Bamboo shoot rice in spring

Recently, I go for a walk at Hamamatsu Castle Park early in the morning to offset sitting at a desk all day. It has a large Japanese garden with a bamboo area like this.

Among bamboo trees, you can see a dark brown bamboo shoot, which is called “takenoko” or a child of bamboo in Japanese.

Yesterday, I got a piece of boiled bamboo shoot and a pack of deep-fried tofu from my mother and was recommended to use them together for cooking. Bamboo shoots are popular food in spring and my mother likes them very much. Though boiled ones are available all year round in supermarkets, you can also find fresh bamboo shoots at this time of year. Such bamboo shoots should be boiled for a long time with some rice bran to remove the bitter taste. As my mother already did it at home, I could use it directly for cooking. It had a subtle nice smell.

Among traditional bamboo shoot dishes, bamboo shoot rice (takenoko-gohan) may be one of the simplest. You can find many recipes on the Internet, and their common ingredients are rice, boiled bamboo shoot, deep-fried tofu, and broth. Though Japanese vegan broth is usually made from kelp or shiitake mushroom, I used dried strips of daikon radish instead to make this dish, expecting it would add a slight sweet flavor. I thought the deep-fried tofu would also add some good taste while boiled.

So, the ingredients were 180 cc of brown rice, one-third of bamboo shoot in the picture above, some dried strips of daikon radish, one half of deep-fried tofu, 15 cc of soy sauce, salt, and water. In this picure, the rice and bamboo shoot aren’t visible as they have sunk to the bottom of the earthen pot.

When I cook rice, I always eyeball it. I didn’t know exactly how much water was in the pot, but it turned out to be sufficient. Bamboo shoot rice was ready after boiled on low heat for about 30 minutes after steam started coming out of the hole.

I can’t explain the flavor of the bamboo shoot itself very well. It tasted rather light after the bitterness was removed while boiled for the first time by my mother. I think people enjoy its texture rather than its taste. However, bamboo shoot rice was delicious with blend of simple but tasty ingredients.