Kinpira Gobo きんぴらごぼう (Burdock Root Cooked In Japanese Seasonings)

Some people like to soak the gobo, that's burdock root in Japanese, in water once peeled and cut. By doing so, it can help the burdock root from turning to darker color. But please don't bother for this recipe, especially we are going to cook the burdock root in soy sauce, that means eventually the whole thing will get a brownish hue in the end anyways.

Kinpira gobo きんぴらごぼう - 

Ingredients?

• 1 medium burdock root
• 1 medium carrot
• 300 grams ground pork
• 2 tablespoons toasted white sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake (Japanese rice cooking wine)
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

How?

Peel and cut the burdock root to strips, just like julienne it. Peel and cut the carrot to strips too. I used a grater instead for the carrot to save more time and energy, not a fan of prepping carrot with knife here.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons of sesame oil to the pan and switch to medium heat. Once warmed up, add in ground pork and stir-fry till it changes to somewhat white color, like 90% cooked-through.

Add in burdock root strips and carrot strips. Mix once a while and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in the main seasonings for this classic Japanese recipe, which is soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. The ratio is about 2:1:1:1, but I did use more sugar for a sweeter taste. This dish is supposed to be on a slightly sweeter side in case you never tried it before.

Stir-fry and cook for another 5 more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed. It should be somewhat sweet and savory to the taste.

Towards the end, mix in toasted white sesame seeds. Scoop to serving container and enjoy.

This dish can even served cold or under room temperature. 

When traveling in Japan, sometimes you'll find kinpira gobo as one of the side dishes in a bento box. In which the bento is usually served cold or under room temperature, since Japanese don't necessarily heat up their bento boxes most of the time. So to enjoy this dish cold, no problem.

Other recipes using burdock root:

• Chicken and gobo takikomi gohna (鶏ごぼうの炊き込みご飯)
• Not quite the regular miso soup, it's tonjiru time (豚汁)