Kick off the spring menu with edamame

Special to the Progress A few years ago, edamame — fresh, green soybeans — were unknown to almost all but Japanese-Americans and found only in Asian specialty markets and Japanese restaurants. But recently, edamame (pronounced “ed-ah-MAH-may”) has been popping up in any number of preparations in “fusion” and natural-foods restaurants. And while the fresh beans, still in their fuzzy pods, may still be hard to come by in American grocery stores, most supermarkets of any size carry them frozen. Soybeans, according to “The Japanese Kitchen” by Hiroko Shimbo (Harvard Common Press, 2000), originated in China and are today grown all over the world, but most are dried and used to produce cooking oil and vegetable protein products, like tofu. The fresh beans — boiled and salted — have long been featured as a bar treat in Japan, much... [read full story]