_john

I'm curious to know what a "sushi maker" is. The only sushi maker I know is a 32 year old Japanese guy. You need to get short grain rice. It is usually labeled as calrose or sushi rice. Cook it in your rice cooker using the instructions that came with the rice cooker. Do not add the vinegar, sugar and salt before cooking. I don't know what recipe the sushi maker came with but this is the basic ratio for making "sushi vinegar", which is a mixture of the seasonings used in sushi rice: rice vinegar 1.8ℓ：sugar 1.2kg：salt300g. You can scale this ratio to make as little or as much as you want. You can boil the sushi vinegar to dissolve the sugar and salt but it is easier to just let it sit over night. Once you have the cooled sushi vinegar and the hot rice you need to combine the two. How much sushi vinegar should you add? I add about 32ml to 250g of cooked rice. You can just sprinkle it over the hot rice and taste it until it has enough flavor for you. Mix the rice and sushi vinegar using a cutting motion and let it sit to cool. When you wash rice you are washing away some starch but that is not the purpose of rinsing. You are rinsing to wash away rice bran powder and other impurities from the polishing process.

the mustard and ketchup packs that split in the middle and fold over to squeeze out the contents equally.　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydZlsHN62eE

Here is some Japanese color changing yakisoba. It is called chameleon yakisoba or 3 color yakisoba. It has been presented on TV several times. I don't think it is something meant to be eaten. It is more of a science experiment. Yakisoba is made with Chinese style noodles. Chinese style noodles are made with a strong alkali solution called kansui. The alkali noodles react with the red cabbage juice and then react again with the lemon juice.

It is different than a dutch oven. It is basically a metal box with a door that you place on the stove's burner. They seem to be used more for camping in the U.S. They were quite common in Japan before combination microwave/ovens became popular.

Does anyone own a stovetop oven? What kind do you have and when do you use it? Does it have a window/thermometer? I am interested in getting one to replace my broken small stand-alone electric oven.

It should be covered in such a way as to prevent too much evaporation and to prevent bugs etc getting in. It should never be sealed in a jar because it is alive. I keep mine in large rectangular tupperware containers with one of the corners cracked open. You want to avoid water droplets forming at all costs. Water droplets form from evaporated pure water, this is the perfect place for unwanted microbes to get a start and get into your pickling medium. Keep the sides of the container clean as well. I wipe mine down with ethanol but I wouldn't consider that necessary for home use. you know when you are getting some good fermentation because there will be gasses trapped in the pickle bed. It will almost feel fluffy when you go in for your daily mix. What is the average temperature of where you are storing it?

Ive made them before using a pasta machine and they came out ok. Getting the ph level correct was difficult, I tried a few times before getting it right. I was using kansui which is alkali water. I dusted them with potato flour to keep them from sticking.

making soba

How is the pickle project going? Around the time this thread was started I finally got around to redoing my pickle beds. I used to use a large tupperware and pickle different kinds of vegetables together. I re-did the pickle beds for this summer this time making 5 individual smaller tupperware containers. When you make pickles every day this really helps. When you are not pickling a particular vegetable you can put the pickling bed to sleep in the refrigerator. Seperating them also helps the pickles from picking up strange colors and tastes from adjacent vegetables. Right now we are pickling mizu-nasu (a special type of eggplant), cucumbers, Chinese cabbage and mizuna (a type of green). The fifth container is reserved for strong smelling things such as garlic, onion, etc. I find that letting the pickle bed have some time in the refrigerator every week actually makes it taste better. I assume the cold prevents it for fermenting too vigorously. It also seems to slow the movement of salt into the vegetables. After about three weeks of tending them they are starting to produce really good pickles. Just in time for one of summer's greatest pleasures: A nukazuke cucumber and a cold beer!

at work: butchering turtles at home: washing pots that don't even fit in my tiny sink. dirty water splashes all over the floor and me because the faucet extends more than half the width of the sink.

I didn't know it was used as a bitter. I drink one bottle over ice with club soda after a night of eating.

tell me what the recipe on the back of the hondashi box is an I can calculate for you

Did some more research and come across some references to adding the peels of persimmons to nukazuke. Any idea what they could be for?

I think the progression being the same each time is one of the key points. The other being that unlike omakase where you you, the customer, usually set a limit of a certain number of dishes or a monetary amount the only control you have is "stop" and "go". I found my self going back to see if I could get to the next level. Maybe there is a bonus round or a warp zone? I found myself very susceptible to the idea having been brought up with video games.

I could only get to the 13th one. I had a beer too. I think the bill was around $25

I have been to a few restaurants over the years that have a unique system of dining. I think a lot of people know about the concept of omakase but this is a little different. The first restaurant where I experienced this system was a kushi-katsu restaurant. Kushi-katsu is deep fried things on bamboo skewers. You sit down at the counter and the proprietor asks you "Shall I begin?". From that point on freshly fried one or two bite skewers come out one by one. Each one is unique and there are three dipping sauces that are paired with each skewer. There are no prices listed, just say stop when you have had enough and the chef will calculate your bill. I asked him how many unique dishes there were, was there some kind of limit? No, it was limited only by his imagination. One customer ate almost 60 unique skewers, he said. The progression is always the same. There are spaces reserved in the progression for seasonal items but they are more or less the same. "seasonal green vegetable", "seasonal white fish" etc. The restaurant's system is explained on the door and sign so you know what you are getting in to. Has anyone else been to a similar restaurant? I don't feel right calling this omakase, what would be the best way to describe it?

Dried chile peppers - A must, but the resulting pickles should not be spicy. The chile peppers to use are the dry ones used in Chinese cooking. Remove the seeds and cut them into rings. Dry ground mustard - Supposedly added for antimicrobial it's properties but it is very easy to overdo. Makes the pickles bitter. I never add it. Beer - Makes your pickles taste like stale beer. I never add it. A good substitution is nutritional yeast. The goal of adding beer is to get that fermented flavor. Some people say it is added to add the living yeast of beer. Most beer is pasteurized so I doubt it. Ginger - Have you smelled ginger that has turned brown and mushy? Yeah, that smell on your pickles. I never add it. Garlic - Way too overpowering. I never add. Cabbage leaves - These are a must during the first two weeks. You pickle these and then throw them away. The lactic bacteria on the leaves promote good fermentation. Bread - Again, added to get that fermented flavor. Often added by people who do not have access to nuka. I never add it. Lemon peel - Never heard of this being added. Apple peel - Never heard of this being added. Reduced iron (kangentetsu) or a rusty nail - Makes the color of some pickled vegetables better. If you are getting enough iron in your diet already I do not recommend adding it. Some things you didn't mention but some people add: Egg shells: added calcium. Myoban (Potash Alum): added to enhance the color of some vegetables, specifically eggplant. sansho (Japanese pepper): I'm not sure why this is added but some people include it. kinako (toasted soy bean flour): I guess this is added to give more depth to the flavor, it is toasty and a little sweet. dry shitake: for the flavor. About konbu: Konbu goes bad very quickly after it has been re-hydrated. I don't recommend adding konbu itself to the nuka. Rather, when you are making the 13% salt solution add about 10% by weight konbu to the water and bring it to a boil. This strong konbu salt soup is what you use to wet the "toasted" nuka.

Thanks, makes more sense now. I was surprised how expensive harvested hana zansho is. The flower itself has a unique flavor which is quite nice.

I planted a sansho tree this year. But I am still confused about the difference between hana zansho, mi zansho, and ha zansho. Are the the same species? Male and female? The one I planted was labeled asagura mi zansho.

You can pickle meat and fish in nuka as well. first you salt or brine what you want to pickle and then pickle it for a longer time than vegetables. Mackerel pickled in nuka is called heshiko. It is one of my favorite foods. http://長兵衛.jp/html/sati_heshiko01.html

I bet "stabilized" means "toasted". In other words heat treated to destroy the enzymes.

Be careful where you get your nuka (rice bran)! The bran is where most of the agricultural chemicals are concentrated. So you don't want to pickle vegetables in pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers and then eat them raw. Also rice bran oil goes rancid very quickly. Make sure you get fresh product. I use organic nuka that is left over from that day's milling. But, and it is a big But, I live in Japan. Don't start throwing a bunch of stuff in your nuka right away. Start out with just water, salt, and nuka and then adjust from there. The recipe is very simple: -a given weight of nuka (if the nuka is raw it must be "toasted". To toast it: in your biggest pot bring it slowly to 100°C without letting it color) -an equal weight of 13% salt water solution that has been brought to a boil and cooled. Mix the salt water solution and then nuka until it resembles the consistency of mud or miso. pickle throw away vegetables for two weeks.

Are there any advantages/applications to using both gelatin and agar-agar (kanten) to make a gel? Has anyone experimented with the ratio to create a good hybrid gel? Given 100ml liquid how much agar and how much gelatin is needed?

eel sauce: roast eel heads and spines until they are golden brown and cripy. it a pot combine real mirin and soy sauce (and when I say soy sauce I mean for example kikkoman koikuchi shoyu) in a ratio of 1:1. Add the roasted eel parts and reduce to half the volume on a low simmer strain, chill, and refrigerate. This is for real "eel sauce". The sauce that is used when roasting eels. To make what is known in America as eel sauce you can thicken this recipe with cornstarch slurry at the end of the simmering.

we sleep on the tatami mats in the tatami room. taking a nap in the 14 hour day is very common at traditional japanese restaurants.