helenjp

Well, Saran is better than the cheaper brand around here, but neither are great. Stuck-down edge - rub a tiny bit of cornflour over the plastic - it does a good job of working itself under the edge so you can lift it up.

The red plum vinegar is probably exactly the same as the ume-su brine. Commercial pink garlic and bonito flakes: You are right, the bonito flakes won't keep. Some commercial pickles are really ready-for-the-tabe preparations made with certain other pickled ingredients. The original ingredients (e.g. the pickled garlic) will keep very well, but once you add things like extra sweetening, sesame seeds, or bonito flakes, you should keep the pickle in the fridge and use it up fairly quickly. I found this out the hard way when I made takuan with bonito flakes! . It wouldn't be so hard with commercially pickled takuan, but I used home-made takuan...

I found this out while putting together reading material for horticulture students. Plants with strong smells carry their perfume bottles in different places, and apparently onion ones are elongated and run longitudinally, so cutting the onion vertically first and leaving the horizontal cut (which is more likely to sever the odor "capsule") till last helps. Using a sharp knife so that you don't crush the onion (releasing more odor) helps too.

I never can tell if the Japanese market really does prefer this or that, or if it's just what we're given. The proportion of pink/red grapefruit has been steadily rising over the past few years, definitely. I think what Japan likes is something new. So in a while they can introduce white grapefruit, and we'll obligingly go ga-ga over it all over again. In Japan, grapefruit and other large citrus like pomelo or shaddock or whatever (I'm always a bit hazy on the English names for the unusual citrus, and Japanese varieties are a bit different anyway)are often eaten out of hand, the tough membrane removed from each segment. Sweeter varieties are therefore popular.

The recipe is actually for a "healthy" tipple! Here's a recipe for rakkyou (rakkyo). I didn't give it the other day, as I haven't made them in ages - DH is not fond of them. Rakkyou in Amasu (sweet vinegar) SImplified one-step method. 2 kg rakkyou: wash thoroughly, trim root end and stem end, peel off one layer of skin. Heat together: 6 cups rice vinegar, 1.5 cups water, 2.5 c sugar, 1 tab salt, 4-5 dried chilis (If using US measurements, either reduce by 25% or use extra mix to dress other dishes). Bring to simmer, dissolve sugar, and allow to cool. Put rakkyou into a clean dry glass container, pour over cooled amasu mix, weight down with boiled pebbles in a bag, cover with a non-metallic lid. Mature for 1 month, will keep for 1 year. Gosh, when I dug out the book, there was a recipe for pink garlic... 300g new-season young garlic (peeled) 1 cup red ume-su (the brine that accumulates when making umeboshi, colored red with shiso - but also available bottled). Simply pour vinegar over peeled garlic in a glass jar with a non-metallic lid (or sandwich 2-3 layers of plastic wrap. Store for 1 month before eating, will keep about 1 year. I think this may not get as pink as the commercial product, and may not be as crunchy, but who knows? Here's the shiso seed pickle recipe while I'm at it. 300g of shiso seed pods 50g coarse pickling salt Strip seed pods off stems - should be about 200g. Dissolve about 1/3 amount of salt in 1 1 cup of water (3/4 of a US cup), and tip in shiso seed pods. Weigh down with a drop-lid or plate, and soak 2-3 hours. Drain well. In a bowl, add all but 2 tsp of the remaining salt, mix in well. Press into clean dry glass jar, sprinkle remaining salt over, weigh down with a weight of about 200g (boiled pebbles in a plastic bag etc). Use a non-metal lid. Keep in a cool place. Will keep about 1 year, but they are very salty, so rinse or soak before use.

That pink pickled garlic is variously called Shiso Ninniku, Ume Ninniku, etc. To get the crunch, I would recommend pickling it the same way you make rakkyou (sweet pickled shallots), and also using young garlic, which comes out around June. I'll try and experiment around then... Nanban miso: I did find several brief descriptions of how to make this, so I made some. I used kouji miso (cultured rice - a rather sloppy, mild, pale-colored miso), but I think it is also made with moromi - a whole grain miso which is usually sold quite heavily sweetened - don't add much sweetener if you use that. Apparently other vegetables such as gobo (burdock) and carrot or other wild vegetables are added to the chilis and fried together. Long green chilis - up to 50g - a scant 2 oz. 1/2 cup miso, mixed with: 1/4 cup each of sake or mirin (but sake and honey or sugar would also work). Goma abura (toasted sesame oil) up to 1 tablespoon Heat oil (not too hot) and fry chopped chilis until bright green and starting to soften. Add miso mixture and simmer on low-med heat till as thick as oatmeal (roughly...). You really do need to stir it as both miso and mirin burn easily. Cool, drizzle a little extra goma abura over if you wish, and pack. A dab of this was excellent (instead of shoyu) with daikon oroshi for eating with grilled salted dried sardines.

OK, I hear you, and I should have been clearer. I was thinking of one-step fermented pickles, and not pickles such as miso-zuke or nara-zuke, or even matsumae-zuke, where fresh, salted, or dried items are pickled in previously-fermented products (usually seasonings), and are not expected to develop significant amounts of lactic acid. Makizushi or nigiri-zushi really have evolved into something that is clearly different enough from funa-zushi or ishikari-zuke in looks, taste, and even the occasions when they are eaten to warrant being called an evolution. The pickles we are seeing in supermarkets these days look just like the originals, and they are intended to taste the same way too - the only differences are poor materials and slapdash techniques! I'm not happy when I get a vinegar-pickled hakusai-zuke, and I can't regard it as an evolutionary step forward! Turkish pickles use vinegar added to brine to slow fermentation, and the result is a very tasty pickle, but supermarket tsukemono seem to have had almost no fermentation. Senmai-zuke, when I lived close enough to Kyoto to visit once or twice a month, were only pickled for a brief period time, but I remember being told even then (that's over 25 years ago) that "real" senmai-zuke were rarely made outside Kyoto, because they were simply soaked in a salt and vinegar solution. I never buy senmai-zuke - the commercial product is just an expensive asazuke! Asa-zuke is not really pickling, is it ? It doesn't preserve food, just makes it more palatable. The pickle shops you mentioned - I haven't been there for a couple of months (I shop in the other direction ), but they have certainly been selling more and more bought-in pickles in bags, and has a smaller range than he used to - I think the owner of the place nearest the temple is finding age is catching up with him. It would be nice to take a walk over that way and see.

Light sleepers and high-maintenance when awake - yeah, I know all about that! My first baby's head was covered with srumbs, splodges of soup, and streaks of soy sauce from hastily consumed meals with him always, always, always on my lap! When my 2nd baby slept for 4 hours and more at a stretch, I thought something was wrong with him! Crockpot sounds good to me - partly because you're cooking early in the day when the universe still seems a welcoming place. Otherwise, big sandwiches...hunks of cheese...tomatoes and fruit that doesn't crunch when you bite into it... I should have known what was coming when the woman in the neighboring bed in hospital unwrapped a candy, and my newborn son immediately woke up screaming!

Pickles are surely part of every meal in the traditional Japanese style of eating! Pickles made with salt will ferment slowly, producing lactic acid (which tastes sour), so there is no need to add vinegar. However, pickles made commercially usually contain vinegar. They are only pickled a very short time, so they don't taste sour unless vinegar is added. Naturally fermented pickles contain lactic acid, which aids digestion, and vitamin C - but vinegar pickles don't contain these added benefits.

I think I may have a recipe for shiso seeds - I'll have a look. By the way, where are the real pickles? . I started a thorough check, and so far, haven't found a real pickle (that is, one that doesn't include vinegar, but is naturally sour from fermentation products) in any supermarket. I'm shocked - how could Japan just abandon something that has been part of every meal for dunnamany years? Anybody care to check around their neighborhood?

I'm slightly allergic to rice. Japonica rice is more allergenic than indica rice, though we don't hear about this solution in the Japanese media . Definitely try to find low-amylopectin indica rices such as basmati or Thai rice. It appears that japonica proteins are in some ways different from indica proteins - and I believe, also more easily absorbed by the body. The low-amylose, high-amylopection trend in modern Japanese rice cultivars is also a problem. I hear that old cultivars with less influence from mochi rice (which has a lot of amylopectin) are less allergenic. Apart from A-cut, there are some other less allergenic rices around, usually with numbers like Lxxxx (L for "low" protein, I think). I deal with the problem by eating soba noodles, and grains such as barley, barnyard grass, millet etc. The itchy rash was worse for the first few years, now I can eat rice as long as I don't eat it every day...and the rash is less of a problem in cold weather.

I've seen naturally pink rock salt for sale here. The Morton pink salt I was thinking of is dyed pink to alert customers to the fact that it contains saltpeter, for making hams, bacons etc. I probably shouldn't have called it pink salt, which is a confusing name...

Kris, that wouldn't include the "pink" salt that includes saltpeter, would it? I've been making little pancettas all winter using Japanese pickling salt. I haven't found a source for domestic quantitities of saltpeter, but frankly, even if I did, measuring out the tiny amount needed for less than 500g of meat would be quite scary. One reason why lop yuk is so much easier!

I made this recipe for Natilla de Pina today and thought to myself as I simmered the pineapple juice gently and slowly to reduce it to 1/4 cup, "I wonder if it will curdle the milk even after cooking it this long?" It did. And even better, it made the whole custard bitter. . So much for son's desired treat! The *idea* of a pineapple custard is still good though. Any tips? These are the proportions used:

The last of those little mill-your-own places disappeared from Kogane quite recently. I'm sorry to say they turned into a carpark... However, a rice shop in a neighboring suburb sells all its rice brown, and the shop mills your purchases however you want.

I used to like Akebono brand for bento items, but it's been so long that I don't recognize any of their current product line-up - my sons are at the age where tinsy-winsy tasty morsels just aren't enough!

Some things just have to be the same. Your kids will probably never accept any *other* ozouni as correct!

I'm thinking of moving the root vegetable component out of the juu-bako and into the ozouni so this year's ozouni included: Clear broth square grilled mochi komatsuna mitsuba chicken naruto kamaboko (grilled) dried shiitake (pre-simmered and flavored) daikon (ditto) gobo sato-imo (actually yatsu-gashira, which has a denser texture)

Everybody agreed that we didn't need too much osechi: just this...and oh yes, that...and so on, to a list of twenty or so items! So this is what we made - what did everybody else make for themselves (curious to know what items people think are worth making/better made at home)? * huge pile of namasu, served with home-pickled salmon, ikura, and kazu-no-ko * big, enormous pile of kuri-kinton, already sadly diminished * vinegared lotus root flowers * tazukuri (oops, forgot to serve them - I don't make them sweet, so they will go fine with DH's beer, luckily) * grilled yellowtail * simmered vegetables, scattered with carrot cutouts, ginnan, and quail eggs * gingered black beans, served with wolfberries (kuko no mi) * marinated green vegetables as a side dish Bought: konbu rolls (big mistake, horribly sweet), datemaki, extra thick egg just because son2 is fond of it, ham, kamaboko, small fish pickled with millet, squid dressed with roe. P.S. Best innovation in recent years - a light jelly to refresh after long hours in the kotatsu. Last year I made a yuzu kanten jelly, this year a soft red wine jelly with a Japanese vegetable jelly powder.

Vegetables What an idea! Contrary to all the TV ads featuring grinning farmers with armloads of cherished veg, a lot of Hokkaido people are not keen on their greens - at least, not unless they're pickled and drowned in soy sauce as well. Tohoku people seem to have the same tendency?

A huuuuuuge pile of basic namasu, so that I can make different variations to it over New Year.

Pot-cooked baked beans - hiden-mame are an extra-big greenish dried soybean, perfect for long cooking (though they lose their green color). Cooked on "okayu" setting in the rice cooker, they come out tender but whole. A teaspoon each of pickling salt and black sugar was rubbed into one of those strips of pork belly you can get in Japanese supermarkets, and the meat left overnight before being fried in a bare pan until the fat ran, then sliced and fried again till crisp. Meat removed and added to beans in rice cooker. Plenty of onions cooked slowly in the pork fat, then added to the rice cooker and allowed to cool a little (because hot ingredients upset the rice cooker sensors), then the whole thing cooked again on okayu setting with an additional small amount of salt. Transferred to a skillet and cooked slowly to evaporate liquid, with chopped daikon leaves added in the last 30 minutes. The small amount of sugar rubbed into the pork is enough to leave a faint sweetness in the dish. Served with herbed polenta, grilled...but a millet polenta would have worked well too. Everybody in the family enjoyed this, luckily for me!

I used to use a flannel drip filter (like a flannel tea-strainer), then they went out of fashion and I couldn't buy a new one. Recently my local coffee shop owner assured me that they need to be stored wrung-out, in the fridge. They do??

We picked up our Christmas KFC today - my husband is a big fan of the smoked chicken they offer at Christmas. Overpriced, but much enjoyed.

Looking forward to this a lot, especially as I'm chained to my computer for a few days more. As a "newcomer" to Hawaii, do you use pacific vegetables much?