🍱 Garlic Chive Senbei

The mountainous region of Hokushin, being surrounded by mountains, has many crop-growing fields situated on steep slopes, with few rice paddies, so wheat is mainly cultivated instead of rice. Additionally, wheat is also mainly grown in the crop rotation of the rice paddies located at the river basin of the Chikuma river. Rice is so precious that it cannot be eaten everyday at home. As a result, since times past, in order to economize, wheat has played a vital role in daily meals, being milled into flour and used in dishes known as “flour foods.” Among these flour foods one referred to as senbei or usuyaki, where flour is mixed with water and cut vegetables then fried, is often made for okobiru/okobire, or brunch, or children's afternoon snack. Okobiru is an inflection of kohiru, meaning “late-morning,” and is a sort of in-between meal. It was made as something that could be filling to eat in between the labor of farmwork. The senbei are filled with seasonal vegetables like garlic chives, eggplants, onions, or others; however garlic chives are easy to grow, and aside from a snow-heavy winter, can be harvested anytime so every house has them planted in part of their garden to use at their convenience. It's said the senbei made with the tender garlic chives that shoot up at the start of spring have an exceptional flavor. The recipes for garlic chive senbei or usuyaki also differ slightly between households, with many variations; like mixing in miso with the flour and vegetables when frying, or eating with a miso or soy based dipping sauce. In the past to save oil, a heated earthenware pan would be greased with silk wadding soaked in oil, then the wheat flour batter poured in. Once fried it would be cut into portions of suitable size and eaten.