Appetiser as hassun

In Kyoto’s kaiseki cuisine, a hassun is a beautifully presented and vividly coloured arrangement of seasonal bite-size delicacies, served together on a wooden platter roughly 24 cm square, to be eaten whilst enjoying sake or other drinks. The February hassun at Kikunoi comprises of nine exquisite dishes utilising fresh seasonal ingredients: rein-shaped sushi with sliced prawns and marinated sardines; sweet ume plum jelly stamped into a blossom shape; steamed cod roe cakes with lily bulb and red Kyoto carrots; nanohana (rape flower buds) with Japanese mustard dressing; blossoms of tofu seasoned with tart ume paste; miso-seasoned butterbur sprouts sprinkled with cooked egg yolk; cooked whitebait with a yuzu zest; wasabi leaves mellowed with dashi; and steamed black kuromame soybeans. Here, we introduce two recipes from the February hassun: the wasabi leaves, and the rape flower buds with Japanese mustard dressing. For the former, the somewhat sharp taste of wasabi leaves is mellowed with, seasonal dashi. For the latter, the rape flow, buds, which are not dissimilar to broccoli/ are quickly blanched, then soaked in dashi with soy sauce added to infuse them with rich umami. The greens are then given a dressing made from a combination of Western and Japanese mustards to really make the taste-buds sing.