Hanawasabi (wasabi flower stems) ✦

Fleurs de wasabi

What it is

Growers cut the flowering stems to drive the plant’s strength back into the rhizome, so hanawasabi began as a by-product of the crop that pays. Its heat has to be provoked: the pungent compound forms only once the cells are torn, so cooks salt the stems, scald them and shut them warm in a sealed jar — a step the Japanese describe as making the wasabi angry.

In the kitchen

Salt and rub the stems, dip them ten seconds in water at 80 °C, then shake them hard in a sealed jar and leave it at room temperature two hours before it goes to the fridge. Boiling water kills the enzyme and a loose lid lets the heat escape; either mistake leaves you a merely green vegetable.

Goes with

Koikuchi shoyu Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Hon-mirin Salt Rice Junmai sake

Same species

Wasabi Wasabizuke

In season alongside

Chives Hairy bittercress Horseradish Kkakdugi Mustard greens Radish

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