Growing Japanese Vegetables: Broccoli Rabe Blossom 菜花

This a great vegetable for early winter cropping in a cool climate (like Canberra).  It is a favourite in Japanese cooking for steaming an in pickles ( 漬物 ). The plant is known in Italian cuisine as Cime di Rapa.   Plant from seed in late March to early April in rich soil and it will start producing buds in late May to early July.  It is a fairly resistant to cabbage moth butterfly grub infestation as long as it is well fed and kept watered.

When the plants are small and leafy the whole plant should be tender enough to eat; that is, stems and leaves and any flower heads or buds.  It is rich in Beta-carotene and has a rich flavour like Chinese broccoli but with just a hint of mustard.  It will combine well with stronger flavoured vegetables including garlic, onion and mushrooms.

In Japanese the vegetable is called Nabana ( なばな  )  or Nanohana （ななはな ) which describes the blossom buds.

Nabana growing in my garden in early June.

Here's one of my favourite Japanese recipes for Nabana. The combination of the toasty flavours of the tofu and the tangy mustard works very well.

Rape blossoms in mustard dressing [ 菜の花のからし和え ]

Ingredients: (for two people as part of a traditional Japanese meal.)

2-3 small bunches of nabana
250 g thin deep fried tofu (firm variety)
25 ml light shoyu
2 teaspoons Japanese mustard (smooth or grainy)
50 ml dashi (konbu- or katsuodashi)
1 tbsp mirin

Grill tofu on high heat until toasted , then set aside to keep warm.  Mix mustard, shoyu, mirin and dashi in a small bowl and heat.  Trim and cut nabana into short lengths (about 5 cm) and steam for no more than 3 minutes.  Toss dressing with nabana and finely sliced tofu.  Serve.

Komatsuna with Tofu  recipe (小松菜のさっと炒め煮）- Komatsuna no Satto Itameni

Two bunches komatsuna
250 gm fried tofu　（ 油揚げ）
25 gm fresh ginger
100 ml dashi stock (だし）
2 tsp mirin
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp light shoyu
2 tbsp grape-seed oil
1 tsp kuzu starch　（葛）

Wash, strain and cut the komatsuna in 10 cm pieces.  Steam for two minutes and then strain, squeezing out excess moisture.  Heat a large frying pan with the oil. Fry the finely chopped ginger for 1/2 minute, then add the strained komatsuna, half the dashi, and all the mirin and sake.  Simmer for two minutes, then add the tofu - sliced into strips - with the shoyu.  Add the remaining dashi with the kuzu dissolved in it.  When the sauce has thickened, serve with a garnish of a few leaves of coriander and a sprinkle of nori flakes.  Itadakimasu!!

At the end of June I picked this (and more) Daikon  ( だいこん ) well over 40 cms long.  They were so juicy and crisp.  I was so very pleased with the result.

A great start: early growth and produce

Green manure crop is thriving after 6 weeks.

My crop of two varieties of Mizuna..

Tokyo Bekana Cabbage...

Shungiku ...

Daikon...

One of the handful of globe artichoke (purple) plants.  They will need space.

Today I thinned out the daikon plants and picked some kabu (Japanese turnips).  I am very happy about the soil fertility.

Organic vegetable garden - The plot starts!

 A well grassed site in a Community Garden ready for cultivation. The area was part of a former sheep grazing property established in the 1870's that operated until 1971. You can see the old woolshed in the far background.  It is about 20m above the level of where a small creek once flowed down the Tuggeranong Valley.  (Photo taken on 22 February 2012.)

 'Borrowed landscape' from plantings of Casuarina and, in the background, Mount Taylor.

Digging started on the 24 m2 plot on 22 February and after 7 hours I managed to clear all the weeds - mainly couch grass.  A kookaburra observed my efforts and had a good laugh.  Not being a vegetarian he wouldn't have understood.

The soil is a reasonable quality clay loam with an average depth of 200mm topsoil to firm but crumbly clay.  Average pH was tested at 7 to 7.5 - basically neutral.  A top dressing of 10 kilograms of gypsum was applied to the whole area designed to loosen the sub-soil without digging.

The aim of this project is to grow a range of Japanese vegetables over the winter using organic gardening methods.  Canberra can be quite cold over winter and it is therefore important to establish the plants in Autumn to enable growth before the cold sets in.  The photo shows Daikon  or　 だいこん　( Japanese Radish) at an Osaka market.  In half of the plot I plan to grow Daikon, Mibuna, Mizuna, Mitsuba, Kabu, Shungiku and Japanese Cabbage.  The other half  of the plot will carry a green manure crop of broadbeans, barley and fenugreek.