【DRESS THE FOOD】 空豆の粗マッシュ
dress the food
Coarsely mashed fava beans
vol.5
photography, videography, foodstyling & text: kaoru
translation: sho mitsui
edit: mikiko ichitani
広告や雑誌、CMなどで幅広く活動するかたわら、「Dress the Food」として、オリジナリティあふれるフードフォトを世に送り出しているフードディレクター・薫。ZINEの制作や東京とNYの2都市での個展開催など、自身の創作活動にも力を入れる彼女が、いま一番気になる食材とは。彼女ならではの愛にあふれた眼差しで旬の食材の魅力を紐解く、新感覚のフードエッセイ。第五回目のテーマは「空豆の粗マッシュ」。
【DRESS THE FOOD】 空豆の粗マッシュ
可愛らしい雲がちょんちょんちょんと浮かぶ、初夏の青空に向かって清々しく飛んでいきそうな君の名前はそう、空豆。蚕豆でも天豆でもソラマメでもなく私は “空豆” 派。いかにも季節が感じられる食材で、居酒屋さんなんかでメニューにのっているのを見かけると脳が即座に「これ一皿お願いしまーす」と指令を出している。つるり、ほっくりした食感と独特の香りは今の時期だけの滋味深いもの。残念ながら家でさやの皮むきから始めると、最終形のお豆の小ささにコスパの悪さを感じざるを得ないのが玉に瑕。けれどもそんなネガティブ面に負けない魅力的な部分が空豆には色々とあるのだ。
さやごと買ったら、まずは剥く前に握ってみてもらいたい。見た目にはほぼ同じでも、意外と握ればひとつひとつにちょっとした個性があることに気がつく。リラクゼーション用のにぎにぎする健康グッズみたいにあなたの手にうまいこと納まるような、重さも長さも分厚さも丁度いいのがきっとある。表面のほわほわしたミクロレベルに細かい毛が心地よく、触れているうちに指先を通じてやさしい気持ちにさせてくれる。
In early summer, when I see cute clouds floating in the clear blue sky, in my mind you are jumping highly towards the air with a refreshing feel. You sure deserve to be called “sora mame” (fava beans in Japanese. The word “sora” means sky, and “mame” means beans) without a doubt. Among all the different ways to spell “sora mame” in kanji, “空豆” is my personal favorite since it has the kanji “空” (sky) in it. It definitely gives you an sense of the early summer season, and whenever I see them on the menu of some izakaya bars, my brain automatically commands, “One plate of this please!” Their smoothness, texture and smell are so unique and are limited to this time of the year. Oh what a divine taste they are. When I start from taking them out from the pod at home I kind of feel ripped off at the end because of how tiny they come out as beans compared to the big pod, but oh well, what can I do? There are far more pros against this tiny con when it comes to fava beans.
When you buy the beans in the pods, I want you to feel them by holding them. Because at first glance they look the same but they actually feel very different. They all have their own “character” if you will. One may feel just like those stress balls that fits to your hand and is perfect in weight, length and thickness. The soft and smooth micro level tiny hair it has on the surface will make you relaxed and calm.
静かな部屋でさやを剥く。付け根付近からややカーブしたさやの内側の線に沿って、下から上に向かって親指の爪で押していくと「ばりっ、ほわっ、めりっ」そんな心落ち着く音が聞こえる。新しいティッシュボックスの開け口の点々を爪で押す時のあの感覚と少し似ている。そしてさやをめりっと開くと、少し湿ったきめの細かいスポンジにほわりと包まれた空豆が、恥ずかしそうに顔を覗かせてくれる。さらさらのお肌から見て取れる、大事に育てられた感。運が良ければ大きいのが４つ。運がとても悪ければ小さいのが２つ。でも大きいのが２つでも結構嬉しい。空豆の薄黄緑をした上品な佇まいを、しばし眺めていたい。
Shell the pod in a quiet room. When you shell them from the inner side of the curve using your thumb (or rather nail of your thumb), from bottom to up, you’ll hear a pleasant cracking sound. Just like the sound you hear when you open a brand new tissue box with your nails along the oval line on the top. When you break open the pod the fava beans, the beans are wrapped in slightly wet extremely smooth sponge and will peek towards you very shyly. You can tell how well bred they are by looking at their silky smooth skin. If you’re lucky you get four of them in decent sizes. If you’re unlucky you’ll get two tiny ones. But actually, getting two bigger ones are a blessing too. They look so sophisticated that you’d just want to take a glance at them for a minute or two.
大きいサイズのお豆は親指、人差し指、中指の３本で、狐さんの影絵を作る時の形にして持つと丁度良くフィットしてくれて、指先ですりすりするとこれがまた癖になる気持ちよさ。まるで産まれたての赤ちゃんの頬に触れている様。こうしてなかなか食べるところに行き着けない。きっと空豆は、究極的な癒しの食材に違いない。。。少なくともここまでは。
The bigger sizes should fit pretty much perfectly among your thumb, index finger and middle finger when you make a shape of a fox when doing shadow art. When you hold one with the tips of your fingers it feels so good as if you were touching the cheek of a new born baby. This is how you never get to the point where you start to cook them. They are so therapeutic. At least till this part.
茹でた空豆の香りがいいとするか、臭いとするか。それは永遠に結論の出ない議論だと思う。私も正直そんなにいい香りだわ〜とは思っていない。でも空豆は、夏が近づいてきた味がするから好き。カテゴライズするならば確実に、人が食べていると臭く感じるのに自分が食べると美味しく感じる納豆と同じグループに加えたい。
そんな空豆の美味しい食べ方は、無論塩をしっかりきかせたお湯で２、３分茹でる。というのが王道だろうけれど、空豆がかつて遠く地中海から日本へ渡ってきたという長い旅路に想いを馳せると、私は彼らと共に少し冒険したくなる。
To define the smell of boiled fava beans are pleasant, or to define they stink, is a debate that will go on eternally. To be honest, I am not a fan at all of the smell of boiled fava beans. But they taste like summer around the corner, and I dig them for that reason. If I were to categories them, it will definitely be in the same group with fermented soy beans. They smell weird when someone else is having them but when you are eating them yourself, they taste great.
The best way to cook fava beans is to boil them with generously salted water for two to three minutes. There is no doubt that this is the most classic way. But when you come to think of the long journey that took from the Mediterranean all the way to Japan I’d love to go for a little bit of adventure with them.
2袋分の空豆をさやから取り出したら、薄皮のお尻に包丁で浅く切り込みを入れる。塩をきかせたお湯で3分半ほど茹でたらざるにあげて粗熱を取り、薄皮からつるっとお豆を押し出す。この時ややシワのよった薄皮から、つやつやのお豆が思わぬ方向へ勢い良く飛び出ることがあるので十分に注意したい。取り出したお豆をボウルに入れたら、クミンパウダー少々、チリペッパーひとふり(辛いのが好きだったらふたふり)、オリーブオイルをボウル２周分くらい、レモン汁、にんにくのすりおろし少々を加えてフォークなどで粗く潰しながら混ぜる。少し空豆の形が残るくらいに潰しすぎないよう加減する。味を見て、塩胡椒をしたら空豆のマッシュのできあがり。これをカッテージチーズやギリシャヨーグルトなどと共にトーストやピタパンに乗っけて刻んだディルをかければ異国情緒あふれる空豆の一品に。高く遠い青空を眺めながら食べたい味だ。
Shell two bags worth of fava beans and slightly cut the bottom of their skin. Boil them in salted water for 3 minutes and a half. Then cool them down till you can touch them and take the beans out of their skin by pushing them out by your fingers.
Be careful not to let the beans fly away because they can be very slippery. Put them in a bowl and season them with cumin powder, a pinch of chili pepper (two if you like it spicy), some olive oil, lemon juice, and grated garlic. You then mix them altogether as you mash roughly, using a folk or some sort. Don’t smash the beans completely though. You want their texture. Taste them a little and add salt and pepper. You have mashed fava beans ready to serve. Put this in a pita bread or on a toasted bread with cottage chees and Greece yogurt and sprinkle some dill. You’ll have an exotic fava bean dish. You’d want to have this kind of dish looking far away into a clear blue sky.
大学生の頃にやっと美味しさを認識した空豆。初夏の夕飯時には湯気のたった空豆が盛られた器がぽんと、一番初めに食卓に置かれていた。私は食事を待ちながら、これはおつまみだから後で帰ってくるお父さんの分も残さなきゃ。と自分に言い聞かせつつも、兄を差し置いてほとんど独り占めしてしまっていたことを覚えている。
母の茹でた空豆はいつも、ちょうどいい塩加減。
It was around when I was in collage that I came to recognize the deliciousness of fava beans. In the beginning of summer we used to have fava beans first thing on our dinner table. I would wait for other meals to be set, as I knew that those fava beans were mainly for my dad to nibble on when he starts to drink his beer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but eat most of them stealing everyone’s eyes including my older brother. The boiled fava beans that my mom would cook, always had the most perfect amount of saltiness.
初夏、髪を大きめのワニクリップでまとめあげ、涼しそうな格好でキッチンに立つ母の姿を思い出す。
In the beginning of summer, remembering my mom standing in the kitchen with her hair up with a big claw clip and dressed in a cool-looking one piece.