1. Wash a freshly harvested bamboo shoot well, cut the tip off and make shallow cuts. (Photo 1)
   
   
2. Combine some water, the bamboo shoot, rice bran and red cone pepper in a pot and heat until the bamboo shoot becomes tender enough for a bamboo skewer to enter easily.
   
   
3. Soak the bamboo shoot in water for a while and remove the sheaths. Cut the bamboo shoot in half horizontally. (The bottom part will be used for bamboo-shoot rice)
   
   
4. Cut the top part of the bamboo shoot into 6-8 equally-sized pieces and cook in the seasoned stock.
   
   
5. Wrap the dried bonito flakes in gauze and add to (4). Referred to as additional bonito flakes(*2). (Photo 2)

1. Boil the bamboo shoot in the same way as in "Bamboo Shoot Cooked Tosa Style"
   
   
2. Soak the bamboo shoot in water for a while and remove the sheaths. Cut the bamboo shoot horizontally in half and then, into smaller thin pieces. (Photo 3)
   
   
3. Combine the rinsed rice and stock in a rice cooker. Add the bamboo shoot and seasonings and turn the rice cooker on.
   
   
4. After the rice is done, form it using a cherry-blossom-shaped mold(*3). (Photo 4) Rinse the pickled cherry blossoms and place them on top of the rice cakes.
   
   

Tips:

Preparing bamboo shoots

Because the flavor of bamboo shoots deteriorates after they are exposed to air, try to prepare fresh bamboo shoots as soon as possible. When you boil them, add some rice bran to remove the bitter and harsh taste (homogentisic and oxalic acids). The pungency of red cone pepper is known to remove the harshness from the taste, too.

Cooking Term

Bamboo Shoot Cooked Tosa Style

"Tosa" is used for the names of dishes for which bonito or dried bonito flakes are used as ingredients. This is because Kochi Prefecture (Tosa District) is famous for its bonito catch.

Additional bonito flakes:

Dried bonito flakes wrapped in gauze are added to seasoned stock in which ingredients are being cooked to give a stronger flavor of bonito to the dish.

Cherry-blossom-shaped mold:

A mold used to form rice into a shape of a cherry blossom for each serving