Tarafu Ku Manma Hijiki – Hijiki and Roe {Macrobiotics}

Today I want to spotlight on one of my favorite styles of eating – macrobiotics. (Remember Macrobiotic March?)

When Bobby and I were in Japan, Bobby’s mom bought us this package of hijiki and roe:

otyashizuoka komochihijiki - hijiki and roe japanese food

(I think you can buy it online, {HERE}.)

If I am not mistaken (I could very well be), it is called “tarafu ku manma hijiki”, but it might also be called “otyashizuoka komochihijiki”, or たらふくまんま. (Yeah, I really don’t know if I’m right on this – any Japanese speakers care to help me out?)

It comes in a sealed plastic bag inside of a pretty paper one.

hijiki-roe-japanese-food

(You may also be able to buy it {HERE}.)

Here are various flavors of tarafu ku:

tarafuku-flavors

{source}

By the way, {THIS} is the google search I used to find more about tarafu ku manma hijiki.

And here it is at our house:

tarafu ku manma hijiki roe

After we got back from Japan (this was back in October), we got into the habit of eating a Japanese breakfast every morning. We had this side dish simply, just over white rice. It lasted a few days because we wanted to spread it out – it was delicious!

This dish is certainly macrobiotic. It combines seaweed (hijiki), which is a macrobiotic superfood, along with roe, which counts as seafood, and thus is an “occasional” food by the macrobiotic style of eating. Occasional is defined by you – that could mean a few times a week or a few times a month. Tarafu ku manma hijiki is slightly sweet though I am not sure what the sweetener is. In general, those following a macrobiotic diet shy away from anything sweet, so ideally you could make this yourself at home and use a macrobiotic-approved sweetener (brown rice syrup) or omit it entirely.

Have you ever seen this dish? Would you try it?

I have not been able to find this in any stores here in NYC. I suppose I need to keep looking, or attempt to make my own! (If I do I will share the recipe.)

{Macrobiotic March} What is a Macro Plate?

A Macro Plate is the quintessential macrobiotic meal.

ozu-macro-plate

It’s a perfectly balanced plate of macrobiotic foods. My favorite macro plate consists of…

10 macro plate souen extra kabocha

  • Brown rice
  • Beans or tofu
  • Seaweed (hijiki is probably the most common)
  • Steamed greens (kale, collards, chard)
  • Steamed broccoli
  • Steamed carrot or sweet potato
  • KABOCHA or other squash
  • Dipping sauce (I like tahini-based ones)

What does perfectly balanced mean exactly? This goes back to the concept of yin and yang that I touched on earlier this month. Foods (and everything, really) can have yin qualities (expansive, cooling, moist) or yang qualities (contractive, warming, dry). We should try to avoid things that are way off on either side of the spectrum. Let’s go through the list of foods in a macro plate…

  • Brown rice –> this whole grain has almost equal parts yin and yang.
  • Beans, tofu, and tempeh –> these foods are also in the middle of the yin to yang spectrum.
  • Sea vegetables –> in the middle of the spectrum.
  • Leafy green vegetables (greens) and round vegetables (I guess broccoli?) –> in the middle.
  • Root vegetables –> in the middle of the spectrum.
  • Kabocha / squash –> Do these count as ’round’ veggies? They are also in the midde.
  • Tahini dipping sauce –> nuts are in the middle, but miso (salty – which I like in dipping sauce as well) starts to veer to the yang side of the spectrum.

Overall, a very balanced plate. If you were wondering, fish is a moderate food, though other meats (poultry, red meat, and eggs) are yang. Dairy is on the yin side.

I made a semi-macro plate just last night. I say semi because it had a fried egg on it and as I noted above, eggs are yang. Eggs are even more yang than poultry because they compress all the energy of a chicken into one small egg. That makes sense, right?

semi-macro-plate

This was…

  • Sauteed greens
  • Brown rice (hiding)
  • Avocado
  • Kabocha squash
  • Fried egg + ground sesame on top (it had a runny yolk – it’s not popped in the picture though)
  • 2 umeboshi plums (top right)
  • Tahini drizzzzzled on top

Tonight I had a macro-ish meal from the nearby Chinese takeout place. It was just scallops and veggies in a very light white sauce over white rice.

Even when I’m not trying, my dinners end up kind of macrobiotic-ish these days.

SO – Macrobiotic March is wrapping up. I have covered a lot of topics but are there any other questions at all that you guys have about macrobiotics that I haven’t answered yet? Even if I don’t know the answer I’d be happy to research it and give my thoughts.

But don’t worry – just because Macro March is almost over doesn’t mean I won’t be doing macrobiotic posts. I loved posting this month and I will definitely continue to talk about my macro finds.

P.S. I updated my Macrobiotics page – just in time for Macro March to end 😉

Friday Five: My Favorite Macrobiotic Blogs

I haven’t done a Friday Five in a while, but it’s definitely time for one.

When I embarked on Macrobiotic March, one of the first things I did was look for new macrobiotic blogs. Here are my current (new) favorites.

Maggie’s Favorite Macrobiotic Blogs

1. Macrobiotic Magic in the Kitchen. This is mostly a recipe blog, and with recipes like Winter Stew and Pumpkin with a Maple Miso Sauce, who could resist? Well – who can resist pumpkin ever? (Certainly not me.)

2. No Dairy No Sugar. This is a simple, pretty blog with lots of ideas for macrobiotic meals. I want to try her Quinoa Amaranth Veggie Mix.

3. She Cooks Macro. This blog is beautiful and truly professional. I wish I had found it in time to join the Chewathon! (I have been neglecting my chewing, again.)

4. The MacroChef. This blog is run by a natural foods chef who is (I think) based in the Bay Area (my old home). I really want to try his Gingery Peanut Butter Cookies or his Coleslaw Makeover.

5. Food Everyday, Everyday Food! This blog has so many beautiful pictures of inspiring macrobiotic meals. Check out these 4 days of macrobiotic meals. The dishes are so vibrant!

5 Macrobiotic Blog Runners Up (because there were too many to pick just 5)

1. The Macro Veg. This is a runner up because it’s infrequently updated. But I have to post it because there is a recipe for Kabocha Stuffed Stew.

2. Macro Mom. Another infrequently updated blog, but really nice. I want to try the Seaweed Nut Crunch.

3. The Blissful Chef. This blog is actually really lovely, but the recipes are way more complicated than I like to do. She has a lot of really delicious looking (but seemingly kind of labor intensive) foods like Orange and Rose Blossom Cake. (She’s also not strictly macro – there is stevia in some recipes – more of a macro-leaning vegan.)

4. Snackrobiotic. I am such a snacker, how can I leave this one out! I want to try the Carrot Daikon Drink.

5. The Dainty Pig. Last but certainly not least, Jess is a Macro March participant! Check out her Macro Mondays. The only reason she is not in my top five is because she is not a new find 😉

In other news, did everyone hear that Google Reader will close on July 1, 2013? Reading that announcement (via Hacker News, my favorite news source) must have been the saddest thing I read in… well, in at least the last few days. 😉 I have no idea what RSS reader I’m going to switch to. I wake up to Google Reader, I read it when I’m on lunch/break at work, I check in again at night – and it’s the absolute best way to organize my feeds that I have found so far. I never dreamed it would shut down. Even if I do find a good substitute, that just means yet another system to have to log into. I like keeping everything in Google to minimize the number of usernames and passwords I have to remember. Sigh.

Any feed reader suggestions?

What are your favorite macrobiotic blogs?

{Macrobiotic March Recipe} Sauteed Sesame Fern Bracken / Fiddlehead Ferns

A few weeks ago when my in-laws were visiting we ended up out in Flushing. Flushing (a town in the eastern part of Queens) has a huge Korean and Chinese population. We stopped into H-Mart (a Korean grocery store) just before heading back to the city and I ended up with quite a large haul. Queens prices < Manhattan prices.

One thing I picked up (it was on sale and I was curious) was ‘fern bracken’.

bracken-fiddlehead-fern-bag

When I got home I discovered that ‘fern bracken’ is actually just another term for fiddlehead ferns. Fiddleheads always pop up at the farmers’ market around April. It’s good to know I can get them year round at H-Mart if I need to. If you’re familiar with Korean food, these bracken ferns / fiddleheads show up in Bi Bim Bap as well – they are the brown pieces of veggie.

Fiddleheads are high in antioxidants, and are a source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. As most vegetables, they are high in fiber. They also happen to have vitamin A, niacin, vitamin C, riboflavin, phosphorus, and even iron.

Sauteed Sesame Fiddlehead Ferns (Bracken Ferns) – Macrobiotic Recipe*

Method (keep reading for recipe ingredients and instructions…)

washed-fiddlehead-bracken-fern

bracken-fiddlehead-fern-marinating

sauteed-bracken-fern-wok

grinding-black-sesame-seeds

fiddlehead-ferns-bracken-ground-black-sesame-final-recipe

We had our ferns with breakfast. I opted for eggs, ferns, takuan (Japanese pickle), and avocado. I believe Bobby had the same but with white rice, too.

     fiddlehead-fern-macrobiotic-breakfast-egg-takuan-avocado

(Eggs technically not macrobiotic; don’t think the avocado is either – but it sure was tasty!)

*Inspired by {this recipe}.

Sauteed Sesame Fern Bracken / Fiddlehead Ferns

IMG 0013 150x150 {Macrobiotic March Recipe} Sauteed Sesame Fern Bracken / Fiddlehead Ferns

  • Prep time:
  • Cook time:
  • Total time:
  • Yield: 3-4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Recipe type: appetizer, side

Ingredients:

  • 1 bag of boiled bracken fern (750 grams or 1.65 pounds). I know they sell bracken fern in a dried form, but I have not tried this recipe with the dried fiddleheads.
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or more, to taste)
  • 1 tablespoon of ground black sesame (toasted pre-grinding). Feel free to substitute regular sesame seeds, and the grinding is optional.

Directions:

  1. Drain the bracken ferns and thoroughly wash them.
  2. Chop the fern pieces into 1-2 inch pieces. Add the garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and make sure all the pieces are coated in the sauce.
  3. Heat a wok on high heat. You do not need to add any oil, since there is oil in the ferns already. Saute on high heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently (I like to use chopsticks for stirring).
  4. Add about 3-4 tablespoons of water to the cooking ferns, turn the heat down to medium, mix again, and cover the wok. Let the ferns cook for 10 more minutes to get nice and tender.
  5. At the end, there may be a little bit of water left – you can either continue cooking to let it boil off (uncovered again, and high heat), you can leave it in, or you can dump it out. It’s ok for this dish to have a little bit of water.
  6. Turn off the heat under the ferns. Grind your black sesame.
  7. Serve the fiddlehead / bracken ferns topped with sesame; mix before serving.

Have you had fiddlehead ferns? What’s your favorite way to prepare them?

{Macrobiotic March} CHEWING!

First, thanks so much for all the enthusiasm about Macrobiotic March! I am just as excited to learn as you guys are. This is a great excuse for me to really dive into the theory of macrobiotics and learn as much as I can.

Here are 2 Macrobiotic March posts from participants so far:

  • Top 3 Macrobiotic Ingredients (Macro Mondays @ The Dainty Pig). I’ll tell you one of them because I love it so much – seaweed.
  • Grains & Veggies (@ Heather Eats Almond Butter). Heather and I share a love of butter that would prevent either of us from going full on macrobiotic.

If you post about Macro March and I miss it please let me know.

Onto today’s topic… It is an important one…

supersize

(I hope he chews that before swallowing!)

Macrobiotic CHEWING

When I first started talking about macrobiotics a few years ago, everyone I mentioned it to started asking me about chewing. I had no idea what they were talking about. Somehow I’d missed the main macrobiotic principle – you have to chew everything really really thoroughly. Like, 100 bites per mouthful thoroughly.

No, I’m not exaggerating. And yes, when I found out, I was shocked.

  • Jessica Porter recommends between 50-100 times per mouthful.
  • This article also says a minimum of 50 times, with 100 being the ideal.
  • Souen recommends chewing at least 30 times per mouthful.
  • The Kushi Institute recommends chewing at least 50 times per mouthful.
  • Mama Tomiko says to chew 100 times per mouthful.

Benefits of Chewing Your Food Thoroughly

  • Savor, taste, and enjoy the food you have been so lucky to receive.
  • Digestion starts in the mouth. The better you chew, the better your digestion will be. Suffer from bloating or cramps after eating? Maybe you are wolfing your food. I know I am a quick eater and probably get only 5-10 chews per mouthful – no wonder I have a tummyache all the time.
  • Maximize the nutrition you get out of your food. Again, because digestion begins in the mouth (grinding the food but also the enzymes in saliva start to break down starches), the more you can do with chewing, the more easily your body will get nutrients out of foods (especially grains).
  • Reduce digestive stress by chewing more. Again… the more digestion you can do in the mouth, the less work your stomach and intestines have to do. Chew chew chew (x50-100).
  • If you tend to overeat, you may start eating more moderately if you chew more. It will get too annoying to chew 100 times per mouthful and instead of continuing to eat, you might get bored when you are full and just put the fork (or chopsticks) down.
  • Chewing is the most important part of digestion for grains. (Meats require stomach acid to be fully digested, though meats are discouraged on a macrobiotic diet.) To get all the nutrients you can out of grains you have to chew them well.
  • Chewing activates your brain – it can improve alertness and activates at least 8 areas of the brain.
  • You’ll eat more slowly. It’s polite.
  • Chewing activates your salivary glands, and saliva actually does more than just help start digestion. Saliva can remineralize teeth and it keeps your mouth healthy.
  • Chewing relaxes the muscle at the bottom of your stomach (the pylorus) and helps food move as it should through your digestive system. For more on how chewing impacts the digestive system, I suggest reading this article.
  • Thorough chewing can promote and cultivate better self-awareness and a sense of calm. Chewing is like doing yoga in your mouth.

teeth

(Keep those teeth healthy – chew more! More saliva –> healthier teeth.)

How to Start Chewing More & Chewing Better

  • Begin by chewing at least 15 times per mouthful. Do this for 3-4 days.
  • Increase to 20-25 times per mouthful. Again, do this for 3-4 days.
  • Slowly keep increasing every 3-4 days by 5-10 chews per mouthful. Eventually you’ll get to 50. For what it’s worth, I think 50 chews per mouthful is plenty.
  • Soon you will be a macrobiotic chewing champ!

For good health, how you eat is just as important (or more important) than what you eat.

In Japanese, the word for chew is kamu (to bite, to chew): かむ. The noun form of kamu is kami (かみ), which  also means spirit, or god. In Shinto buddhism, the deities (spirits) are called kami. (Kami can also mean ‘above’, ‘hair’, and ‘paper’.) We can see the word kami in other Japanese words and phrases – kamikaze (divine+wind, but later meaning the suicide pilots). More on the etymology of kami {HERE}.

How many times do you chew each mouthful of food? Are you going to try to chew more thoroughly? Do you have any chewing tips?

Like I said above, I am a 5-10 chew person (normally). However, this month I’ve been trying to chew more. It’s so hard to remember, and it’s hard for me to get anything above 30. There’s just nothing left by the time I get to 30 chews.

Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours.‘ –Swedish proverb.

Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate.‘ –Horace ‘The Great Masticator’ Fletcher (1849-1919)