Today — January 7 — is jinjitsu 人日, one of the five sekku 節句 — days on the traditional Japanese calendar where one observes special customs of the season. Today is the day to make a rice porridge flavored with nanakusa, 七草 （seven spring herbs).
Instead of cooking up the usual porridge, I decided to tweak the custom and put the seven herbs in my daily vegetable juice instead. I raided the nanakusa basket I wrote about in a previous post, and added komatsuna greens, parsley, celery top, yellow bell pepper, a cherry tomato, and the juice of one fresh lemon. I finished it off with a teaspoon of first-press natane abura 菜種油 (rapeseed oil), which I got on my recent trip to Awajishima. This oil is particularly high in vitamin E, which aids absorption of the nutrients in the veggies. I also added a pinch of moshio 藻塩, a gourmet salt made from seaweed. It’s also from Awajishima. If you’re interested in trying it, you can buy it on Amazon Japan by clicking here
Here’s the finished product! Yum! And spicy! À santé! To health!
Alice Gordenker アリス・ゴーデンカー 