Frozen lettuce?

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I was intrigued as soon as I opened ‘Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking’ to the contents page, where there’s a picture of author and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s ponytail and the back of his neck. (Weird.) I turned to the introduction and took note of his chevron-striped geta socks -- you know, the kind with the cleft between the big and second toes. (Cool.) Page 11 shows a series of photos that demonstrate how Morimoto ties his kimono in the traditional samurai style. (Gratuitous, though it looks good.)

And the recipes? There’s tuna pizza with anchovy aioli, sushi rice risotto, snapper chips, oyster foie gras, rice-stuffed baby chickens, chocolate-coated sweetfish liver. (Chef-y and mostly weird.) But there are some traditional Japanese recipes, one of which is nikujaga, a Japanese beef stew. The name comes from niku, or meat, and jagaimo, or potatoes. It’s one of my favorite Japanese dishes, partly because the first time my mom -- who’s Japanese -- made it for me, I thought she was saying Miku Jaga, the Japanese transliteration for Mick Jagger.

The Times Test Kitchen tested the recipe for frozen lettuce, Morimoto’s version of a Caesar. You quarter a head of lettuce and freeze it for one to two hours. It gets topped with a dressing of garlic, mayo, rice vinegar, Worcestershire, miso, grated onion, Parmesan, anchovy paste, mustard, lemon zest and crumbled goat cheese. Then you sprinkle on whole annatto seeds and small croutons. Annatto seeds are really hard and not all that fun to bite into, but the lettuce was actually really crisp, and the dressing was tasty. Still, next time I’m going to try the Mick Jagger recipe.

-- Betty Hallock