{"id":17537,"date":"2015-05-06T19:37:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T17:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=17537"},"modified":"2015-05-06T19:39:17","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T17:39:17","slug":"chicken-with-chrysanthemum-leaves-shungiku-and-cucumber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=17537","title":{"rendered":"Chicken with Chrysanthemum Leaves (Shungiku) and Cucumber"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17564\" src=\"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/chick_shungikup.jpg\" alt=\"chick_shungikup\" width=\"488\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/chick_shungikup.jpg 488w, https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/chick_shungikup-315x420.jpg 315w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/>Learning that certain kinds of chrysanthemum have\u00a0edible leaves which\u00a0actually taste\u00a0fabulous was a stunning discovery, so several years ago I bought lots\u00a0of seeds in Japan, hoping this plant would\u00a0grow on my balcony.\u00a0I soon realised not only that this chrysanthemum\u00a0was\u00a0one of the easiest and fastest growing plants, but also that it\u00a0could be\u00a0harvested as already as April and as late as October.\u00a0This year, for the first chrysanthemum\u00a0cooking session\u00a0I chose a very simple, refreshing chicken and cucumber\u00a0stir-fry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you grow chrysanthemums for flowers, beware!\u00a0Not all the chrysanthemum leaves are edible, but Garland Chrysanthemum\u00a0<strong>(<\/strong><i>Chrysanthemum coronarium)<\/i>, aka crown daisy (called shungiku \u6625\u83ca\u00a0in Japanese and sukgat in Korean) definitely is. According to Wikipedia it is\u00a0eaten not only in Japan and Korea, but also in China, Taiwan, Vietnam and even Crete.\u00a0Garland chrysanthemum is not only a delicious addition to cold and warm dishes, but it&#8217;s also very healthy: it contains minerals, vitamins, potassium and antioxidants. If you don&#8217;t have a garden, you can very easily grow it\u00a0on your balcony or window sill, just like I do. As I have mentioned,\u00a0this plant is probably the quickest and easiest growing among all the herbs I sow on my tiny balcony (well, maybe only rocket beats it) and I even harvest my own seeds every year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Until now I&#8217;ve posted only one recipe with chrysanthemum leaves\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=15104\" target=\"_blank\">Chawan Mushi\/Egg Custard with chicken and Shungiku<\/a>), but they are very easy to test\u00a0in stir-fries, salads, soups and also simmered dishes. No matter how\u00a0you cook them, you should\u00a0add them\u00a0at the last step because they wilt very quickly or even add them just before serving. Here I did both: warmed some leaves and then sprinkled some raw uncooked ones on top.<\/p>\n<p><em>Preparation: about 20 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Ingredients (serves two):<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>1 chicken breast, skinned<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>1\/2 long\u00a0cucumber, cut into sticks (about 1\/2 cm\/1\/5 in thick); if you use a long cucumber, don&#8217;t peel it: it will be crunchier<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>a small handful of Garland chrysanthemum leaves\/shungiku (cut up into bite-sized length, if the leaves are long)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>salt<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sauce:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>1 tablespoon sake<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>1 teaspoon\u00a0mirin (or, if you prefer a less sweet sauce, add one more teaspoon of sake instead)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>oil<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(toasted sesame seeds)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(some chrysanthemum leaves to sprinkle before serving)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces.<\/p>\n<p>Sprinkle some salt (not too much because you&#8217;ll be adding soy sauce afterwards).<\/p>\n<p>Heat the oil in a pan and the\u00a0chicken until it becomes golden on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Add the cucumber, the sauce and stir-fry\u00a0for 30 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Add the chrysanthemum leaves and and stir-fry for 10 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Sprinkle with sesame seeds and raw chrysanthemum leaves. Serve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learning that certain kinds of chrysanthemum have\u00a0edible leaves which\u00a0actually taste\u00a0fabulous was a stunning discovery, so several years ago I bought lots\u00a0of seeds in Japan, hoping&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185,82,125],"tags":[45,96,114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17537"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17569,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537\/revisions\/17569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}