Yesterday a friend handed me a huge bundle of fuki. Dear me... What is fuki? It looks like a type of rhubarb and like rhubarb, only the stalk is edible. It has a bitter flavor and is very stringy, but it can be peeled and then boiled a couple of times to remove the bitterness. In other words, there is a lot of work involved with fuki! And I had a whole bundle plopped into my arms!
The other thing about fuki is that it needs to stay out of the sun after being picked and it needs to be cooked up quickly to retain its tenderness. So I was on a time factor. On a Wednesday!I put my bundle of fuki in the kitchen sink full of water and left it for the day. It was the best I could do on a Wednesday morning.
At 6:30 I came home and sighed when I saw my kitchen sink. Before I began dinner I had to do something with the fuki.
And so I peeled, and peeled and peeled! It is an easy job, repetitious. Just pull away the outer layer with a thumbnail. But I had a lot of fuki! I boiled up two large pots of water and put the fuki in to boil. (TWO BATCHES!) and then dumped out the water and boiled the fuki again. (And I was still peeling.) Finally, at 7:30 at night I was ready to make a dish with the fuki. Some of it.
I consulted the Internet and found a fuki recipe that I could make with things I had around the house. (Besides just the fuki.) Leiya was on chat and caught me while I was rejecting various fuki recipes.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm cooking fuki and I don't have time to talk with you."
"What is fuki?"
"It is a spring Japanese vegetable and you can be grateful that you will probably never have to cook it. Good-bye."
I went back to my fuki and simmered it up with some deep fried tofu. I flavored it as best I could.
When Tetsu came home (the rest of dinner was pretty sparse) I grumbled that I had been making fuki all evening and didn't even know if it was edible.
"Hey, this is great, Tanya. Your fuki is delicious! Yum, yum, look, I'm eating it all up. I like your fuki.""It's a good thing you do because there is at least three more dinners' worth of fuki still in the kitchen sink."
This morning I spotted a different farm neighbor in her field.
"I think I'll offer Yano-san some of the fuki I prepared last night. There is so much left."
"Um... I wouldn't do that. I LOVED your fuki... but I don't think it would suit Yano-san's palate. It might taste a little bit too "foreign" for her."
It seems that Tetsu was just trying to be diplomatic about last night's fuki. It is not really of "share some with your neighbor" caliber.
What am I going to do with all the fuki still in my kitchen sink?
11 comments:
Ohhh... send it to me!! I love fuki. And I miss fuki. But I agree it is difficult to cook.
If it were me, I'd throw it away. I know that sounds rude, but really...to spend all the time, the work, and not really caring for it...what a waste.
Good luck. Let us know what you do with it all.
Oh Dear!! and you cannot give it to the cats either. Gifts can sometimes be not so welcome at all. Cheers from Jean
Uh, give it a decent burial in the forest?? You gave it your best shot, but some things just aren't meant to be.
Yes, Throw the rest away.Why not? You have eaten of it and the farmer who gave it to you wanted to be generous but gave to much for two people to eat ... so throw it away.
By the way you have a very beautiful caramic bowl. Would'n mind to have one myself. Is it Japanese ceramic or from somewhere else?
ha ha....My kitchen sink is full of rhubarb that I picked yesterday. My DH would love a rhubarb pie but I hate to cook with all that sugar! Maybe I'll just chop it up and throw it in the freezer.
Can you put your prepared fuki in the freezer for another day?
Thanks for all the great posts recently...loved the rice fields.
Best regards from Gail in Wa State
Welll...here in Texas we might fry up a batch before calling it quits! I think you did you best and next time you can run it over to another neighbor before peeling it!
I thoroughly enjoyed your post...but I have no idea what to suggest. Once you've eaten what you can, perhaps compost the rest...or throw it away. You've already done to dutiful thing of accepting the gift from the neighbour and made the effort to cook it so if he ever asks you can say you did prepare it...hopefully he won't offer you more!
Tempura?
Welllll.... my solution would be to give leftovers to the chickens! The fuki would not be thrown away... the hens would make eggs out of it. At least that's the story I tell myself. Maybe you could freeze it? Soup? Puree? Puree and use as a puree juice like at a juice bar? Maybe Choco would like some? When all other choices fail there is always the garden... compost. That veg is way too much work. I wonder if it could be boiled first and then peeled... easier... like tomatoes? Have a cup of tea Tanya and take a rest.
Aww what a dear Tetsu is ... eating the fuki while it is not good enough to give to the neighbours.
Over here I would give the rest of the fuki to the chickens or compost it but perhaps you can stir fry it or make tempura out of it.
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