get rid of an excessive body temperature from the body. Not by air conditioner. Not by jumping into the water. These are temporary solution to cool down our body. Ideally, we want to do so by just eating ingredients that have a power of cooling our body. This can be a lasting solution, not temporary one during summer.
In terms of cooling down in summer by eating medicinal food, cucumbers are the best! The main ingredient in cucumber is water which occupies 90%. Also, vitamin A, B, C, calcium, potassium, iron, and fiber are in cucumbers.
he most amazing nutrition in cucumbers is, I should say, potassium which promotes our body system to get rid of retained water in the body. Swelling of the body is caused due to excessive sodium inside of the body that doesn't have an exit to release it. As it is widely known, taking potassium is the best answer to this trouble which mostly women experience. To enhance diuretic effect, eat cucumber in summer and probably drink water before realizing thirstiness so that unnecessary sodium would be released and hypertension would be prevented. What a bonus that cucumbers bring us!
Pyrazine which produces a grassy smell of cucumbers works on preventing blot clots, strokes, and coronary heart diseases. The disgraceful thing to cucumbers, cucumbers are known as "zero nutrient." Poor cucumbers….
Recently, there was the greatest news to cucumbers coming in. Brilliantly, phospholipase has been found in cucumbers! Phospholipase is one of enzymes which helps lipid breakdown. What a proud news to cucumbers!
When I eat cucumbers, I just grab it and bite as with skins if they are organic. As I wrote in the beginning, I do the grocery shopping mostly at one of the nearest farmer's markets. Strolling in the farmer's market tells me so many things, what vegetables and fruits are in seasons, how farmers planted and harvested them, and the greatest thing is that we can see who made them. This is such a comfort to know who made them and the personal information on farmers makes us feel like we are indirectly friends.
*The orange table cloth with a pink rabbit on it in the first picture is made by my mom. She is an artist and I like the way she used vivid colors which completely link with my image of summer.
I am a winter girl, born in February, love to endlessly watch snow falling and being able to tolerate with cold. In other words, I have believed this way: I like winter with crispy blue sky because I was born in winter. It's funny but I believe that we associate with the nature and characteristics of the season we are born.
Winter gives me energy, somehow. While the breath is white every time we breathe out, roads get slippery with ice, or no matter how many layers we have to put on to get warm, I never hate winter.
Yakuzen/medicinal food theory, however, says that we should be more careful than ever in other seasons. Icy cold air covers everything and snow freezes not only us but the nature. This characteristic of winter makes us inactive and produces pain for some of us.
Yin qi (negative energy) occupies winter, which means that our spirit gets low, our skin gets dried, pain and swell in our feet or abdomen, and our blood doesn't flow smoothly. And winter air tends to flow lower so that the lower half of our body can feel chilly. So, salty ingredients (naturally salty taste, in this case, not "salt" itself) which helps warming up the blood and enhancing the better blood circulation are ideal to choose in winter.
The cold air relates to kidney in terms of Chinese medicinal theory. A kidney in the theory rules our spirit, soul, or qi, governs both energies of the body and the mind. But cold winter which increases circulatory disorders and exhausts stored qi in a kidney escalates aging quickly.
Also, a kidney is immensely important for reproduction, adjusting the liquid in the body, forming the bones and hairs.
Salty ingredients can help protecting the kidney and the stored qi energy not being damaged by the cold air. To save a kidney from the cold winter, seaweeds, beans, seafood, particularly ingredients in red or black are helpful and effective.
In winter, yin qi occupies the season and it gets deeper and deeper as days go by. Yakuzen/medicinal food theory suggests in winter to store energy and to protect a kidney which is the key organ in winter. A kidney rules our energy and this is the place in the body system to store energy.
The list of five elements says that salty ingredients or adding a bit salt in meals are suggested to keep us warm and protect a kidney.
Probably, in addition to salty taste, adding spiciness from the list of fall ingredients can be helpful to make the body warm.
Black or red ingredients are friendly in terms of yakuzen/medicinal food.
The color of tomatoes always amazes me. Burning red absolutely relates to the image of summer. Natural pigment of tomatoes is just so inspiring.
I guess the most basic and simple concept of yakuzen/medicinal food living is that we should eat ingredients in season. As you can guess from tomatoes' color, yes, tomatoes are one of the summer vegetables. Also, I think it is so nice that tomatoes are easy to consume and are available anywhere.
In present days, most vegetables including tomatoes are greenhouse-grown; however, the best season for tomatoes is between May and September. When we eat ingredients in seasons, we can get full benefits from them.
Tomatoes make us happy as they have lower calorie but are rich in nutrition that can help us keep the elastic skin, prevents constipation, and more! Tomatoes are very women-friendly ingredients! So, what tomatoes bring us?
Let's start with general nutrition in tomatoes.
Vitamin C, B6, E, fiber, potassium, carotene (vitamin A), folic acid, citric acid, iron, phosphorus, and lycopene are some of nutrition that tomatoes give us.
Vitamin A: Builds up skin and mucous membrane and prevents infectious disease, such as cold or flu.
Vitamin C: Fights against stress and infectious disease. Build up collagen which is an essential element to make our skin beautiful.
Vitamin E: Effective in anti-aging and prevents fat from getting oxidized.
Potassium: Encourage to excrete excess sodium from the body system.
Fiber: Tomatoes have soluble fiber that works for constipation.
Lycopene: Red pigment of tomatoes. I was curious about this "lycopene" and wanted to dig a little bit deeper.
So, here, my curiosity brings me to research about lecopene which is tomatoes' specialty that proudly relates to the color.
Red is the color of tomatoes come from organically lycopene.
Lycopene is one of carotenoids that is the family of carotene. Very ripe red tomatoes contain plentiful lycopene. Of course, cherry tomatoes contain lycopene and I like the idea that cherry tomatoes have more lycopene than regular tomatoes as they have more skins where lycopene is found wrapped around fruits.
Lycopene holds a strong antioxidant that works for anti-allergy property. My mother always says, "We should eat tomatoes as it is. Bite tomatoes as it is with skin." Eating tomatoes with ingredients containing vitamin E brings an ability of anti-oxidant!
Especially in summer, our skin would be exposed under the sun and ultraviolet, and this activity produces harmful free radical that might cause freckles or skin disease. Here, lycopene comes along to play a significant role to fight back and reduce free radical on our skins.
As a woman, it is so great that vitamin C in tomatoes revitalizes, brightens the skin, and produce collagen! Decrease in collagen loses elasticity on the skin which opens up the pores. Vitamin C in tomatoes is just so amazing as it enhances its anti-oxidative potency by combining protein such as dairy products, eggs, and meat!
Also, lycopene is easily dissolved with oil and is absorbed perfectly with oil, especially olive oil. Eating raw tomatoes is the greatest way to consume but heated tomatoes are beneficial, as well. When tomatoes are heated, nutrition except vitamin C in tomatoes are not broken while those of other vegetables are broken.
In terms of yakuzen/medicinal food, be aware, though, that tomatoes belong to the group of ingredients that makes our body cool down. So, don't eat too much at a time but moderate intake must be the key.
By the way, do you have a green thumb? I do not, unfortunately, but I had tried so many times before and remembered that tomatoes were the easiest ones to let them grow with less care. I think I should try to engage with gardening someday. If you have a green thumb, give me some tips to be a successful gardener, please?
Some food, some smell, some music, some view, someone, some thing. These are easily connected to our memories. As for me, some food frequently does it. When I taste it, I am instantly drawn into the past and start reminiscing every moment of it.
This dish, bitter gourd & eggplant nimono, reminds me of my grandmother. She used to make this dish almost every other day in summer. As a kid, I was honestly tired of eating it because this dish was very bitter like a medicine for kids and I didn't know why a vegetable should be so bitter instead of being delicious. But now, I, who know how nutritious bitter gourd is, love it very much.
By the way, "nimono" is one of cooking ways in Japanese cooking. Nimono means cooking and simmering with dashi (soup stock), and is such a traditional way of cooking in Japan. Nimono is served as a daily menu mostly at home.
As mentioned earlier, bitter gourds represent a taste of summer and summer in yakuzen/medicinal food theory encourages eating bitter ingredients. This dish combines bitter gourd and eggplant that is also a summer ingredient and works well on getting rid of retained water in the body. By combining bitter gourd which helps us from feeling lethargy in summer and eggplant, we can retrieve power and stay being strong and healthy even in a hot summer. I hope you will be amazed how this recipe will make you energetic!
1. Clean and take out seeds from bitter gourd.
2. Cut bitter gourd and eggplant into a bite size.
3. Heat sesame oil in the pan.
5. Add sake, mirin, and bonito dashi. Then, simmer until vegetables get softened.
6. Add soy sauce and simmer for another few minutes over a medium heat with a lid.
According to the yakuzen/medicinal food theory, taking bitterness is encouraged in summer not from medicine but from anything edible that can work for our health and beauty as an adjuster to maintain our balance.
Which ingredients do you think of when you are asked to picture any bitter ingredients? I would think of kale, mulukhiya (Jew's mallow), green peppers, and bitter gourds. Bitter gourds? You asked yourself, probably. "What are they?" could be your question.
When I lived in the U.S., I had never seen "bitter gourds" at farmers markets or regular markets in the area I lived. Or bitter gourds might be secretly popular. At least, in my country, bitter gourds are getting famous and popular in spite of their bitterness. So this is it as for bitterness in summer. There is nothing but this vegetable which can be the representative of summer taste. Have you seen bitter gourds in your countries, readers?
Bitter gourds, also known as bitter melons (Goya or Nigauri in Japanese), don't look like they are edible at first sight. Bitter gourds have rough surface with deep or light green skin and have thick thorns. I guess it is about 20cm to 25cm long and flat seeds inside.
Of course, bitter gourds contain so many powerful nutrients: vitamin C and B1, β carotene, potassium, and momordica charantia (bitter taste). 100g of bitter gourds contains 76mg of vitamin C which is a lot! Vitamin C in bitter gourds is more than three times as much as lemons. Also, a regular vitamin C in other ingredients tends to be broken when heated. One in bitter gourds, however, would retain its vitamin even when heated for a short time.
Seeds are also nutritious. They have peptide P, anti-cancer substance, and linoleic acid, which is good for going on diet. I have never tried but have heard that drinking a cup of bitter gourd seeds tea is so easy to get all of the nutrition in bitter gourds by boiling seeds and leaves in water for 5 minutes.
Momordica charantia is actually bitter gourds' official name as plants. But it is also used as a name of nutrition for their bitterness. Yes, very bitter. When I was a kid, I was not able to eat bitter gourds because of bitterness and looking! The appearance of bitter gourds reminded me as a kid of some kind of ghosts, I don't even know now why as an adult. Now, I love it, though.
Momordica charantia is the element that produces original bitterness of bitter gourds. Bitter gourds are the first one to be found that contains this nutrition. In general, the more green, the more bitter. This bitterness works just so great on our health: making the stomach strong, making appetite increase, and making our spirit rise when feeling down.
There has been a rumor when it comes to get rid of the bitterness, "Wash bitter gourds with salt thoroughly before cook." This was so wrong! We believed that washing them with salt makes bitterness go away so that we could eat more of gourds easily. However, this way of preparation breaks 30% of vitamin C even before cooking! Wow, what a waste. So the solution is this: just wash bitter gourds with water and cook with a strong heat for a short time! This is the key to preserve vitamin C in bitter gourds even after cooked.
My friend told me that she makes a bitter gourd juice with a little bit of orange juice. She said it is so simple to make: take out seeds, cut bitter gourds in small pieces, and put them in a juicer with orange juice. Citric acid in orange juice stops a breakdown enzyme of vitamin C work and preserves every vitamin in a juice. I definitely try this bitter gourd juice someday this summer while bitter gourds are still in season!
Also, bitter gourds reminded me of memories with my grandmother who passed away when she was so young, 64. She used to cook bitter gourds almost every day in summer. Honestly, as a kid, I was so tired of eating bitter gourds. What a shame. Now, the dish she used to made is taken over by my mother. I have tried her recipe couple of times but mine is just not the same as my grandmother's. I want to be a master of the bitter gourds dish invented by my grandmother someday, hopefully.
Have you ever experienced to taste something invisible without actually tasting it? Well, I have with something sour and acidy, like lemons, grapefruits, oranges... In most cases, these citrus fruits make me feel like I actually taste them even when I am just thinking about them.
When I think or imagine of, let's say, lemons, the saliva gradually spreads in the mouth. I guess the eyes send the image of lemons, the brain reacts instantly towards the image and realizes that lemons are sour, the taste bud misunderstands that one eats lemons, and the the saliva spreads in the mouth.
As for this theory, we can't forget about umeboshi (pickled plums) which give us the exact same experience as citrus fruits do.
Umeboshi is not actually born as a vegetable. Umeboshi is a nickname of plums as a fruit after being prepared. Salt plums and leave them in the container for few weeks, dry them in the sun for few days, and pickle them with vinegar from these plums and shiso leaves together. We (actually, my mom) do this to make the best home-made umeboshi for the family and friends almost every year.
Beautiful red-colored umeboshi have a variety of kinds from big soft ones to tiny crispy ones. Sour and salty are the right words to describe what umeboshi taste like. A source of this sourness that umeboshi and citrus fruits originally have is citric acid which is one of organic acids.
Umeboshi have absolutely amazing nutrition. Calcium, fiber, potassium, sodium and phosphorus under the mineral group, and carotene and vitamin C under the vitamin group are some nutrition that umeboshi contain. Last but not least, citric acid must be the representative nutrient in umeboshi.
Well, then, what umeboshi can do to us?
There are several beneficial effects of eating umeboshi.
Citric acid relates to citric acid cycle in the body which helps us move. We produce necessary energy from taking food to maintain our life. Citric acid is such an essential nutrition to break down food, produce energy to process metabolism, and rotate citric acid cycle. When the citric acid cycle is actively working, our energy is constantly produced to make us keep going. However, when being exhausted or having stress, this cycle would not work properly. So, taking citric acid in umeboshi relieves fatigue quickly.
Citric acid helps mineral in the body be absorbed easily.
Citric acid has a great ability of sterilization. In Japan, umeboshi is placed as a garnish on rice in our lunch box or umeboshi being in rice balls. We place umeboshi everywhere when we don't eat food right after cooked. This means that citric acid in umeboshi prevents bacteria from growing!
Insoluble fiber gives us feeling of satisfaction as hardness of fiber makes us chew many times that excrete saliva and gastric fluid. Also, insoluble fiber prevents constipation which is so great for women!
Potassium works with sodium to enhance muscle movement and helps the nerve system work properly. When we don't have enough potassium in the body, the nerve function works ineffectively and produces cramps and swelling.
Potassium excretes excessive waste products from kidney.
Like mentioned above, working with potassium, enhance muscle movement and the nerve system.
Sodium encourages excretion of digestive fluid and helps digestive and absorptive functions.
The body fluid in our body keeps the balance of mild alkaline. Sodium works with potassium and magnesium to keep pH balance stable.
Most of my foreign friends who have tasted umeboshi before in their life would say, " Too sour!" Yes, umeboshi is unbelievably sour but it tastes so great and less sour when served with rice or something plain taste.
As for the story about umeboshi, I have a friend in Palm Springs and his friend owns the organic restaurant. He took me to her restaurant and I was pleased with every dish she cooked. Anyway, after closing the restaurant, she offered me to stay with her for a night! We kept talking and talking and talking until midnight and we agreed that we were hungry again.
She made us such a healthy and brilliant small dish for us. The dish was served in a small white bowl with thinly sliced cabbages and not-too-hard boiled egg on it with a pinch of umeboshi and sprinkle of sesame seeds!
I was completely shocked for several reasons in a positive way. I was shocked because I didn't know any foreign friends who would add umeboshi to everyday meal so perfectly, because she knew exactly how umeboshi works, and because I have never seen how one could combine umeboshi with regular ingredients (cabbage, egg, sesame seeds) like this!
This was such a pleasant shock and such an original menu! Since then, I do make her recipe sometimes. Ahhhh, I still remember the taste of her special meal!