gari

Awhile back, I saw someone on IG make gari, the pickled ginger that you often find at conveyor belt sushi or as a side dish in bento

Since most of the brands (that I have seen) that make gari use artificial sweeteners, I wanted to try to make it myself

So I waited until I saw shin shoga (literally new ginger) in the markets 

Shin shoga is usually a little softer/more tender than the ginger you find in the markets throughout the year

I used a slicer to get most of my ginger sliced thin.

The parts of the ginger that were thicker and tougher, I ended up slicing by hand

If you'd like to try this, here is the recipe by Kei Hamamura : translated

300 grams shin shoga

1 tablespoon salt

250 milliliters rice vinegar

100 grams sugar

Wash the ginger then cut off the red tips and with a spoon take off the dark brownish parts

Thinly slice the ginger

Par boil the ginger for about a minute and then drain

Sprinkle the salt over everything

After the ginger cools, squeeze out all the water

In a pot, put the vinegar and sugar and bring to a slight boil until the sugar is melted

Put the squeezed ginger into a clean jar and pour the hot liquid over the ginger

NOTES: this was so easy to do

I ran out of rice vinegar, so I used some rice vinegar and some ume vinegar

I didn’t weigh how much ginger I had, so had leftover pickling liquid

I usually enjoy the sweeter type of gari, this was puckery but I like it

we had this with sashimi

will see if I can find more shin shoga and make some more using the extra pickling liquid

chikin mu

Had bought half a daikon and noticed one end turning brown so I tried making chikin mu

Found a recipe on this blog and it seemed really easy, so I cut up the daikon and mixed the brine.

We tried it with dinner the other night and Satoshi said he liked it.

I think it could be a tad sweeter, but will taste it again because it hasn't soaked overnight.

Chikin Mu from Stellan Spice

1/2 pound daikon

1.5 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1/3 cup water

Peel the daikon

Cut into discs that are between 1/2 inch to 1 inch depending on your preference. I usually cut them about 3/4 of an inch

Cut the discs into cubes

Combine sugar, salt, white vinegar and water until dissolved then add daikon and shake or mix until fully submerged in the pickling liquid

Store in the refrigerator for 1 day before eating

This will stay good for up to 2 weeks

NOTES:  easy and tasty

I didn't have white sugar nor white vinegar and used what I had in my pantry (brown sugar and rice vinegar)

It's a good way to use up daikon and is easy to put together

I would definitely make this again.

so

The pickled grapes were delicious.

Different.

After one hour soaking in the different brines (left is bread & butter brine, right is tomato suzuke brine), it didn't really have too much "pickled" flavor.

I skewered each grape with a yakitori stick and stuck them back into the brine.

The grapes kept their "crisp" texture and sweetness and the salty brine was a little more pronounced but didn't overpower the grape flavor.

Dunno that I would do this again, but I'm glad we tried this.

rabbit hole

Went down a rabbit hole last night.

A guy was talking on social media about Grillo's pickled grapes.

Apparently they were having a pop up in New York and he couldn't make it there because he lived somewhere else, so he decided to make it on his own.

His first attempt he used a sugar brine and they came out too sweet.

His second attempt he used a salt brine and they came out fantastic.

Me, I wanted to try this but couldn't see myself using Japan grapes, as Satoshi said, "mottainai"

so instead I found these American grapes at the convenience store.

After rinsing them, I put one bag's amount into the tomato suzuke marinade that I had in my refridge

And the other bag's amount into the bread and butter pickle marinade that I had in my refridge.

Hope they are tasty.

Have you eaten pickled grapes before? was it more savory or sweet?

reconnect

Reconnected with this recipe since I had a bunch of cucumbers.

I used a seasoned salt instead of Hawaiian salt and for the brine I just used sugar and vinegar.
 

The seasoned salt had all sorts of herbs and spices like celery, thyme, onion, garlic and oregano in it

In the process, I noticed I would run out of sugar, so when we went out for lunch, I bought some on the way home.

For breakfast, we had some with our deconstructed egg salad.

The celery in the salt made it taste like mom’s pickles.

Have you reconnected with any recipes lately?

umeshu pickles

Saw tomatoes pickled in umeshu (plum wine) on a television show, was intrigued and looked online to see if there was a recipe.

Most recipes that I found online used umeshu plus sugar but since umeshu is already sweet, I envisioned a recipe that didn't use added sugar.

Luckily Choya had a recipe.

Translated from Choya website: serves 2

1 cup umeshu

1/2 vinegar

1/2 water

5 peppercorns

2 bay leaves

1 chili pepper

1 turnip

1 cucumber

1/2 each red and yellow bell pepper

Bring the first 6 ingredients to a boil then cool

Peel and cut the veggies into bite sized pieces

Marinate in an air tight jar for at least 2 hours

NOTES: the original recipe used various veggies but since I wanted to try them with tomatoes that is what I used.

I first took out the stem area with a paring knife then made an "x" at the bottom.

Then to remove the skins of the tomatoes I put them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then put them into cold water for 30 seconds, the same way I make tomato suzuke

Since I only saw it on tv, I’m not sure what it should taste like but it was similar to tomato suzuke.

The umeshu flavor wasn't too present, probably because there are peppercorns, bay leaves and chili in there plus you burn off the alcohol before marinating the veggies.

Kinda wasteful of umeshu.

Still, I'm glad I tried this version.

trying more recipes

I saw this online and wanted to try.

The online version used hoshigaki (dried persimmon), but I only had ichidagaki which is a harder type of dried persimmon.

What you do is split it down the center, take out the seeds then put in a schmear of cream cheese.

The version I saw online, cuts the kaki with the cream cheese into rounds.

This was good as pupu, but I'll look for softer dried persimmons so that I can try this again. 

On the recipe sheet from Shuetsu there was also a recipe for tartar sauce.

Which reminded me of this recipe.

Again, I ad-libbed because the portions seemed a lot.

Tartar sauce : translated from Shuetsu

1 boiled egg, mashed

30 grams fukujinzuke, minced

8 grams fukujinzuke "sauce"

35 grams mayo

8 grams vinegar

parsley

salt to taste

Mix well and add salt to taste

NOTES: I used a 7 minute boiled egg, 15 grams of fukujinzuke, 1 gram fukujinzuke "sauce", 1/2 teaspoon vinegar 

I didn't measure how much mayo I used but didn't use too much 

I didn't have parsley but think this will add some color and more texture to the tartar sauce

I omitted the salt and added some pepper instead

We had this with beef rolls, which is what the Japanese tartar sauce I noted above is eaten with and it was delicious.

I'm glad I tried this recipe and look forward to trying a couple more on the sheet.

trying a new recipe

I tried one of the recipes that came with the fukujinzuke we purchased from Shuetsu.

Toritsumire (chicken meatball) : translated from Shuetsu

200 grams minced chicken

1 gram salt

40 grams fukujinzuke, chopped

15 grams fukujinzuke "sauce"

3 or 4 leaves shiso, juilienned

10 grams oil

Mix the minced chicken with the salt

When the mixture gets a little sticky mix in the chopped fukujinzuke, "sauce" and shiso

Rub the oil onto your hands and form the meat mixture into bite sized balls.

Cook in a heated frying pan.

Enjoy!

NOTES: first off I thought this fukujinzuke was quite salty when I ate it with some instant curry, so I was kind of worried to use it in the recipes they gave.

Tsumire is apparently meatballs made with fish and usually found in a soup.  

Tsukune is apparently a meatball made from ground chicken or other meat and is grilled or cooked in a pan.

Since Shuetsu calls this a tsumire, that is what I’m calling it.

Also, I thought some of the amounts they noted on this recipe was kind of high, so I kind of ad-libbed

First off, I omitted the salt that they have in their recipe

The recipe just said minced chicken, I used a mixture of ground thigh & breast chicken meat because markets here sell them separately 

Instead of the amounts in the recipe, I only added 20 grams of fukujinzuke and 5 grams of the sauce

The shiso, I minced instead of julienning

I didn't want to rub oil onto my hands like the recipe said so instead I just drizzled a little on the pan before cooking it 

While cooking, I also covered the pan so that the meatballs would heat and cook through faster.

I also used a spatula to turn them every so often so they would brown nicely.

This was delicious! not overly salty.

The fukujinzuke stays crunchy.

I think this recipe works because the pickles are in a shoyu based sauce, not too sure it would work with other types of pickles.

I would make this again.

kaki namasu

Another recipe I tried from Shirogohan...kaki namasu.

I like the idea of putting fruit into the namasu.

Hopefully I can find fresh kaki for new years, so I can put some into our namasu.

1/2 kaki, peeled then sliced into thin strips

1/4 daikon, peeled

1 carrot, peeled

1/2 teaspoon salt

Namasu marinade

6 tablespoons dashi (stock)

4 tablespoons vinegar

2.5 tablespoons sugar

Julienne daikon and carrot

Add salt and massage, set aside for 10 minutes

Mix sauce and stir until sugar dissolves

After 10 minutes squeeze out the water from the carrot and daikon

Pour the sauce over the veggies and add the sliced kaki

Mix well and chill before serving

NOTES: I used the food processor and shredded the daikon and carrot

I thought adding stock to the namasu marinade was different but it adds lots of flavor

Super easy to put together and tasty

I would definitely make this again.

yuzu & daikon

Apparently this year root and leafy veggies are plentiful and super cheap.

I was able to get a nice sized daikon and yuzu for 98 yen each!

(BUT, I was saddened to see on the news that the farmers here are having to throw out tons of produce! apparently due to the lack of food operators not operating at full speed..um can't the produce be frozen or given away to countries that don't have enough food?!)

Anyway, with part of the daikon I made some yuzu daikon pickles.

Found on the internet: 2 servings

500 grams daikon, peeled and sliced into sticks

1 yuzu, juiced and thinly slice the peel

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar 

2 tablespoons vinegar

some dried chili pepper

In a bowl put the daikon and salt and massage, leave for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, squeeze out the water from the daikon.

In a ziploc bag, put the daikon, yuzu peel, sugar, vinegar and chili.

Massage gently then store in refrige.

Enjoy after a couple of hours.

NOTES: The whole recipe was for 2 servings, and since I didn’t know how it would taste I only made half the recipe.

It was so easy and tasty, I’d definitely make this again.

I froze the rest of the yuzu peel to bake with and or to add to osuimono (clear soup).

Saturday night, with about 1/3 of the daikon, I peeled and grated it to put into mizore nabe.

Grated daikon is called oroshi but it is also called mizore because it looks like sleet.

After the ingredients of the nabe (hot pot) were cooked I added the grated daikon and waited for for the liquid to come up to a boil before serving.

With the leftover yuzu juice, I made some ponzu (1 tablespoon of yuzu juice & 1 teaspoon shoyu per person) for us to use while eating our nabe.

I still have the top part of the daikon which I plan to use in the coming days.

trying new recipes

Tried some new recipes yesterday.

Mio's Sauce by Mio Matsui

6 tablespoons sesame oil

10 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

6 tablespoons sake (rice wine)

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cloves garlic, grated

salt & pepper

Heat the sauce until the sugar melts.

Cool and put into an airtight jar.

I marinated 200 grams of beef with half of this sauce for 30 minutes.

NOTES: super tasty and easy, will try this sauce with chicken or pork next.

Hakusai and Kaki Amazu-ae from 3-pun Cooking

200 grams hakusai, weighed, cleaned then sliced thin

5 grams salt

180 grams kaki (persimmon)

Sauce

3 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)

After slicing the hakusai, sprinkle the salt and set aside for 10 minutes.

Squeeze out the water from the hakusai after 10 minutes.

Peel the persimmon and cut the fruit into bite sized pieces

Add the hakusai and persimmon to the sauce.

Mix well and chill before serving.

NOTES: delicious! great as pickles or salad. Will definitely make this again.

 

myogazushi (revised)

Made myogazushi over the weekend.

I started by making myoga amasuzuke...

There was a cooking program that made this and I used the recipe to make some pickled myoga.

Here is the recipe if you want to make your own pickled myoga.

Myoga Amasuzuke : from Kyonoryori

9 pieces myoga (about 150 grams)

1/2 cup vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon mirin

1 teaspoon salt + couple of pinches

After washing the myoga, split it in half lengthwise.

Make a slit at the stem to allow it to soak up the pickling liquid

Add a couple of pinches of salt and massage lightly, set aside for about 15 minutes.

Heat the vinegar, sugar, water, mirin and salt until the sugar and salt have melted

Cool.

After the 15 minutes, bring a pot of water to boil and add the salted myoga and blanch for 30 seconds.

Drain.

Add the warm myoga to the pickling liquid.

Keep in refrigerator until ready to use.

On Sunday, I made the myogazushi without going through all the steps of the recipe that I used before.

For 1 cup of cooked rice, I put 2 tablespoons of the myoga pickling liquid over the hot rice and mixed with a shamoji (rice paddle).

I added a handful of shelled edamame.

1/2 teaspoon of ground sesame seeds

1 tablespoon of pickled ginger, diced

3 myoga amasuzuke, minced

NOTES: Quick and easy.

Love the pink color that the myoga turns when it is pickled.

Will definitely make more myoga amasuzuke and myogazushi as well.

amazuzuke

Recently came across red-purple daikon at the market.

In Japanese, they called it "aka daikon" on the package, literally red daikon...but this looked more purple to me, especially when I cut into it.

On the package, there was a recipe for amazuzuke which is literally sweet vinegar pickles.

I had used some daikon for salad, so I didn't have the total weight of daikon....if you'd like to try the "marinade" for pickles, here it is...

600 grams daikon, thinly sliced
100 cc vinegar
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Let everything marinate for at least half a day...enjoy!

NOTES: the flavors were light when we tried it for breakfast this morning, but the daikon stays crunchy.

I love the purple color!

not purple shibazuke

Shibazuke (literally purple pickle) is made with red shiso (perilla) which gives the pickles a "purple/red" color.

I tried a simple recipe I found on sirogohan.com, but because I didn't buy the right vinegar, my shibazuke didn't turn purple/red.

If you can get your hands on red shiso, then your pickles will definitely be the right color.

I wanted to try this recipe because they also suggest you to use green shiso, which is more readily available at our markets.

For us, red shiso is only available during the time (summer-ish) when you find fresh ume (apricots) in the markets usually when people make umeboshi (pickled apricots).

I only made half the recipe because I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

Adapted from sirogohan.com

250 grams total of eggplant, peeled ginger, cucumber, myoga...sliced rather thin
5 leaves green shiso, washed, stems removed
2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons red ume vinegar
1/2 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)

Put all the veggies and shiso into a ziploc and massage in the salt.
Put the ziploc bag into a flat container and put it in the refrigerator with something heavy on top and leave for a couple of hours.
After a couple of hours, squeeze out of the water from all the veggies and shiso.
Put all the veggies and shiso back into the ziploc bag, throw out the squeezed liquid.
Add the vinegar and mirin.
Put the ziploc bag back into the refrig with something heavy on top and leave for 2 days.
After the 2 days, mince the pickles before serving.
Put pickles into an airtight container and enjoy!

NOTES: I bought regular ume vinegar by mistake, this is why my pickles did not turn red/purple.

If you can get your hands on red shiso, use regular vinegar to pickle your veggies.

If you cannot get your hands on red shiso, use green shiso and use red ume vinegar.

This got the thumbs up from Satoshi, it does take some time, but I'm making this again!

pickled ginger

If you can get your hands on some young ginger, this recipe is super easy and tasty.

As seen on a television program, "The Taikoban":

400 grams ginger
350 cc vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon honey

Clean & slice ginger (chunky) (or thin if you like)
Boil vinegar, salt & honey until honey and salt dissolve
Pour over ginger
Store in airtight jar

NOTES: this isn't too sweet so if you like the sweeter pickled ginger (like the types that are sometimes served with sushi), adjust the amount of honey.

I am glad I tried this recipe and would definitely make this again.

anzu shiso fuumi

Recently Hankyu Department Store had a Tohoku fair.

We picked up some bento for dinner (Yonezawa beef for me and salmon for Satoshi), iburigakko and anzu shiso fuumi.

If you recall, the iburigakko is a smoked pickle from Akita.

The anzu shiso fuumi (literally means perilla flavored apricot) and is a sweet-sour pickle/jam of sorts.

The taste reminds me of prune mui, a preserve we have in Hawaii.

We first tried this in Aomori, and reconnected with it at the fair.

This version is made by Kariya Shokuhin from Akita.

The owner, Mr Kariya, was a very friendly and good salesman.

So far, we've eaten it as is with breakfast and also chopped it up and added it to yogurt.

These apricot are also grown by Mr Kariya and he makes these with honey and shiso (perilla).

I think the syrup might be good on ice cream or pancakes.

What are you enjoying these days?

sakura daikon

I wanted to recreate the sakura daikon we tried from Marukoshi.

I still can't understand why companies insist on using artificial sweeteners...

The recipe I found online seemed like it would be a little too sweet, so I adapted it...

5 inch long daikon, peeled & cubed
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3 or 4 salted sakura (do not rinse off the salt), chopped

Put everything in an airtight jar and let soak for a couple of hours.
Enjoy!

NOTES: not an overpowering sakura flavor and not too salty nor too sweet. I'm making this again!

jiro's pickles

Have you watched the documentary, "Jiro : Dreams of Sushi"? We have.

Recently my cousin asked us to call to make reservations at Sukiyabashi Jiro's for his BIL.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to make reservations for them, they ask that the people dining make their own reservations, or the hotel you are staying at make the reservations for you.

Afterwards, I asked my cousin what had happened and he said that his BIL and family were able to dine there...whew!

Anyway, while I was looking at Sukiyabashi Jiro's website, there was a recipe for pickles, so I scribbled it down.

Jiro's Pickles

3.5 tablespoons sugar
300 milliliters water
300 milliliters rice vinegar
1.5 tablespoons salt
2 chili
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic (optional)

Heat liquid until salt & sugar melt and pour over your favorite veggies.
After it is cooled, refrigerate.

NOTES: actually the recipe is so that you can use the vinegar on his online shop to make the pickles.

I left out the chili & garlic, and made only half the liquid.

This was puckery but we enjoyed it.

He suggests pickling myoga (Japanese ginger), so I might give that a try when it is in season.

I am glad I tried this and would make it again.

watermelon rind pickles

A friend on Instagram, uploaded a photo of watermelon rind pickles.

It sounded so easy that I had to try.

She didn't give measurements, so I ad-libbed...here's what I did...

rind of less than 1/8 of watermelon
1/2 tablespoon Hawaiian salt (coarse salt if you don't have Hawaiian salt)

Cut the green part off
Slice into 1/2 inch matchsticks
Sprinkle the salt
Massage and leave for a couple of hours
Rinse before eating

A lot of recipes online involve cooking the rind, but I like this version because there is no cooking involved.

Perfect for summer!

NOTES: After rinsing, this was still quite salty, so I would cut back the amount of salt to a teaspoon.

Also, I think leaving a little "red" makes it more photogenic.

This was super crunchy and tastes like cucumbers.

I'm making this again.

akakabu pickles

The other day at the market we came across akakabu (red turnips). If I'm not mistaken this variety is usually found in the Northern parts of Japan.

Satoshi likes these as tsukemono (pickles), so I bought one to try making some.

When I cut it, I was surprised by the light pink and white insides.

I used this recipe and doubled it. In place of the salt I instead used a seasoned salt (salt, rosemary, chili, parsley and oregano).

I put everything into a ziploc bag and let it sit in the refridge for a couple of hours.

I love the deep pinkish color.

We tried this with breakfast the next day and these passed the Satoshi test.

If I come across akakabu at the market again, I'm making this.