I have a sneaking suspicion that I've been writing this blog as if I were a knowledgeable expert of Japanese cooking--which I'm definitely not. I somehow learned to cook in my mom's kitchen, first by watching her cook, then "helping" her cook (this was more likely to be "interfering" with her cooking, in retrospect), and finally cooking things on my own from time to time so that my mom could take a day off (although she had to wash all the utensils and dishes afterward; I never learned the good cook's trick of washing soiled pots and pans as I cook). Doing so, I picked up a lot of the basics of Japanese home cooking, but naturally, I missed a lot of it, too. A part of the blame lies with my mom's (naturally) limited repertoire, while another falls on myself, who didn't pay enough attention (or wasn't in the kitchen at all) when my mom was cooking some of her dishes.

One such staple that had been missing from my knowledge was "hijiki no nimono." A short, deer-tail-shaped seaweed, hijiki is most traditionally simmered ("nimono") with root vegetables like carrots and burdock, thin fried tofu and shiitake mushrooms (and sometimes soy beans). Although I love hijiki no nimono, I never learned to cook it. Strangely enough, it was after I moved out of Japan to Chicago that I got motivated enough to figure out how to cook the seaweed.

Having my mom around was definitely handy. I just had to ask her how she does it, although her direction was, as is always the case with experienced cooks' directions, a hair too vague: "enough soy sauce mixed with a little bit of sugar--well, it depends on how you like it, too" wasn't exactly precise. But having eaten the simmered seaweed many times in my life, and having cooked other Japanese food of similar flavor profile, I did get a useful enough idea of the cooking method out of her direction. The first batch I made was on the salty side (and the volumetric expansion of the dried hijiki when rehydrated rather startled me; I ended up making a gallon of hijiki that time) , but the second batch, which I made last night, was pretty good, um, both in flavor and volume. For an expat, being able to reproduce one's favorite foods from the home country is almost a survival skill mainly boosting one's emotional well being, so I'm happy.

Hijiki no Nimono (Japanese hijiki seaweed simmered with root vegetables)

• 1/4 cup dried hijiki
• 1 carrot
• 1/4 burdock root (gobo)
• 1 thin fried tofu (abura-age)*
• 3 tablespoon Japanese soup stock mix (men-tsuyu)**
• water
• 1/3 inch ginger, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

1. Soak the hijiki in plenty of water 1 hour before you want to start cooking.
2. When the hijiki is rehydrated, discard the water and rinse the hijiki in a strainer.
3. Cut the carrot and burdock into match-stick thickness and 1/4 inch length, about the size of the individual hijiki. (This was the most patience-testing part for me!)
4. Cut the thin fried tofu just like the carrot and burdock. (If it has the nasty taste of the oil gone rancid, you can rinse it off by pouring boiling water over it.)
5. Heat sesame oil in a saucepan and fry the minced ginger over medium-low heat until the ginger starts to emit that appetizing smell.
6. Sautée the carrot and burdock on medium-high heat until mostly cooked, then add hijiki and stir-fry for a few minutes.
7. Add thin fried tofu and soup stock mix, turn the heat to low and simmer for five minutes.

This should last in the fridge for five days or so. (I'd say a week, but I don't want to be sued or anything...) When I get tired of eating the same thing every day, I mix it with scrambled eggs, or with steamed rice. Hijiki's umami works great in these leftover killers.

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* If you've had "inari zushi" or simply "inari," you've seen the "abura-age." It's the brown-colored pouch that wraps the sushi rice. For some reason, no general (i.e., non-Japanese) Asian grocer seems to carry this item, even though many of them carry the thicker version called "atsu-age." Unless you're an ultra-purist, you can substitute the elusive abura-age with the more common "atsu-age." Or, as a tasty alternative, chopped up fish cakes sometimes show up in this dish. ** If you don't have a Japanese soup mix at hand, use 1 tablespoon each of soy sauce and sugar instead. Soup mixes contain "umami" ingredients, but since hijiki, as a seaweed, contains a similar "umami" essence, soup mix isn't a must for this recipe.