Recipe
Mitsuba ohitashi — blanched with dashi
- Herb:
- Mitsuba Cryptotaenia japonica
- Method:
- Culinary use
- Plant part:
- Leaf
About 10 minBeginnerRecipe science profile
Procedure
- Wash a bunch of mitsuba and blanch in salted boiling water for 20–30 seconds, just until it wilts.
- Cool at once in cold water, squeeze and cut into 3–4 cm pieces.
- Mix 100 ml of dashi, a tablespoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of mirin; let the mitsuba soak in it for 10 minutes.
- Serve chilled, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds or bonito flakes.
Extraction
- Herb:
- 1 bunch (about 100 g) for 2 portions
- Solvent:
- brief blanching for 20–30 seconds, cooling, then dashi with soy sauce
- Shelf life:
- eat the same day
- Target compounds:
- brief blanching preserves colour and crispness, essential oils (monoterpenes) mostly remain in the leaf
Notes
A kitchen recipe with no particular risks. Mitsuba is never cooked long — it loses aroma and colour; in soup it goes in only at the bowl.
Why it works
A brief blanch deactivates the enzymes that would brown the leaf and preserves the chlorophyll; longer cooking would drive off the volatile monoterpenes that carry the parsley-celery scent. The catalogue holds no medicinal claim for mitsuba — it is a vegetable.
Literature
- Japanese home cooking — ohitashi (traditional technique) — Culinary method; no health claim.
Related
Mitsuba — Herb card
Culinary use — Processing method detail