Gesshin Claire Greenwood - Just Enough: Vegan Recipes and Stories from Japan’s Buddhist Temples

Praise for Just Enough

Some years ago, I found myself astonished by the blog postings in Thats So Zen. They were written by a young American woman living and training as a Zen priest in Japan. Then she wrote her first book, Bow First, Ask Questions Later, part memoir, part pointer to the Zen way, and I knew I was witnessing something rare. Gesshin Claire Greenwood brings her whole being to the project, leaving nothing out. Now, with her second book, Just Enough, she shows her continuing depth. And she invites us along. Here we get a taste of ancient Japan, monastic Buddhist Japan, Zen Japan, as embodied by a young twenty-first-century woman. East meets West. With nothing left out. Want a peek at the great way? Look at this book. Oh, and you get some very good recipes along the way.

James Ishmael Ford, author of Introduction to Zen Koans: Learning the Language of Dragons

Just Enough brings some Zen into your life with monastery-inspired vegan recipes, Buddhist sensibility, and a little sass too. Gesshin Claire Greenwood serves up just enough.

Ellen Kanner, soulful vegan author of the award-winning book Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith, and What to Eat for Dinner (www.soulfulvegan.com)

Praise forBow First, Ask Questions Later

Gesshin Greenwood is the real deal. Thats what makes this book so valuable. Its rare that someone from the West does any of this stuff, rarer still when they write about it, and yet even more rare that their writing is as good as Gesshins is. This is a truly unique document of a truly unique lived experience.

from the foreword by Brad Warner, author of Dont Be a Jerk

A witty, wise, engaging story about a young womans experience of Zen practice in Japan.

Grace Schireson, author of Zen Women

Only a fierce and brilliant woman could have produced this deliciously written account. Its honest, genuinely helpful, and earnest without sentimentality. Punchy and eloquent, Gesshin Greenwood sets a new standard for cool.

Bonnie Myotai Treace, author of Empty Branches

With rigor, honesty, hilarity and joy, Gesshin shows us how to grapple with the great matter of life and death as well as with lesser matters, like capitalism, sexism, religious dogma, sex, love, fashion and Kyoto nightclubs. The result is an inspiring book that I couldnt put down, even when Id finished reading it.

Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being

Also by Gesshin Claire Greenwood

Bow First, Ask Questions Later: Ordination, Love, and Monastic Zen in Japan

Copyright 2019 by Gesshin Claire Greenwood

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. No expressed or implied guarantee of the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given or liability taken.

Although the Wind, by Izumi Shikibu, translation by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani, 1988 Jane Hirshfield, from The Ink Dark Moon (New York: Vintage Classics, 1990), used by permission of Jane Hirshfield.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Interior illustrations by Seigaku D. Amato

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Greenwood, Gesshin Claire, author.

Title: Just enough : vegan recipes and stories from Japans Buddhist temples / Gesshin Claire Greenwood.

Description: Novato, California : New World Library, [2019] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018052126 (print) | LCCN 2018058683 (ebook) | ISBN 9781608685837 (e-book) | ISBN 9781608685820 (print : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781608685837 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Vegan cooking--Japan. | Veganism--Religious aspects--Buddhism. | Food--Religious aspects--Buddhism. | Cooking, Japanese. | Buddhist temples--Japan.

Classification: LCC TX837 (ebook) | LCC TX837 .G6742 2019 (print) | DDC 641.5/63620952--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052126

First printing, June 2019

ISBN 978-1-60868-582-0

Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-583-7

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to women who feel trapped in the kitchen, and to those who know a pantry contains a universe of possibility.

CONTENTS

I tend to preface everything I write with epigraphs small snippets of other peoples writing. As though by proximity to their cleverness or wisdom or wit I can compensate for whichever of those virtues I lack. As though wallpaper could make a room sturdy.

After reading Gesshin Claire Greenwoods Just Enough, full of stories, rules, and admonitions about being a flawed person cooking and living in a flawed world, I found myself unable to lean on my old crutch. It seemed too hypocritical, in writing a few words of explanatory praise of her book which is sturdy, wallpaper aside to let myself off the hard task of writing new words about a new thing. Im untethered. And it is refreshing.

This book is refreshing too. There isnt really that much in it. Without looking (because it feels fun not to) I think I can list the main ingredients in 90 percent of the recipes. They are burdock, daikon radish, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo, konbu, soy, miso, mirin, and sake. Cabbage shows up too.

What is there to say about bamboo and burdock, radish and the occasional cabbage? The chapter on bamboo is subtitled Or, How to Turn Poison into a Meal. In addition to explaining just how to correctly deal with each part of a bamboo stalk which must be harvested each spring in the Japanese mountains to keep bamboo from invading and conquering the hillside it reminds a hurried reader how much better something tastes when youve worked to make it palatable. Many experiences in life seem like unpeeled bamboo inedible, ridiculous, ugly, hard, Gesshin writes. It is a step-by-step process. It takes time, but it is not in and of itself difficult. First put the bamboo into a pot. Then add rice bran and water. The difficulty is in renewing our intention, in not giving up.

And in the section on miso there is a lesson that has taught me, finally, the right amount of miso paste to add to soup. It comes in a story about the stink of Zen, which is, in the authors words, used to describe people who become obsessed with showing off their Zen practice or whose practice is very loud and obvious to others. Miso no miso kusaki wa jyo miso ni arazu, goes the Japanese proverb: Miso that smells like miso is not good miso. How much miso should I add to dashi which I keep trying and failing (and trying) to get into a weekly practice of making? Enough to make it taste like itself, but not overwhelmingly. In other words: