Izakaya Recipe – Ninjin Kinpira

I have a confession to make – I hate eating carrots. Maybe it has something to do with the English side of my ancestry feeding carrots exclusively to pigs (although I could survive solely on pieds de cochon or any other part of the pig for that matter) or maybe carrots are the world’s most boring vegetable (OK second most boring behind chokos).

Now I am not going to admit that I have had a sudden epiphany and carrots are now Cuisine de Rigour but I have stumbled across a recipe that will make even the most carrot detached consider the saffron coloured root as suitable accompaniment to a frosty beverage.

It’s called Ninjin Kinpira – or carrots simmered in soy for the less initiated.

This dish is a favourite at my local izakaya in Osaka.
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Ninjin Kinpira Recipe

Serves:    2 as a drinking snack
Preparation time:    5 minutes
Equipment:    a sharp kitchen knife and a cast iron pan
Cooking time:    5 minutes

Japanese soy sauce – shoyu – and white sesame seeds

Ingredients

• 1 large carrot
• dark sesame oil
• sesame seeds
• the best quality shoyu (soy sauce) you can buy
• ichimi – Japanese chilli flakes

Method

1.     Cut your carrot into 3mm strips about 5cm long.

Preparing carrot

2.     Pre-heat a cast iron pan on med high heat and add a light coating of sesame oil.

Toss the carrot in a cast iron pan

3.     Toss the carrots in the pan until lightly “blackened” and wilted.

Cook carrots until wilted

4.     Add a drizzle more sesame oil and a splash of shoyu and toss carrots in pan.

5.     Take off heat and add a sprinkle of white sesame seeds and ichimi.

6.     Serve straight away or chill and add to tomorrow’s bento lunch.

Carrot kinpira

Chefs tips

• Serve at room temperature for the best flavour
• Make sure your beer is nice and cold