Rice Vinegar

[Phish]

I've bought a big bottle of rice vinegar initially thinking of making sushi rice but then thought there were too much hassle if i was just making it for myself... so what else can i use it for? And can sushi rice last (as in put in the fridge overnight for tomorrow?)... sorry, i know there's too many questions here...

Thanks in Advance!

[Susan G]

As a basis for a sesame-OJ vinagrette

Chinese hot and sour soup

Marinade for pork chops

[Mayhaw Man]

I used it last night in a quick stir fry of mixed, finely chopped cabbages-green, red, and bok choi-

Started with oil, got it hot, heaved in sesame seeds, chopped garlic, and some ginger.

Immediately threw in the chopped cabbage

Stir fryed over blasting heat for about two minutes

Finished with equal parts of rice vinegar, dark soy, and 1/2 the amount of sugar.

One more minute or so of stir frying.

Eat-I had it with grilled chicken thighs.

[tommy]

marinate cucumbers and red onions in it. a little sugar too if the vinegar isn't already sweet. (salt shredded or sliced cucs and let the water drain first). serve with grilled meat.

[carp]

I love rice vinegar. It is one of my goto vinegars. I use it often and in many different applications. It’s great. I like the mild soft flavors. It can be used wherever you need a vinegar (except for pickling… it isn’t acidic enough). I splash it on stirfrys, asian soups, salads, everything, etc…

A favorite application is vinaigrettes where it does a great job of bringing together dressing flavors whenever you don’t want a more harshly acidic vinegar. Of course I also like to use more assertively acidic and pungent vinegars, like sherry, but rice wine is often just what I need to liven up a dish without making it too obvious that I added vinegar.

[torakris]

phish,

first off I want to welcome you to egullet and the Japan forum!!

secondly is it the regular rice vinegar or the seasoned type? The seasoned type which is for making sushi rice includes the addition of sugar and salt. I recommend the unseasoned type so you can control the seasonings.

Also sushi rice doesn't take well to refrigeration and really should be made no more than a couple hours in advance and kept at room temp.

As to what to do with it, it is more of a question of what can't you do with it? Since it is much milder tasting than most other vinegars it can be used almost anywhere. I use it in salad dressings, soups, marinades, pickles, sauces, etc.

here are two recipes using rice vinegar from our egullet recipe database (recipeGullet):

Pork and Cucumber salad

http://recipes.egullet.com/recipes/r336.html

Cucumber pickles with ginger

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

[Phish]

Wow!! Thank you all for such superb ideas! *takes a bow*

Torakris~ Thank you for the welcome... im aleady hooked to this e-forum!! I have the Mitsukan brand "Natural flavoured vinegar". Is this any good?

Editted to say: Thanks for the recipe ideas. I'll be trying the cucumber pickle tomorrow night! Will let you know how it goes!

Edited September 1, 2004 by Phish (log)

[memesuze]

Torakris: For those of us who might not have access to Japanese cucumbers, could you convert the 3 Japanese cukes into inches of seedless cukes - or are they roughly the same size? And do we remove the "seeds" that are present even in the "seedless" ones?

Edited September 1, 2004 by memesuze (log)

[torakris]

Japanese cucumbers are quite small both shorter and thinner than the seedless ones you can buy in the US. One large seedless cucumber would be about the same as 2 to 3 Japanese cucumbers, neither of those two recipes really needs exact amounts, they are easily adjustable depending on how many you are feeding.

[torakris]

I wonder why we don't talk about vinegar more...

I ran across this nice article on vinegars in Japan from the Japan Times and it got me thinking just what kind of vinegar most people prefer.

We often call refer to Japanese vinegar as just rice vinegar but one of the most popular vinegars sold abroad and in Japan isn't pure rice it is a mix of various grains.

Here is a general breakdown:

穀物酢 kokumotsu su grain vinegar

米酢 komezu rice vinegar

純米酢 junmaisu pure rice vinegar

玄米酢genmaisu brown rice vinegar

純玄米酢 jungenmaisu pure brown rice vinegar

黒酢 kurozu black vinegar

すし酢　sushizu Grain vinegar with sugar, salt and dashi-seasonings added

So what vinegar do you turn to for your everyday uses?

Any special ones you use sparingly?

[torakris]

My favorites are both from Mitsukan, their komezu (jumbo bottle) and their jungenmai kurozu.

[helenjp]

These are the two BULK bulk vinegars in my kitchen at present. The Tamanoi grain/cereal vinegar at left, and the Tamanoi Kome-su or rice vinegar at right. For a bulk rice vinegar from a discount grocery, I was fairly pleased with this.

For specially "choice" su-no-mono dishes or sushi, I usually use genmai-su - it has a mellower, richer flavor. The difference between that and grain vinegar is quite noticeable. Haven't tried the black vinegar in Kris' photo.

P.S. Many Chinese style soups benefit from a few drops of vinegar, and a good mild vinegar can be substituted for some of the mirin/sugar when making standard sweet-salty Japanese dishes like kinpira.

P.P.S. cell-phone photo, sorry.

[Hiroyuki]

Kokumotsu su and kuro-zu only. No rice vinegar in my kitchen. My mother didn't like it. Maybe I should give it a try.