Ohitashi

A week or so ago, I wrote about the fantastic Japanese-Korean meal I made with my friend.  One of the delicious Japanese dishes Eriko made was called ohitashi, which literally means 'to sit/soak in water'.  It's a yummy, light spinach dish that is quite easy to make.  You boil spinach, wring it out, cut it, and drizzle it with a sauce.  Simple!  Here are the step-by-step directions.

Ingredients (serves about 4 people):
-1 lb fresh spinach
-1/4 cup fish broth
-1/4 cup soy sauce
-bonito flakes (optional)

1.  First, bring large pot of water to boil.  Salt it.  When the water is boiling, put in the spinach and boil for about 4-5 minutes.

2.  Remove from heat and drain. 

Once spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze the water out of it.  Try to make it into the shape of a log.

Like that!

3.  Cut the log into 4 pieces with a sharp knife. 

There we go!

Here is the spinach in a little bowl.

4.  Combine fish broth and soy sauce in a small bowl, then drizzle several spoonfuls of it over the spinach.

Delicious sauce!

5.  Here we go! 

And Eriko topped off the spinach with a little bit of bonito flakes, which are dried, paper-thin flakes made out of the bonito fish.  Yum! 

I love this dish because it's so easy to make, and you end up eating tons of spinach that is all compacted into a little block.  Yum!  I can't wait to make this myself sometime soon, it was a great pairing to bulgogi.

Have a great day!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.