Are you looking for gobo( Burdock）in Europe? If so it is almost impossible find Japanese gobo here as it's not growing here. ( Please let me know if anybody knows when I can find Bordock in Europe! )
So how do I cook Kinpira Gobo without burdock?
The answer is ...I use Salsify instead ! Salsify is not the same as burdock root althrough they look quite similar, but I found that they have similer taste ( it's just not as crispy as bordock, but quite matching for the recepie of Kinpira Gobo,
In addition, It's much better and healthier to use fresh vegetable rather than going to Japanese or Chinese groceries to buy flozen burdock all the way from Asia for me. I like to use local ingridients and explore my new ways of cooking.
Kinpira Gobo is traditionally cooked with burdock and carrots, but I use celery instead of carrots so that it gives you crispy texture and actually salsify and celery match very well for Kinpira Gobo cooking.
Here is the recepie.
Ingridients Serves 3
2 Salsify
2 Celery
2 Tbs Mirin
4 Tbs Soy sauce ( sans OGM)
2 Tbs Sake ( you can replace with white wine if you do not have sake)
1 Dried chili or little bit of dried chili pepper flakes ( you can make without chili if you prefer nonn-spicy meal.)
2 Tbs sesami oil
Recipe
1. Peel the salsify skin with a peeler. Then cut thinly-about 5 cm short, then soak the salsify pieces in water for 10 mins, then strain. Meanwhile, cut celery thinly as well as salsify.
They look so earthy, aren't they?!
2. Heat a wok or large frying pan with olive oil at medium heat. ( Traditionally, we heat with sesami oil, I use olive oil instead, then add the sesami oil at the end of cooking, as it is said that heating sesami oil is not good floowing chinese medicine method )
3. Add the salsify pieces and sauté about 5 mins ,then add celery piecs, and sauté all of them about 12 mins at medium heat.
4. Add the chili , mirin and soy sauce, sake, and mixed them very well, and continue cooking for 5 mins, then add 100ml of waterand continue cooking until the liqid has disappeared from the pan.
5. Add the sesami oil and mix them very well.
6. Bon appetit!
Radhe Aananda Yoga and Healing recipes
