Yomogi ✦

Armoise japonaise

What it is

The same plant is the source of moxa, the smouldering cone of dried leaf used in moxibustion, so the kitchen and the clinic come out of one spring picking. Pounded into rice cake it makes kusamochi, grass cake, whose green is the leaf itself and not a colouring.

In the kitchen

Take only the pale tips before the plant flowers, since older leaves turn harsh. Blanch thirty seconds in water with a pinch of bicarbonate to hold the green, squeeze hard, and pound while still warm — cold leaves will not break down into the dough.

Goes with

Glutinous rice Adzuki bean Kinako Sesame Miso Rice

Same species

Absinthe Dry vermouth Génépi Mugwort Sweet red vermouth Tarragon

Also used with

Domyojiko Glutinous rice flour

In season alongside

Ashitaba Dandelion greens Fuki (butterbur stalk) Fuki-no-tō (butterbur flower bud) Nanohana (rapeseed blossom) Sencha

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