eG Foodblog: Helenjp - Well, pickle me!

[Rebel Rose]

Helen, this has been a wonderful blog! The food and photos are mouth-watering! I wish we could get some of these foods and ingredients here. Thank you for sharing your week with us, and for posting your recipes!

Edited July 4, 2004 by DoverCanyon (log)

[Behemoth]

Great blog! I am completely overwhelmed by the quantity of new information. I need to pickle my fresh garlic. This blog has been bookmarked.

[Hiroyuki]

why are hopped beers heavily taxed? Why not all beer and wine?

Japan is not the country to let a good tax opportunity go! All wines and beers *are* taxed, but the rates are different, and the criteria are different too.

Let me say a few words about this:

The present high tax rate on beer was established in the Meiji Period, about one hundred years ago, when beer was regarded as a luxury item. Beer is no longer a luxury item, but the government does not want to lower the high rate. Instead, it raised the tax rates on happoushu last year. Not to be outdone, breweries have developed new types of beer-like beverage, like this one:

http://www.suntory.co.jp/news/2004/8778.html

This product, made by adding barley shochu to happoushu, is classified as liqueur and is subject to a lower tax rate under the Liquor Tax Law.

As for me, I have already said good-bye to both beer and happoushu; I usually drink kou-rui shochu mixed with barley tea.

[helenjp]

Thanks for all the comments!

I think I'm blogging for about another 12 hours...forgot to ask Soba if he meant Monday my time or Monday his time!

A bit delayed, but here is what went in husband's lunchbox today - thin-sliced pork wrapped around a slices of cucumber and red bell pepper, pan-fried, then a quick swish of vinegar, soy sauce, and chilli sauce around the pan. Red bell peppers are a luxury vegetable here, curious since green bell peppers are one of the cheapest vegetables. I was very pleased to find a bag of them going cheap...

He had rice with sa-go-hachi pickled cucumber, and some spinach with the pork rolls.

Our breakfast was a good example of the kind of "western" food we have! We had hot dogs...but, since supermarket hot dogs taste disgusting, I buy a slightly better type of small sausage for boiling, and put them in small butter rolls, with tomato and cucumber. Yogurt, black tea...everything else as usual...world hasn't ended yet...

After that, I went shopping and had a cup of coffee at the local Tully's with an English friend. I do most of my supermarket shopping on Mondays, and buy fresh produce elsewhere during the week.

I had the same pork rolls that my husband had, and stirfried myself some tougan (winter melon) with onion and dried thyme in olive oil. I've got a thing about thyme at the moment, but I know my husband doesn't like it, so it's a Monday special!

[SobaAddict70]

Monday your time.

I'll PM you with a list of potential taggees. (Dr. Evil laugh.)

Soba

[helenjp]

Dinner tonight was definitely family cooking - after marking all afternoon, I was trying to cook with son2 wanting my advice on each of 12 pieces he was considering for a music exam, while son1 was standing over me bellowing in his just-breaking voice "I'm hungryyyyyy". He'd already had half a bunch of small Delaware grapes and a glass of milk, but he sounded so near tears that I abandoned finishing touches and slammed dinner on the table as fast as possible:

Winter melon soup - I cooked two chicken breasts gently in water with around 1/4 cup sake. The chicken was removed and shredded. The broth was flavored with about 1 pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp soy sauce for every remaining cup of liquid. Into the liquid went cubes of winter melon, and the soup was cooked gently so that the winter melon would become translucent and soft without getting pulpy or breaking up. It is nice cooked with chicken wings, and a little wakame, but not tonight...

Chicken salad: the shredded chicken breast had half a red onion grated into it using my bamboo "devil's grater", a very speedy instrument of vegetable destruction. Two shredded cucumbers were added, and a mustard/mayo/yogurt dressing added.

Red peppers: With son1 about to implode, I abandoned plans to grill the red peppers, heated the frying pan to smoking point, and fried them so that they werre a tiny bit scorched and smoky, to counteract the blandness of the chicken.

Onioroshi

Chicken salad with red bell peppers

Winter melon soup

winter melon (winter gourd)

The umeboshi which I set out to dry on Friday are ready. These were *very* soft, so some are a bit squashed. Notice there are crystals of salt on them...they will reabsorb when the umeboshi are stored in containers. The red umeboshi were placed in red ume brine every night ,and dried during the day. The plain ones were just left for 3 nights and days. My camera is not good with yellow tones, so just imagine that the greenish tone you see isn't there!

New-pickled umeboshi (niiboshi)

One last point...it's one thing to know that your pickles are ready...how to tell if they have gone off?! Salt-pickled vegetables sitting in their own brine or a pre-made brine are vulnerable to mold. As long as the brine is crystal clear, everything is hunky dory. If the brine starts to go cloudy, either move to the next step of the pickle faster, or wipe the walls of the pickling container with some form of strong alcohol, and spray the surface of the pickling liquid with alcohol, remove drop lids, boil, spray with alcohol, expose to sunlight etc and repace. If mold appears, a complete veil of opacity is bad news, but you may be able to remove it, drain the pickling brine, boil it up, cool it, and place brine and pickles in a new container. If it is just an island or two floating on clear brine, the problem is minor - remove the mold, and clean up the container as described under cloudy brine.

If you are considering making your own pickles, why not start with fermented dill pickles? There are some good instructions available from some of the Midwestern college agriculture department sites.

Another great place to start is Claudia Roden's "Middle Eastern Cooking" section on pickle-making. The brine plus vinegar method makes for a particularly fail-safe result.

I haven't finished the promised fukujin-zuke, so I'll post a fukujin-zuke topic on the Japan forum in case anybody is interested.

I'll be signing off with one last post this evening...sorry for the entirely TOO MUCH INFORMATION, hope you have enjoyed some of it!

[helenjp]

Forgot to say, newly-pickled umeboshi are incredibly sour, and are normally allowed to mature for a few months before eating. I always keep a few out though, as husband loves that mouth-puckering sourness!

Umeboshi, once dried, never seem to rot or mold. They will dry up and develop salt crystals, but you can either eat them as they are, or spray them with white liquor (shouchuu) to remoisten them.

I am not sure whether commercial umeboshi keep that well, however. They often contain sugars and flavorings.

[bleudauvergne]

Excellent inspiration has come from you Helen, all week.

Yesterday we went to a store that sells only olive oil and vinegar. There must have been about 200 different kinds of vinegar there. I'm getting in the mood to experiment...

Thanks!

[Behemoth]

I'll be signing off with one last post this evening...sorry for the entirely TOO MUCH INFORMATION, hope you have enjoyed some of it!

Definitely not too much!

I shoved my fresh garlic cloves into a tub of miso last night. We'll see what happens once I'm back in town in three weeks. How long does it usually take to become a pickle? (I didn't blanch & press, I hope that's okay -- the garlic was smelling very pleasant as is.) Hopefully it won't rot in the fridge...

I need to send the ginger shoot pickle picture to my mom.

It's really nice to see how Japanese food is eaten "in situ". Since my experience with it is purely in restaurants, I never have any intuition about what you would eat with what, or what time of year etc.

Your kids seem very cute

[helenjp]

OK, here we go...

You don't need to blanch garlic for pickling in miso or shoyu. To pickle in honey, etc. you should pickle garlic under a weight with about 4% of the garlic's weight in coarse salt for 2 days or so, then wipe dry, and drop into a jar of honey.

The garlic miso I pickled last week is not ready to eat, but the miso is smelling nicely of garlic. Don't pack the miso right to the top of the container - it will absorb moisture from the garlic and overflow...which is why I've already taken some out to use as a flavoring. This garlic I expect to leave for several months, but if the garlic is very young, and you like it powerful and crispy, you could try a nibble in about 4 weeks?

Back on page 1 of the blog, I pickled some young ginger and myouga shoots in salt. That was the first part of a 3-step pickle, which (hastened along a bit) is now ready. After 2-3 days in salt, it was removed, drained, and re-pickled in sake with a little red ume brine. It should have stayed in that for at least a week, but I took it out, drained it again, and re-pickled it for the final time in red ume brine only this time. The 2nd pickle makes it juicy, the 3rd pickle adds color and makes sure the pickle keeps well. I've only just put it in the red ume brine, so it has not taken up much red color yet. The container has a springloaded screw-down which exerts pressure on the pickle. This type of table-top pickle container is often used for making small quantities of quick pickles. A piece of ginger and myouga are on the plate in front of the container.

I've read so many interesting posts in the year or so since I joined eGullet, so I'm very happy if this blog has sparked the least little tickle of a developing idea!

So, bye from me, and from my husband, who has washed dishes while I blogged and is looking forward to a change of shift, and from son1 and son2. They've decorated a bamboo stem for the Tanabata star festival on July 7, which celebrates the conjunction of Altair and Vega, under the guise of "starcrossed" lovers Weaver Maid and Herd Boy. Most decorations feature paper nets which represent the weaving, lanterns, stars, paper chains, and slips with wishes written on them. I'm afraid ours has paper airplanes and wishes related to certain politicians on it...but I love Tanabata all the same! Because...there is NO FOOD associated with it! I have yet to hear of a single traditional Tanabata food, and I love relaxing and enjoying a festival I don't have to cook for.

Hope you all enjoy the next blog...I'm looking forward to it!

[Rebel Rose]

I've read so many interesting posts in the year or so since I joined eGullet, so I'm very happy if this blog has sparked the least little tickle of a developing idea!

I think we've all been bitten by the pickle tickle! I've never made pickles before, but I'm going to start experimenting with some new ideas in small batches. Thanks again, helen, for a wonderful blog!

[mags]

God those kids are gorgeous.

[Boris_A]

Helen, thank you for your wonderful and highly infomative blog. Until now, the only thing I ever pickled were a handful of garlic cloves, but now I'm inspired to do some more. Before I begin, I know where to read and study an extensive, practical piece of information about pickling techniques.

And a special greeting to your husband.

Thanks again!

[Squeat Mungry]

Helen, add my thanks for the absolutely terrific blog! I've been making western-style pickles for a while now, but I'm thinking it's definitely time to broaden my pickling horizon!

Cheers,

Squeat

[Pan]

Helen, I've never pickled anything and have no plans to start now, but this was a unique and really interesting blog just the same, and never was I bored by the information you provided. Thank you, and thanks to your sons and husband for their part in it. And I'm not the first to say it, but your sons are really good-looking.

[sandrine]

Here is a recipe that I have for burdock pickle (Gobo Tsukemono).

However, it is a long lasting one:

A

nama-gobo....10kg

salt.........1kg

water........0.48 galoon

stone......about 5kg

B

soy sauce....0.96 gallon

moromi.......0.48 gallon

chu-zarame...2~3kg

1. wash gobo well, and soak into A for about a month. (shita-zuke)

2. take gobo from salt water and drain water off

3. mix B and bring it to boil. and put them on gobo while they are hot. (hon-zuke)

4. after a week or two, take gobo out. Make new sauce B, and repeat step 3. (keep

first sauce B, and use it when you make tsukemono next time)

5. After another a week or two, take gobo out. using the same sauce, add soy sauce if you like, bring it to boil...repeat step 3 again.

repeat the same step for 3~4 months, until gobo become the way you like.

Helen, as you seem to do a lot of pickles, do you have a local recipe that would take less time than that?

I just love pickled burdock and so I am DESPERATE for a great recipe. :)

Thanks.

Sandrine