Japanese food is an explosion of flavours colours and textures and pickled fruit and vegetables are an essential part of the culinary experience.
Tsukemono (pickled things) are a far cry from onions or red cabbage and include vegetables, fruits and condiments that are served as an accompaniment, a garnish and even a dish in their own right in Japanese homes and restaurants. The tradition dates back to the days before refrigeration when pickling was an important way to preserve food.
Unlike western pickles, the Japanese don’t often use vinegar as the main preservative, preferring salt or brine which gives the pickles a unique taste and maintains a crunchy texture. There are hundreds of different varieties and combinations of tsukemono, each with a unique flavour which is enhanced by using other popular ingredients in the pickling process such as mirin, sake, soy sauce or miso paste. Most pickles are very flexible in terms of how they can be eaten and what with and add an interesting flavour and texture dimension to different dishes, from sushi to noodles to Japanese curry.
Delicate slices of pickled gari ginger are an essential accompaniment to sushi. They are eaten with the sushi rolls as a garnish or between sushi with different fillings or courses of a meal as a tangy palate cleanser. Ginger is also pickled in thin, red strips known as Beni Shoga which is served as a garnish on hot dishes such as meat dishes and yakisoba (fried noodles).
Daikon radish, known as Takuan is another popular pickled vegetable with a bright yellow colour and sweet, crunchy taste that is very versatile. It is served grated with pork steaks covered in panko breadcrumbs or finely sliced with mixed leaves in salads. It can also be finely sliced and added to sushi or used to flavour stews or hot dishes and is often served at the end of a meal as it is believed to aid digestion.
In Japan, fruit is also pickled and served with savoury dishes. Umeboshi is made from Ume fruits which are described as plums but are more similar in colour and texture to apricots. They have a sour taste and are often stuffed inside onigiri rice balls for a quick breakfast or a lunchtime snack and believed to have numerous health benefits including beating fatigue.
One of the best ways to sample Japanese pickles is to try a mixed selection which are ready available and offer a range of flavours. Fukujinzuke is a selection of seven different vegetables which can be served as a snack or side dish, used to fill onigiri rice balls or to garnish maki sushi. Another great pickle for sushi lovers is Shiba Zuke which is a mix of aubergine, cucumber and ginger.
The great thing about Japanese pickles is you can eat them with almost everything – stews, rice, sushi or even as a quick snack. Whatever your taste there will be a flavour and a texture out there you are bound to love which is a great reason to try something new and unique with your food.
Sushi is not only delicious but now scientists have found that it can change our genes to alter the way we digest food.
Some French marine biologists have found a substance in marine bacteria that breaks seaweed down into digestible pieces. By eating sushi wrapped in nori seaweed, it seems the Japanese and all other sushi lovers have also ingested these bacteria and the gene coding for that digestive enzyme.
The team from Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris, made the discovery by chance while studying red algae known as Porphyra of which nori seaweed is a type. They discovered the new enzyme, porphyranase, from bacteria living on the seaweed that break down the algae. They looked through hundreds of gene databases to search for where this unique enzyme might occur and linked it to the gut bacteria of a group of Japanese people.
This means the Japanese digestive system has probably adapted to include this marine bacteria as a result of a sushi rich diet, especially since nori seaweed is dried but eaten raw. It is an amazing discovery as it proves that what we eat and how we prepare it can influence the biological processes for how we consume food.
So, eating sushi wrapped in seawed – maki, gunkanmaki, temaki cones - can change the way our bodies respond to what we eat. It is another great reason for investing a sushi making kit and eating a Japanese diet which is also healthy, low fat and full of vitamins and minerals.
This point was reiterated by American microbiologist, Professor Justin Sonnenburg who wrote an article to accompany the team’s Nature paper. He said: ”Global travel and trade are providing unmatched access to new types of food and perhaps new microbes harbouring novel genes. So the next time you take a bite of an unfamiliar food, think about the microbial inhabitants you may also be ingesting, add the possibility that you will be providing one of your ten trillion closest friends with a new set of [digestive] utensils.”
Most Japanese people don’t celebrate Easter as it is one of the few festivals in the Western calendar that is still predominately religious and has no significance outside the Christian religion.
However, if you travel to Japan at this time of year you will see window displays in the shops with chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies and this recipe sticks with the seasonal theme by using eggs and a tasty treat for dinner parties or a spring snack.
Chawanmushi means steamed in a tea cup and unlike the sweet, desert custard we are more familiar with, it is a savoury egg dish, served as a starter in many Japanese restaurants. Recipes vary but underneath the rich, golden egg, seasoned delicately with Japanese condiments, is a delicious combination of savoury ingredients.
Chawanmushi is a classic Japanese dish and is served in small, earthenware soup bowls, often with matching lids but the easiest thing to use is a set of ramekins. You will also need a large bamboo steamer.
- Mix three eggs loosely in a large bowl or jug with chopsticks but don’t beat them too hard.
- Add 350ml of dashi soup stock, 1 teaspoon each of soy sauce, sake and sugar and a pinch of salt.
- To get a smooth and rich custard, strain this mixture through a sieve.
- Divide eight small prawns between four ramekins along with a chicken thigh chopped into small, bite size pieces and finely chopped shitake mushrooms.
- Fill each cup ¾ full with the egg mixture and cover with a piece of tin foil.
- Steam the custard in the bamboo steamer over high heat for about 5 minutes then turn down the heat and steam for another 15 minutes or so.
You can test if the custard is ready by prodding it gently with a toothpick or the prong of a fork – if the liquid runs clear, it is done. Serve hot or chilled depending on weather for the ultimate in Japanese comfort food.
