Job's tears ✦

Larmes de Job (coix)

What it is

The wild plant makes a shell hard enough to drill, and its seeds have been strung as rosary and prayer beads across Asia and beyond — lacryma-jobi means Job's tear. What reaches the kitchen is a soft-shelled cultivar, sold in Chinese pharmacies as often as in grocers.

In the kitchen

Soak it overnight, then give it three quarters of an hour at a bare simmer — it stays chewy however long you go. The starch it sheds will cloud a consommé, so cook it apart when the broth has to stay bright.

Goes with

Chicken Pork Adzuki bean Jujube Ginger Kombu

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