Tekitou: Autumn #4: Miniature Tea Eggs and Chrysanthemum Sunomono / 秋＃４：茶玉子と菊の酢の物

The other day I noticed flowers being sold at my local greengrocer. Chrysanthemums, to be specific.
この間うちの近くにある八百屋が花を売っていることを発見しました。近寄ると：あっ！菊だ！

I'd never cooked with chrysanthemums before, so I asked the little old lady how I should go about preparing them. She recommended sunomono -- a vinegared Japanese-style side salad. 菊を料理に使ったことない私だから、お店のおばちゃんと相談した。彼女のおすすめ：酢の物。

Sunomono is quite simple really, it just calls for equal parts rice vinegar and mirin (sweet cooking sake), and a touch of salt. I decided to jazz it up, and take the opportunity to tackle a recipe I've been biting at the bit to get to. 酢の物は本当にシンプルで、ちょっとだけチェル的にしようかな。。。

Ever since I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. このレシピを見た瞬間、私も絶対作りたいと思った。

Tea-glazed eggs. 茶玉子。

But when I got to the poultry store, delicate little gems beckoned me away from those ungainly, vulgar chicken eggs...
でも鶏肉屋に入ったら、このちびっ子に誘われた。。。

The little masochists begged me to boil them and crack them and boil them again. How could I resist? I'm only human...
この誘いなので、抵抗できなかった。。。

So I boiled them for half a minute or so to set them, cracked them with the back of a spoon, and then put them back in the pot, this time joined by soy sauce, darjeeling tea, star anise, and a splash of mirin. And I let them boil...
そして３０秒ぐらいゆでて、出して、スプーンで軽く割れ目を殻につけって、またお湯に戻した。この時に醤油、ダージェリング茶、スターアニス、みりんも入れました。

And boiled them and boiled them, for close to two hours.このまま２時間近くゆでた。
And when the came out, they were scarred - but also somehow more hauntingly beautiful. And also more delicious.
だしたらちょっと不気味な美しさ。。。でも確かのおいしさ。

I wasn't through with them yet. I prepared a beautiful bed of sunomono made from slivers of mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley), okra, red onion, and the chrysanthemum petals, which I plucked from the flowers and doused in hot water before adding to the mix. このミニ茶玉子をチェル的な酢の物を！みつば、オクラ、赤いタマネギを細く切って、菊の花弁も湯通ししてから入れた。

Autumn is a sad season of endings, a season of bitter experience: the spring chicken gets fattened to become winter's warming soup. But with experience comes...
秋は切ない季節です。終局を感じられる季節。それでも。。。