Rapunzel: sautéed bellflower root

The start of the story is a familiar one—after years and years of desperately wishing for a baby, a poor husband and wife are overjoyed to finally learn they are expecting a child.

All is bliss, until the weeks go by and the wife’s begins to crave the rapunzel (or bellflower) growing in their neighbor’s beautiful garden. Her cravings grow stronger and stronger until she refuses to eat anything but the rapunzel in the garden. Seeing that his wife is wasting away, he scales the garden wall to steal some for her to eat.

But as anyone who’s ever had a pregnancy craving will confirm, the wife’s craving for the rapunzel soon returns stronger than ever, so the husband hops the garden wall again to steal some more. He’s caught this time, and the neighbor Lady Göthel—who turns out to be a witch—confronts him about his theft. He begs for mercy and explains the situation, and the witch agrees to spare the man and give him all the rapunzel the parents want on the condition that they surrender the baby to her when she is born. Desperate for his wife, he agrees.

When the baby is born, Lady Göthel takes her to raise as her own, naming her Rapunzel. The baby grows up to be a beautiful girl with long golden hair, and when she turns twelve the witch locks her up in a tower no stairs and no door, and only one window all the way at the top. In order to visit Rapunzel every day, Lady Göthel stands at the bottom of the tower and calls:

Rapunzel!
Rapunzel!
Let down your hair
That I may climb thy golden stair!

And whenever Rapunzel hears it, she lets her adoptive mother climb her long golden hair up the tower and through her window.

Some years later, a prince hears Rapunzel singing from her tower while riding through the forest. He searches for her voice and finds the tower, but not knowing the rhyme, is unable to enter. So he comes back to the tower often to listen to Rapunzel’s beautiful singing, and one day he catches Lady Göthel visiting Rapunzel as usual and learns the rhyme. Hearing the prince call the rhyme Rapunzel lets down her hair for him to climb up, and the two of course fall in love and secretly marry. They hatch a secret plot for Rapunzel to escape the tower.

But one day before she can escape, Rapunzel innocently complains to the witch about all her clothes being tight around the waist. In a rage, Lady Göthel cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and drives her into the wilderness. When the prince calls for Rapunzel that night, Lady Göthel lets down Rapunzel’s severed hair and hauls him up. At the top, the horrified prince finds Lady Göthel at the top of the tower instead of his beloved, and he is thrown off the top into a patch of thorns—he survives the fall, but is blinded by the thorns. Meanwhile, wandering in the wilderness, Rapunzel later gives birth to her twins with the prince—a boy and a girl.

For years, the blind prince wanders through the country and eventually stumbles upon the part of the wilderness where Rapunzel has been living with their children. When the prince hears her voice again, they are reunited. The tears falling from Rapunzel’s face landing in the prince’s eyes restore his sight, and the prince takes his bride and their children to his kingdom where they live happily ever after.

Platycodon grandiflorus

Platycodon grandiflorus is a flowering perennial herb known as the rapunzel, the balloon flower or the Chinese bellflower, native to East Asia.

In Korean cuisine, the plant is called doraji (도라지), and its roots, fresh or dried, are one of the most commonly eaten herbal dishes in the traditional Korean diet. Sometimes even rice is directly cooked with balloon flower root to make doraji-bap.

The root of the bellflower is used to make desserts or syrups (doraji-cheong), and is sometimes used to infuse liquor called doraji-sul, typically using distilled soju or other neutral distilled spirit stronger than 30% ABV.


Sautéed bellflower root

도라지무침

Makes about 1 cup or 2 servings

2 oz dried bellflower root
1 tbsp coarse salt
1 tsp soup soy sauce
0.25 tsp medium to fine salt
1 tsp minced garlic
0.5 tbsp neutral cooking oil
1 tbsp finely chopped scallion
0.5 tbsp sesame oil
0.5 tsp sesame seeds

Standard bellflower root preparation:

Soak dried roots in warm water until softened, usually about an hour.
Split each piece with fingers or a knife into roughly julienne-sized strips.
Add coarse salt and knead to massage out the bitterness. Rinse and drain 2-3 times.
Blanch salted, rinsed roots for 60-90 seconds and drain.

Combine blanched roots well with soy sauce, finer salt, garlic, and oil.

In a heated pan, saute for 3 to 4 minutes over medium high heat until the roots turn slightly opaque. Add up to 2-3 tbsp of water if the doraji is getting too dry in the pan. Stir in the chopped scallion, sesame oil, and sesame seeds just before turning off the heat.

This dish is a common addition to classic bibimbap.

from the September 2024 issue

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