Stewed green pepper (Nibitashi)

I would like to talk about one of traditional Japanese cooking methods called "Nibitashi"(煮浸し).  In this way, we boil vegetables in seasoned dashi soup and wait until cool down.  It looks very simple but is really tasty.  Vegetables can be soft and have complicated taste. 

The difference between Nibitashi and Ohitashi which is also vegetable dish like this is that you boil vegetable in dash when you make Nibitashi but you boil vegetable in hot water first then soak in dashi when you make Ohitashi.  Both are nice so I can't choose only one...but if you use something difficult to get flavor, it's better to make Nibitashi more than Ohitashi because the seasoning can permeate vegetables well.

I got Japanese green pepper called "Shishitou (ししとう)".  It's a kind of pepper but normally its not hot.  I made Nibitashi with green pepper!

Stewed green pepper (Nibitashi)

• 20 pieces of shishitou
• 1 Tbs of canola oil
• 500cc of dashi (or 500cc of hot water and 1 tsp of dashi powder) (☆)
• 2 Tbs of soy sauce(☆)
• 1 Tbs of mirin(☆)

1,  Make small holes on shishitou with fork

2,  Heat a pan and oil until quite hot and stew shishitou with medium fire until change color a little bit like this

3,  Remove oil from the pan with kitchen paper and add all of (☆)

4,  Cover with tin foil and boil it with low fire until enough soft and change color like this

5,  Cool down in the fridge and add ground ginger when you eat

Maybe you would be so surprised how tasty it is!!  It's difficult to find a Japanese restaurant you can eat Nibitashi in Boston so you should try to make!!

By the way, shishitou is a kind of summer vegetable.  I remembered and missed summer a lot because today's temperature in Boston was almost 32°F (0℃)... So cold!!!  Take care of yourself not to catch a cold!!