komatsuna saute

I have posted before about my love of Japanese vegetables. (I'll hyper link when I'm not using my mac) Their is such a depth and breadth of them that most people out of the country or at least out of asia don't really know about.

But today let's talk about Komatsuna. It looks similar to spinach and perhaps kale, and I think it is nutritionally (green leafy vegetable, high in iron as well as calcium). Komatsuna, strangely, is a member of the turnip family, and also doesn't wilt when cooked (but it does much more so than kale does) making it ideal for sauteing. The first time I had komatsuna was at a meeting of freelance translators in Shibuya. I really wasn't expecting much, but when it came to our table I just couldn't stop eating it. It didn't look particularly difficult to make either, so I took a stab at it, and met with great success.

Komatsuna doesn't wilt, and another suprising part is that the stalk retains its water through sauteing and the water mixing in your mouth with the butter, garlic, well how can that not taste good?

One thing I suggest, if you haven't already, is putting some spices in your salt mill, in particular, rosemary will add greatly to this. Also use coursely ground pepper for this. It's also important not to crush the garlic, but to slice it. For some reason over here they almost never crush garlic, and visual and textural feel of sliced garlic adds to this recipe I think:

3 sprigs of Komatsuna, stalks and leafs cut and seperated
1 clove of garlic, sliced (or its equivalent of dried)
1 tbsp of butter/margarine
Rosemary salt/ course ground pepper

Melt butter in pan, and add garlic slices, and only brown slightly. Add stalks and saute for about 1 minute before adding leafy section. while adding salt and pepper, saute until leafy section wilts only slightly. Serve immediately.