Foray into Takenoko Foraging

A friend invited me to go foraging for bamboo shoots one day, and as tired as I was from a long week of work, I just couldn't turn down the offer.  I'm glad I didn't, as I ended up taking home a nice bundle of bamboo shoots to cook.

Then came the hard part -- getting the shoots out of this tough, hairy armor!  The shoots are encased by layer upon layer of ridged fibers that are full of purple hairs that poked straight through my gloves and into my hands.  They also temporarily stain your hands indigo, so the main take away is to get good gloves before doing this.

Once they were all unwrapped, I had some decisions to make.  According to friends, I was to boil the shoots in the water used to wash rice.  I read the same thing online but the length of time I was to do this varied by website.  We boiled it for about 20 minutes then poured out the water, refilled with fresh water, and simmered for a while.  Every so often, I'd give one of the shoots a poke with a chopstick to see if it was soft enough.  Tenderness wasn't usually a problem as much as bitterness.  I read online that bamboo shoots contain a toxin, which is what causes the bitterness, and that boiling for about two hours is what gets rid of the toxin.

By the end of the night, I was tired and didn't have energy left to actually cook the shoots, so I soaked them overnight in fresh water.

The next day, after work, I found a recipe for menma that consisted of some sesame seed oil, dashi, mirin, shoyu, rice vinegar, and salt.  It tasted pretty good, so I ended up cooking all my shoots in it.  It was pretty lightly flavored, so my family loved it, which made me really happy.

I guess that means I'll be going foraging again this weekend :)

**Update**After the second weekend foraging, we hauled away even more bamboo.  This time, though, my friend taught me how to cut the shoots out the right way.  It was much, much faster!  I also cut off more of the tough, bottom part of the cones and ended up with more tender, younger shoots.  I boiled everything for 2 hours in washed-rice water then soaked them in fresh water for about 4 hours in the fridge.  The shoots tasted less bitter this time, and I added a little bit of brown sugar, vinegar, and shoyu on top of the recipe I used last time.  I also happened to have some Tokyo negi and shiitake mushrooms, so I think this batch was an improvement.