JAPANESE HOME COOKING: Spinach steeped in seasoned liquid

Spinach becomes sweeter as it gets colder outside. Yoko Munakata of the Better Home Association introduces various "ohitashi," dishes of boiled ingredients steeped in soy sauce-based liquid. The key is to boil and cool the spinach swiftly. When boiling leaf vegetables, use 10 times as much water as you have vegetables. That comes to about 2 liters per small bundle of spinach. Another key is the process of "washing" the spinach in soy sauce to pep up the flavor.