Wasabi – Horseradish

Wasabi (山葵) is a famous seasoning used in Japanese cuisine in the form of a paste. Made from a Japanese horseradish called wasabi from the Brassicaceae family.

Wasabi is expensive because it is grown in cold water and in mountainous regions, mainly in the Amagi Plateaus, Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka, Hotaka and Nagano.

Wild Japanese horseradish appears to have been used as a medicinal plant and an antidote to food poisoning, so it has been served alongside raw fish since ancient times. It was Nara between 710 and 793. Its first historical record was in the botanical dictionary, compiled in Heian era between 794-1185.

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Wasabi in cooking

Wasabi is used in cooking in a variety of ways. First, the root can be consumed either in paste or powder or fresh along with its leaves. It has a slightly spicy flavor and gives a completely different sensation in the mouth.

In addition to the traditional use together with sushi and sashimi wasabi can be used in recipes such as ochazuke rice and some types of noodles. They often use wasabi powder to season other recipes such as fried and roasted vegetables.

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In Japan some restaurants allow the customer to grate their own wasabi root to eat as fresh as possible. Japan is famous for inventing flavors in its products, so it is common to find wasabi-flavored ice cream, drinks, chocolates, snacks, popcorn, peas and peanuts.

Unfortunately, the famous green paste that we eat in sushi restaurants is not pure wasabi, but a mixture of wasabi with dye, mustard and other ingredients.

To finish and complement the article, let's leave a very fun video of our friends from Japan each day visiting the largest wasabi farm in Japan.

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