Japanese foods--tsukemono

[torakris]

On the curry rice thread we are discussing eating curry rice with fukujinzuke, my question is , does anyone eat this kind of pickle with anything else?

I know my tupperware container of it only gets pulled out when there is curry on the table....

Does anyone eat this as an everyday pickle?

[Hiroyuki]

On the curry rice thread we are discussing eating curry rice with fukujinzuke, my question is , does anyone eat this kind of pickle with anything else?

I know my tupperware container of it only gets pulled out when there is curry on the table....

Does anyone eat this as an everyday pickle?

My wife does!! She eats fukujinzuke with plain cooked rice! She says she likes its sweetness. And that's the problem. The container is often empty when I want to eat it with curry and rice.

[torakris]

I made a great cucmber pickle last night, it was so good I posted it at recipe gullet:

http://recipes.egullet.com/recipes/r1041.html

Tataki Kyuuri no Shouga-zuke

[Pumpkin Lover]

That's what the waitress told us at Soba-ya, my favorite soba restaurant in NYC. My friends and I had ordered an appetizer of broiled cod, and on the side of the plate was a small pile of pickle. We tried the pickle on its own, before tasting the cod, and didn't think too much of it. But, after we had eaten the cod and had some salt in our mouths, we tasted the pickle again, and we were blown away!

Our waitress told us that the pickle was called Soba Miso with Takana. Whenever I try to Google soba miso, I get soup and noodle recipes. Please, someone tell me about this pickle! Can I buy it in America, or can I have it shipped from Japan? Where in Japan is it made, and what is usually served with it? Also, what other kinds of traditional Japanese pickles are out there? Curious minds need to know.

Thanks!

[torakris]

Most of the experience I have had with soba miso is as a "dip" with vegetables most often with cucumbers or very young ginger.

According to this website I found (Japanese):

http://www.mi-so.com/sobamiso-setumei.htm

there are two types, one for a "dip" and another for miso soup.

It is basically made with miso, sugar, and buckwheat, the extra ingredients depend on who is making it. The one at the site above has sesame seeds, mirin and chiles, though I have seen recipes calling for other things such as yuzu, scallions, katsuo-bushi,etc.

[Hiroyuki]

I need some clarification:

1. What exactly do you mean by takana? Is it takana zuke (pickles)?

Look at the photos:

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/onimaru/480337/

You can see how green leaves of takana 高菜 are made into takana zuke.

2. Was is a mixture of soba miso and takana?

[torakris]

I have never seen it mixed with takana (I was going under the assumption of pickled takana) and searches of yahoo Japan give no results of takana and soba miso.

The way I am used to seeing it is like this

as a "dip" with vegetables, this picture is from our recent egullet Tokyo get together and may or may not be soba miso, I don't remember the waitress saying, but it looks similar to this.

[Pumpkin Lover]

Oh, Hiroyuki! On that site you posted, the pickle I had looked almost exactly like the stuff on the right. It didn't look like the jellified stuff that torakris mentioned (thank you, though, Kristin!). It was greenish, and it looked like it might have had bean sprouts (although that's just a guess). Is there any way I could order that stuff?

THANKS, Hiroyuki! Yay!

[torakris]

pickled takana (mustard) leaves can probably be found at some larger Japanese/Asian grocers, an online source is here:

http://www.katagiri.com/ctlg/ek.htm

scroll down to pickles and look at items K1161 and K1181

These are just the pickled takana though and will probably not taste the same as the restaurant one that were mixed with soba miso.

[Hiroyuki]

Oh, Hiroyuki! On that site you posted, the pickle I had looked almost exactly like the stuff on the right. It didn't look like the jellified stuff that torakris mentioned (thank you, though, Kristin!). It was greenish, and it looked like it might have had bean sprouts (although that's just a guess). Is there any way I could order that stuff?

THANKS, Hiroyuki! Yay!

So, what about soba miso?

Takana zuke and soba miso served separately?

[Pumpkin Lover]

No, I think the takana and soba miso were mixed together. The waitress initially mentioned that the pickle had miso and buckwheat in it, as torakris said. Then, she went into the kitchen, came back out, and told us that it was soba miso with takana. It had the look of the takana leaves that you (Hiroyuki) posted, so I assume that it was soba miso mixed with takana.

So, it doesn't seem that soba miso with takana is a traditional pickle, if the experts haven't seen it! Oh, man. You guys should try it, though: it's really good with fish!

[Hiroyuki]

I still can't believe that the combination of takana and soba miso is possible, I mean, tasty. Maybe you could take a picture of it the next time you go to that soba-ya and order the same dish...

Soba miso is usually consumed in the way torakris described, and takana zuke is often eaten with plain cooked rice and used to make takana chahan (fried rice).

[torakris]

I too am interested in this combination as both takana pickles and soba miso are quite strong tasting.

Maybe they just mixed some boiled mustard greens with soba miso? rather than using the pickled versions? That actually sounds pretty good.

[torakris]

Check out helenjp's pickle based food blog currently going on:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45950&hl=

[okinawaChris]

I would like to inquire if anyone has a recipe for Fukujin-zuke recipe used with Curry Rice. The CoCo Ichibanya style would be great! But any recipe would be appreciated. I know it normally contains 7 vegetables such as lotus root but I can't find the brine or method instructions. Thanks for your help!

[Hiroyuki]

I'm pretty sure that Helen, the Queen of Pickles, has a recipe. Right, Helen?

[Hiroyuki]

The CoCo Ichibanya style would be great!

I've been too busy in the Coffee & Tea Forum to answer your question.

There are a number of online sources available (in Japanese) for making fukujin-zuke, like these:

http://www.webnews.gr.jp/umeko/cook57.html

http://www5.hokkaido-np.co.jp/pocket-book/...emono/c003.html

The problem that I have when trying to answer your question is that I have never been to that curry shop and cannot imagine what the fukujin-zuke served there tastes like.

Is it simply sweet or is it also sour?

Typically, a fukujin-zuke recipe includes soy sause, sugar, and mirin, but some also include Japanese rice wine (sake) and/or vinegar.

[okinawaChris]

Thanks for the recipe links! Is Babelfish the best Japanese to English web page translator?

As for the Fukujin-Zuke style, the only difference I noticed from the ones prepackaged and sold in the local markets is that the color is brown at Coco instead of the more normally seen market sold red. The Fukujin-zuke is crunchy and slightly sweet but with a sour edge that cuts nicely the richness of the curry plates sold at Coco Ichibanya.

It looks like the second link is closer to what I was looking for. I'll just have to get it translated.

Thanks Again!!

[Hiroyuki]

Is Babelfish the best Japanese to English web page translator?

Sorry, I've never used any of those web page translators. Is this the site you are talking about?

http://world.altavista.com/

I have just tried doing some translation using this site, but found that the results are quite disappointing.

If you need a human translator like me, give me a reply, OK?

[helenjp]

Hi, I do have a recipe, and I just made a batch with photos. It is DIFFERENT from commercial fukujinzuke, because that is usually made with some kind of syrup, or LOTS of sugar, or even mizu-ame, and often includes color to emphasize the yellowish color which originally came from using generous amounts of takuan. It's not actually a very old pickle - maybe at it's height in the Taisho period, so likely originated around 100 years ago.

Sorry I've been out of the loop - was just girding the old loins for a busy fortnight when we had a family crisis. Think we're all right way up again now!

Fukujin-zuke is made with "old" salt pickles desalted and repickled with sweet/shoyu flavors, and lots of fresh ginger.

Some home-made recipes start with fresh vegetables, and are therefore even further away from the taste of commercial recipes.

Anybody in Japan can get a recipe in August (maybe July, but I think August) issue of Kyou no Ryori, pretty similar to the recipe I used.)

I'll post a basic recipe in English plus a photo later in the day.

[helenjp]

Here is the recipe and photo. I meant to upload it as soon as I finished, and I am now a little hazy about exactly how much soy sauce I used, sorry. However, I used a fairly pale takuan, and no food coloring, so this is not the bright orange of commercial fukujinzuke. It would be much more orange if you used both, but home-made fukujinzuke is often this type of shoyu pickle color, maybe because people are anxious not to add unnecessary additives to home cooking?

The key is to use plenty of takuan, and plenty of ginger!

Fukujinzuke recipe here

[Hiroyuki]

Since Helen submitted her recipe, I was of two minds about submitting my version, but anyway here it is.

Note that this is not an exact translation of the second link but my original version. I think I'll post it in RecipeGullet later.

Fukujin-zuke recipe:

Ingredients (5 kg of vegetables in total):

3 daikon (Japanese radish)

3 carrots

15 cucumbers

20 eggplants

1 lotus root (or 2 bags of sliced lotus roots)

300 g ginger

5 burdock roots

3 chili peppers

400 ml Japanese basil seeds (or 1 bottle of seeds picked in soy sauce)

(Note: 'Shiso no mi' in Japanese.

Photos (of making shiso no mi pickles):

http://www.agri.pref.kanagawa.jp/nosoken/n...omi/Sisomi2.htm

Seasonings (for 5 kgs of vegetables)

1.8 + 0.9 (= 2.7) liter soy sauce

1 kg zarame sugar (same as demerara?)

http://www.michinosima.com/kaimono/kizala-2.html

Optional:

70 ml mirin

270 ml vinegar

How to make:

Finely cut daikon, carrots, cucumbers, eggplants, and lotus root into 1 to 1.5-cm (0.4 to 0.6-inch) squares. Cut ginger into julienne. Either whittle or shred burdock roots. Soak them all in 1.8 liter of soy sauce overnight. Next day, drain in a colander. Dissolve zarame sugar in 0.9 liter of soy sauce by bringing the mixture to a boil. Add mirin and vinegar if you prefer. Put drained vegetables in the mixture, mix de-seeded and shredded chili peppers and Japanese basil seeds. Let stand overnight.

[smallworld]

This is late, but I wanted to thank Helen for the wonderful food blog. I also checked out Kristin's New Years food blog (I had missed it originally) and it was great! I learned a lot from both of these blogs.

I immediately tried Helen's miso-pickled garlic and my husband has been most impatient to try it. Last night we finally opened it up for a taste.

It's been less than a month and a half, so not surprisingly the garlic was still crisp with a sharp raw flavour. But it had turned a nice brown and was definately edible. And I would probably be great to cook with.

The miso had already taken on a deep rich garlic flavour, and is ready to use. My husband insisted on using it for yaki-onigiri, so that's what we had for dinner last night. He loved it but as I had suspected it was just too garlicky. I didn't like it at all.

Would be great as a marinade for meat though.

I guess I'll have to wait a few more months for the garlic. It doesn't look like it will last long so I think I'll start some more now.

Thanks Helen!

[helenjp]

I usually leave garlic miso for about 6 months (I have a sort of superstition about letting it pass through both hot and cold weather...no known scientific basis!), and I use the miso more for seasonings than as a condiment.

If you wanted a quick maturing version, I wonder if a sloppy mix of miso and shochu would do the trick? The garlic would probably stay crunchy however. I haven't tried it that way, but I plan to - with some chili pods sliced into the pickling mix.

[torakris]

I just came back from the states and while I was gone, for some unknown reason, my husband bought one of those huge nets of garlic. No I know what to do with it!! 6 months... I don't think my husband will have that much patience either.

By the way, I have been asked to do a repeat blog, look for it coming around October 5th!