helenjp

Aha! I knew you'd posted the date of your show and couldn't find it (writes busily on calendar...). I am certainly looking forward to watching you make sausages! Tarako - because it's so handy, I'm surprised (but also a little relieved!) that it is isn't more commonly available in tubes or freeze-dried etc. When I get some cheap tarako, I sometimes make tarako-butter, which is very handy for the bento wars every morning.

The Nissui link is very interesting, particularly because it goes against the Great Rule of bento-making, that you are supposed to heat everything up hot again before putting it into a bento. I'm curious, Kris, with your background in food hygiene etc., how important do you think this rule is? Or is the Nissui stuff likely to be shoyu'd way past what a mortal bacteria could bear? I've just finished my first week of 5am bento making. The wretched bento boxes are bigger than they were when my kids were small, and I could certainly not get everything done if I cooked every item in the morning -but so far, I've always gone with the old school and reheated previously cooked items very hot before packing. This week: Pork slices rolled with a dab of miso/sesame/scallions paste and burdock root. Rolled omelets Salmon pickled in white miso/sake lees and then grilled Pork simmered with daikon shreds in a kochujang and sesame sauce Chicken meatballs in ginger sauce Myouga shoots in sweetened vinegar Broad beans - plain, and in a chili-dressed salad with onion shreds and ham Nuka pickles (bless my nuka bed!) Hijiki - the usual mixed nimono, with some sesame added Deep fried gobo dropped hot into soy sauce and vinegar The usual dressed spinach and other greeens Red beans and rice Okowa rice with green peas and salted cherry blossom

I will try it, and looking at your recipe, I see you comment that many recipes for this are too complicated. I agree wholeheartedly - with takikomigohan, less is more!

I don't know what the official explanation is, but generally, a young pickle bed will make salty pickles and will also take a while to pickle hard vegetables like carrot. You may be right about the higher proportion of salt in bought nuka mixes though - I used one last year, and I think that this year's nuka bed is much less salty - and also taking longer to get up to speed. I think that a mature bed is supposed to pickle soft vegetables such as cucumber in half a day. 6 hours seems rather brief, though it depends on the air temperature too. If the cucumber is floppy (!) and transparent (no white patches) when sliced, it's pretty much done.

peter-nyc, occasionally nagaimo gets very watery when grated if the imo is not fresh. This seems to me to happen more often with the cylindrical nagaimo than the flat fan-shaped yama-imo. If the skin of the nagaimo seems unusually reddish rather than very light tan, it may not be fresh.

If it gets too sour it's hard to eat with enjoyment! And yes, it's a sign that the various cultures are running out of food. Stirring introduces oxygen - yes. Very important, because the "bad" bugs tend to be anaerobic, so the more you stir, the more you discourage them. The point of no return - I imagine that there is more than one culture at work in a nuka bed, but if you let minor cultures get out of hand, it may be more trouble than it'S worth to recover the balance and flavor you want. If the pickle bed goes moldy, I think you've had it - but if there's just a bit on top, scoop it off with a sterile spoon, taking plenty of the surrounding stuff with it, and wipe the walls of the container with alcohol (shochu, alcohol etc). If the whole bed is moldy it will not only taste terrible, you could get very sick.

Keep on mixing that baby! Once a day, twice if you can. I've got a new nuka bed going too, and have to keep reminding myself to get back into the habit of checking it twice daily.

The small square Hida grills should be OK for indoor use - they really are small, especially since the container is remarkably thick-walled. Traditionally, people grilled their fish outdoors when using charcoal grills - to the extent that a friend of mine who is now around 60 spent her girlhood evenings in sun, rain or snow, out on the balcony with the darned fish grill, because her mother refused to switch to anything newfangled! So please take the issue of ventilation seriously.

Just want to second Adam's suggestion of mackerel as a good sub for herring. Herring has quite a strong and distinctive taste, and while big sardines work, I think they have softer flesh than herrings. However, I sometimes wonder if you have to grow up on herring to love it. They're sold brined, dried and run over by trucks here in Japan, and I hate every last one of 'em!

I'm a bit hesitant to specify ages, as it's 10 years and more since my boys were babies, and at that time, solids and juices were being introduced rather earlier than in western countries (but progress thereafter was perhaps slower). I think that dilute barley tea is probably the first non-milk drink. Most babies start with the watery part of rice congee, then watery rice congee which is gradually made with less and less water. A wide variety of grated or mashed vegetables and tiny amounts of white fish are commonly added to this, and then other fish and meats are added. That's what my elder son was weaned on, and he has certainly grown up to eat almost anything. My younger son suffered "second child-itis" and soon graduated to things like soft-boiled noodles or cooked rice boiled with water (rather than made from scratch congee) with a smaller variety of veges, fish or meat. He's much fussier than my older son, and I've never been sure if it was the food he was weaned on, or his closer resemblance to his deeply conservative Dad! I think Japanese parents are perhaps more conservative about raw fruit, and definitely more conservative about unheated whole milk or yogurt, and they don't race to introduce eggs either. On the other hand, natto is a baby favorite that seems to be fed to every generation of older babies and toddlers. Probably after 1 year, Japanese parents are less conservative than western parents - they seems to think more about how hard the food is to chew, and not so much about whether a certain food should not be fed to toddlers under the age of 3, for example. But I'm sure that ideas have changed, and people with younger kids will have more useful comments for you! However, I think that media assumptions about child eating habits have great influence. Japanese media seems to regard spinach as a delicacy, and kids obligingly agree. However, green peppers are regarded as unpopular with kids, and sure enough, when my kids saw this on TV, they told me they hated them too, and were surprised to hear that they were the very same things they pulled off the plants in the garden and ate raw while digging in the sandbox! I think that Japanese picture books are much more likely to show vegetables or fish, and kids and adults alike look forward to what each new season will bring.

mizuame - rice malt, like corn syrup, but much stiffer - that's one reason why people sometimes substitute honey. Kasutera is traditionally cooked in wooden molds, which does prevent it from burning easily. It's therefore a great recipe to cook in disposable paper-case bakeware.

I think sansho's reputation comes from two reasons: 1) it needs to be in a sunny place, BUT it needs plenty of water. In other words, think of a sunny hillside among larger trees, that gets plenty of rain but is never waterlogged. 2) it is rarely grown from seed, so you are seeing rooted cuttings. Roots on such plants are never as robust as those on seedlings, and then you have a plant which is a little pernickety about drainage requirements in the first place. This may be why it is so often container grown. I did kill one by placing it in a sunny DRY spot near the concrete foundations of our house. But I'll know better next time, won't I, and now is the season for buying sansho plants.

Depending on what the allergy problem is, she may find that yogurt (especially thoroughly fermented, sour, home-made ones) don't cause the problems that fresh milk or artificially coagulated, milk-powder-reinforced commercial dessert-type yogurt products do.

I suspect so too, though I don't really want to contemplate it! I will be having another go though, definitely, as its a nice compromise between the "eat quickly" sponge cake and the "cut and come again" pound cake.

Roughly, you can divide things into pottery and lacquerware for individual use, and serving dishes/condiment containers and dishes. Absolute basics (personal): Chawan (rice bowl) - pottery or china Miso bowl, lidded or unlidded, in brown stain plus clear lacquer or red or black lacquer on the outside, usually red lacquer inside. Best on a wooden base, but melamine is OK. ko-sara - 3 inch and 5 inch round "saucers" or similar size in different shapes Chopsticks Expanded set (personal): fish plates - rectangular asa-bachi (shallow bowl) - sort of like a soup coupe or small cereal bowl donburi - bigger, deep bowl for rice with toppings, hot noodles etc chopstick rests - only used for formal dining, I'm afraid. Serving dishes - anything goes, but things I use regularly are: set of 3 nesting square china dishes, for everything from pickles to vegetables. Flat or shallow oval or rectangular platter or wooden dishes of the type used for sushi (I have some bamboo ones which are easy to look after, light, and attractive), Wide, deep dish for simmered dishes, any shape. Matched set of chopsticks used only for serving Things I like using from time to time: A classier version of the humble ridged mortar (suribachi) for all kinds of dressed vegetable dishes. Large lacquered dishes. Very small decorative enameled or glass or ceramic dishes for small portions of something special!

I think Akiko's right, Kyoto is the best place for shichimi...and therefore the depachika's which deal in regional specialties are always a good bet outside Kyoto. English recipe for shichimi tougarashi This is not a bad recipe. Seeds should be stirred in a pan till they pop, and chilis should be gently dry-fried. All ingredients should be reduced to a coarse "meal", though seeds may be left whole. Tokyo-style - use more chili Kyoto-style - use less chili, more aromatics. The basics: dried chilis, powdered sansho (the green berries - the ripe ones are Szechuan pepper), dried mikan peel (scrape all white off before drying), black, or black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and/or rape seeds, nori (laver), and other dried seaweeds - bright green or red, dried ginger. Also popular - dried yuzu peel.

John there are notes in the main nuka-zuke post upthread about how to leave home without your pickle-bed! Beer is quite a common additive to nuka-zuke pickle beds. You can even buy brewer's yeast specially for that purpose.

rice flour taste - not really, because I was using the rice flour in combination with ordinary flour...sorry.

Rice flours - I did an experiment a while back to see if there was much difference and found HUGE differences. I would expect a cake baked with a coarser flour to turn out a near failure, from my experience with shortbreads. The healthfood type of ground rice/rice flour you mention is the coarsest and grittiest, and absorbs the least moisture. This is followed the various Chinese or SE Asian/Japanese traditional rice flours. The finest I found was a rice flour developed especially for cakes and cookies etc. This was much finer than even the traditional Chinese etc. rice flours, even though these feel quite fine to the touch. The cake-baking rice flour I tried was called Riz Farine.

You'd have to grow them if you want them - and now is a good time to find herb seeds in the stores. I've just got used to the stronger flavor of scallions, I think - don't seem to miss them any more!

natto omelet, natto stirfried with ground pork or beef...

I made one yesterday, paying extra attention to creaming the butter and sugar and whisking the eggs till pale and fluffy, and...disaster! I can't recall such a disaster in the past two decades! It looked done, had a nice resilience, so I turned it out to cool...and the entire shell broke up, sending a flood of hot, raw cake batter everywhere! It didn't rise as well as I had anticipated, either. I suspect that maybe the sugar was a bit coarse, as well as the baking time being too short! And maybe my aging oven ain't what it were, either. The remains of the cake baked nicely though, and were tasty enough that the kids polished it off for breakfast. I'll try again later!

Barbara Y, if worst comes to worst you could try a heavy plastic bag as a container! Enamel is probably best, and for a small amount, a lidded casserole wouldn't be bad either. But most people probably use plastic boxes. I've heard that barrels are far and away the best thing for takuan, as it prevents the takuan bed from turning into a bath with all the liquid from the daikon. But not so many people have a handy barrel or two lying around.

I considered putting up instructions for takuan, but thought that might be overkill. But since it's just another type of nuka-zuke, here goes. Warning: home made takuan does NOT keep anything like as well as shop-bought takuan. Go on, ask me how I know that... FOr 10kg of semi-dried daikon (let's get to that later): 480g coarse pickling salt (6% of daikon weight - this is very low, the pickle won't keep more than 2 months, 3 at the outside. 10% is fine.) 1kg raw rice bran (roughly 15%& by weight of the semi-dried daikon) 1/2-1 Japanese metric cup ()that is 100-200ml by volume) of coarse brown sugar (aka-zarame, Australian raw sugar is not a bad choice here) 40cm dried kombu (kelp) cut into 5-6 pieces 10-15 dried chilis semi-dried apple peels and or mandarin peels, if desired. Scrub but don't peel daikon. Tie daikon in pairs with twine, hang over a pole or line out of the rain (in a nice breezy spot, plenty of sunshine is fine, in fact desirable). Dry for 2-3 days in early winter weather in Japan - until you can easily bend a daikon into a U shape. CUt leaves off very close to top of daikon, roll daikon back and forth till pliable all over. Mix all pickle ingredients together, Lay a good layer down on the bottom of your container (see above post on nuka-zuke), then add a layer of daikon, bending them round and round, end to end, in a spiral to fit the container. Add more nuka mixture, patting down firmly, then keep on layering daikon and nuka, ending with a nuka layer. Put a layer of paper or wrap down, then a board or plate, and a weight twice the weight of the daikon you are pickling. Cover all with several sheets of newspaper, tying or taping to the container. Leave in a cool, dry place for 2-3 weeks. Outside is fine if it is shady and cool. When water exuded by the daikon reaches the level of the board or plate, reduce weights by half. Leave for another week or two before sampling, probably at its best 1-2 months after pickling. If you spot faint signs of mould after the takuan is ready to eat, remove from the pickling bed, scrape off most of the nuka, and pop into the fridge. You could probably freeze it, but no guarantees.) If you want to try with just one daikon, probably about 150g nuka, 100g salt, 1 tab raw sugar, 2-3 chilis, and a table-top springloaded pickle maker will do you.

Rob, I tried to find some exact nutritional information on rice/wheat/oat brans, but no luck. I think that any of those will be fine. Rice bran seems to have quite a high oil content, so maybe try oat bran first, as I think it probably has more oil than wheat bran (I7m just guessing, I warn you!). Here's a Japanese recipe - if you use alternative brans, you might need a little more or less water. It should be almost crumbly to start with, but moist enough that if you pat it down firmly it will form a solid mass. 2kg raw rice bran, gently toasted in a low oven or over low heat in a wok or big saucepan. This drives off the raw flavor more than really "toasting" it. 250g salt (that's 12.5%, which is usual for modern low-salt varieties. 15% is more usual, and is not too salty). 1.8 liters water 50cm length of dried kombu (kelp). 3-4 dried chilis 2 tab fresh sansho berries if you have/like them, entirely optional. 200g unwanted fresh vegetables (scraps OK but not mouldy, muddy etc.). Bring water and salt to the boil, dissolve thoroughly, allow to cool completely (covered). Place prepared bran in a container, add kombu, chillis etc, and pour water in gradually, mixing with clean hands or a wooden spoon. Use a big container, as the veges you add will take up room, and you need to mix the pickle thoroughly every day, which is easier if it isn't about to spill out of the container. Heavy plastic is OK, but enamel or glazed pottery (scalded with boiling water) is even better. Lay unwanted vegetables in the pickle bed, covering well with pickle, and leav for about 2 days. Remove vegetables carefully (fragments left in will spoil and eventually cause the whole pickle bed to go off). Repeat once or twice - the initial pickles tend to be harshly salty, and the pickle bed needs time to ferment and develop lactic acid. Now you can start pickling vegetables to eat. Suitable vegetables - soft or small vegetables can be pickled in the morning and eaten that evening. If not needed, remove from pickle bed and wrap in plastic and store in the fridge rather than leaving in the pickle bed. If you constantly pickle very water vegetables such as eggplants and cucumbers, the pickle will get wet and too sour. Ideally, add more salt and nuka. However, you can make a depression and allow water to pool there, then scoop it out for a quick fix. This does remove some of the flavour, though. Popular items: cucumbers, eggplants, lengths of daikon (halved or quartered especially in cooler weather), carrot, whole radishes or small turnips, bell peppers, chunks of cabbage in nylon netting, myouga buds...and so on. Care: You need to (with clean hands) mix the pickle bed thoroughly every day, twice daily in hot weather. At the same time, wipe any splatters off the walls of the container with a clean damp cloth. Once a week, remove excess liquid and/or add 1/2 cup lightly "toasted" bran and 1 tsp salt. If it is very sour, remove all vegetables, add 1 tab powdered mustard, and mix thoroughly. Mix well 2-3 times daily for 3 days before pickling any more vegetables. Sourness often goes with liquid so add more bran/salt until the bed is very firm. If you are away from home for a few days, pack the whole thing up in a couple of plastic bags and put it in the fridge. If you are away during the day and the bed gets very hot either a) for a small amount, keep in fridge during the day, leave out at night so that fermentation doesn't stop completely, or b) while away during the day, cover with a very clean damp (boiled, blasted in dryer, microwaved etc.) cloth, and put a clean towel over the pickle container instead of a close-fitting lid. Replace lid and remove cloths when you return home. I recall friends in old, cold NZ homes keeping their nuka container in the hot water cupboard in winter. ...in other words, nuka is like a pet! If you want to "kennel" it for a few months, make it up very firm with salt and bran, close very carefully, and leave in a cool dark place for up to 3 months. To re-use, take out top 3cm and throw away, clean walls of container, and away you go.