The benefits of arrowhead
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What arrowhead does
What this vegetable does
Held to regulate the flow of blood and ease what has stalled in the body.
How to eat it
Simmered or deep-fried, its flavour and texture are a pleasure.
A yakuzen note
Held to clear phlegm and settle a cough.
Arrowhead is bitter and sweet and is held to improve the circulation of blood and ease what has stalled in the body. It is also held to suit times when phlegm or a cough is on your mind. Simmered or deep-fried, its floury texture comes forward and it brings colour to a meal.
TOC
When arrowhead is in season, the kinds, and how to choose
If you want to bring in what arrowhead does, deliciously, knowing the season, the kinds and how to choose makes it easier to use. Its appeal is a floury texture, a faint bitterness and a sprout standing straight up: an ingredient that brings colour to winter.
In season in winter, an auspicious food for osechi
Arrowhead is an aquatic plant grown in paddy fields, and the swollen underground tuber is eaten. It is in season in winter, roughly November to December, and reaches the shops most at the end of the year when osechi demand rises. The sprout standing straight up from the tip suggests the Japanese phrase for getting ahead, and it is an auspicious food that the simmered dishes of osechi cannot do without. The main producing areas are Hiroshima Prefecture, around Fukuyama, which grows more than anywhere in the country, along with Saitama and Osaka. It is a strongly seasonal ingredient available for only a short time in winter.
Blue, white and Suita arrowhead
Arrowhead comes in several kinds, differing in size and taste.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Blue arrowhead | The most common in Japan. Bluish, with a floury texture |
| White arrowhead | Chinese in origin and larger. Tender, with little to object to |
| Suita arrowhead | A traditional Naniwa vegetable from Osaka. Small, with a deep bitterness and aroma |
For osechi and simmered dishes, the well-shaped, good-textured blue arrowhead is the standard. Small and deeply flavoured varieties such as the Suita arrowhead, among the traditional vegetables of Naniwa, have been carefully handed down in their regions. Choose by dish and by what you can find.
How to choose it and how to prepare it
When choosing good arrowhead, these points make it easier to tell.
- Round and plump, with a good weight
- A sprout standing taut and straight, unbroken
- A glossy surface, without wrinkles or shrivelling
Arrowhead is strongly harsh, so prepare it before cooking. Peel it leaving the sprout on, cutting it into six faces for osechi, soak it in water, then boil it in the water from washing rice or similar, and the harshness softens and it becomes easy to eat. As an auspicious food the sprout is not cut off; using it with its shape intact is the traditional way.
How to eat arrowhead
Arrowhead is good simmered or fried, drawing on its floury texture and faint bitterness. Here are the standard ways.
Simmered gently, and in nishime
The classic arrowhead dish is fukumeni, simmered gently in dashi. Peeled into six faces with the sprout left on and given a refined seasoning of soy sauce and mirin, it becomes a dish worthy of osechi nishime. The floury texture and the faint bitterness go beautifully with a sweeter seasoning. Simmered together with chicken and root vegetables, it makes a deeply flavoured winter dish. An auspicious dish that brings colour to a celebration.
Fried plain, as crisps, or deep-fried
Arrowhead crisps, sliced thin and fried, give a crisp texture and a faint bitterness that suits a drink. Fried whole without batter and salted, they are roasted outside and floury inside. Tempura, or crushed into croquettes or a gratin, work well too. Frying softens the bitterness and brings the sweetness and roasted note forward, which makes it easy to eat for anyone trying arrowhead for the first time.
How to keep arrowhead
Arrowhead does not like drying out and shrivels easily if left as it is. Wrap it in damp kitchen paper, put it in a plastic bag, keep it in the vegetable drawer of the fridge and use it soon. Keeping it submerged in a container of water in the fridge, changing the water now and then, also guards against drying. If you cannot use it up, parboil it, drain it and freeze it, ready for simmered and fried dishes. Handle it gently so the sprout does not break.
Alongside this, one likewise used in osechi and at celebrations, floury and sweet, The benefits of chestnut and the page introducing the traditional vegetables of the Kansai region, the traditional vegetables of Naniwa, as a guide when building a winter table.
Arrowhead, in season in winter, is an ingredient that gives you the season and the sense of a celebration, in osechi fukumeni and nishime, fried plain or as crisps. Well-shaped blue arrowhead, unobtrusive white arrowhead, fragrant Suita arrowhead: using each kind for what it does best brings out what it has. As the auspicious food whose sprout stands up, bring arrowhead in season to your winter table and to your celebrations.
