10 Recipes With Shungiku: Get The Most Out Of The Herb
Shungiku (春 菊), literally “spring chrysanthemum”, is a plant used in many traditional Japanese dishes. It can be used as both a herb and a leafy green and can be eaten raw or cooked. With a herbal and slightly bitter flavor, it is reminiscent of rucola, spinach, chard, or kale.
It is most common to chop the crisp raw leaves and use them as a garnish or in a salad, and the tougher stems are often cooked in hot pots and stews. Here are 10 of my favorite recipes that use shungiku.
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1. Sukiyaki
Sukiyaki is a type of beef nabe (hot pot) with seared beef, tofu, mushrooms, and other vegetables in a sweetened soy broth.
Shungiku is a common and popular addition to sukiyaki, with the stems cut into short lengths and left to soften as they simmer in the hot broth.
2. Shabu-shabu
Another hot pot, served communally, with the hot dashi kombu broth cooking on a gas stove in the middle of the table. Vegetables are cooked in the broth, and then everyone adds their own meat and tofu, which cook in just a few seconds.
Shungiku stems are usually added to the pot with other tougher vegetables, right at the beginning of the meal, with the softer leaves going in later. The vegetables are scooped out bit by bit, along with the meat pieces.
3. Tempura
The crispy batter of deep-fried tempura vegetables works very well with shungiku.
A single stem of shungiku with its leaves attached can be dipped in tempura batter and fried, until the stem has softened and the batter is crisp. The heat from the hot oil reduces the bitter flavor of shungiku.
4. Aemono
Aemono means a dressed salad, or dressing vegetables, and they vary according to the type of dressing used. For example, goma-ae means a salad dressing with ground sesame, sumiso-ae is a dressing of miso and vinegar, etc.
Shungiku can be used either blanched, or as raw leaves in any aemono salad to form the base of the dressed vegetables.
5. Shiraae
Shiraae is an aemono salad with the dressing consisting of mashed tofu with sesame seeds and soy sauce. It can be mixed with many other ingredients for a range of different shiraae salads.
To make a shungiku version, the leaves are separated from the stems, and then blanched, with the tough stems staying in the hot water for longer, to soften. The blanched shungiku is then refreshed in ice water to keep its color, and mixed with the shiraae.
6. Karashijoyu-ae
Karashijoyu-ai is another type of aemono, with a hot mustard, dashi and soy sauce dressing.
The bitterness of shungiku pairs very well with the sharp, hot mustard, and the umami flavor that comes from the dashi and soy sauce.
7. Ohitashi
Ohitashi is the name for Japanese blanched greens, usually served in a dashi stock with sesame seeds or katsuobushi (dried tuna) flakes sprinkled over them.
Spinach is the most common vegetable to be cooked in this way, but shungiku is also very tasty when cooked like this. The stems are usually added to the broth before the leaves, to give them a chance to soften.
8. Stir-fried chicken
Marinated chicken can be stir-fried in the usual way, along with ginger, tamarind, shiitake mushrooms, and other vegetables.
Shungiku stems are a very good addition for the last few minutes of cooking, with the leaves added as a garnish just before serving.
9. Summer rolls
A classic Vietnamese recipe, fresh summer rolls are also popular in Japan, with fresh vegetables, rice noodles, and sometimes shrimp being rolled in softened rice paper, before slicing into short cylinders.
Raw shungiku leaves are a good addition to summer rolls, adding a slightly bitter and fresh herbal note.
10. Shungiku blossom tea
Although it is normally harvested before flowering, the blooms of the shungiku plant are also edible. They can be eaten raw in salads, or used as a garnish.
My favorite use for shungiku flowers is to dry them, and then steep the dried flowers in hot water, for a floral, herbaceous tea.
Can you cook with both the shungiku leaves and the stem?
Yes, both shungiku leaves and shungiku stems are edible. The stems are usually cooked, to soften their tougher texture, and the leaves can be braised or eaten raw in salads or as a herbal garnish.
What flavors pair well with shungiku?
Like any leafy green plant, shungiku goes well with many flavors. It is particularly good when eaten with ingredients that contrast with its herbaceous and slightly bitter taste, such as spicy mustard, umami-rich soy sauce or miso, and richer sweet-savory flavors like sesame.
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Caroline first opened the doors to her own apartment in Berlin to guests, which was soon sold out. She then became the head chef of Muse Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, for eight years, renowned for “international comfort food.”