Do you have home-made shio-koji in your refrigerator? If not, summer is the time to make it, and enjoy using it to pickle summer vegetables. Here is the link to the shio-koji recipe. https://hirokoskitchen.com/2012/06/shio-koji-recipe/ Recently I have added Korean Gochugaru in my shio-koji pickling base. Gochugaru is hot pepper flakes. It is not just hot. Gochugaru comes with sweet and fruity taste. The pair produces exciting pickles which I cannot stop snacking on. I made...
Read MorePreserve Summer with Japanese Pickling Method
Here is the link to my latest Zester Daily article about nukazuke pickling. https://zesterdaily.com/cooking/nuka-zuke-pickles/ Nukazuke, an old pickling method based on fermented rice bran, is a product of lactic acid fermentation and iswonderfullyprobiotic because of the bacteria involved in the pickling process. Enjoy the article and the making of nukazuke at home during this summer!...
Read MoreMy Mother’s End of the Year Ritual
At this time of the year I yearn my mother’s pickled hakusai, Chinese cabbage. It has lactic acid tinged, sweet and salty flavor. It is amusingly crunchy and it is d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. So, these days I roam Greenmarket to find the best and largest head of organic Chinese cabbage. My mother pickled about two dozen heads of cabbage at the end of each year, all of which weighed about 5 pounds. Washing cabbage one after another in ice cold water turned her hands red like a...
Read MoreHakusai no Tsukemono
Before leaving for vacation last year I bought 3 gorgeous, heads of Napa cabbage (Chinese cabbage) at a farmers market at Union Square and pickled them as my mother did every year at the end of the year. Pickled Napa cabbage, hakusai no tsukemono, which acquires delicious distinctive combined flavors of sweetness, sourness (lactic acid) and saltiness and crunchy texture from a month-long fermentation, entertained us at every meal in the following months until we all consume...
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