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.
It’s hard to imagine any oriental cooking without including a splash or a dash of soy sauce – an essential ingredient for hundreds of fantastic dishes.
This sticky brown sauce comes in a variety of types and is used for everything in Japanese cooking. When heated it makes a tasty, sticky marinade, delicious with meat or vegetables or it can be added to other sauces as a seasoning or simply used as a dipping sauce for delicious sushi rolls or nigiri.
Soy beans have hundreds of different purposes in the Far East and are used for lots of different foodstuffs including Soya milk and tofu. Today, most eastern countries have their own version of soy sauce.
There are different theories as to how Soy Sauce evolved. A popular one is that it was discovered in China from the process of preserving food known as jiang. Before fridges, finding new ways to preserve food was a big deal and soy beans and wheat were ideal to use as raw materials for preservatives as they grew in abundance. Modern Japanese soy sauce usually includes both these ingredients though there are wheat free brands available.
There are five different types of Japanese Soy Sauce or Shoyu as it is known and each type is included in different recipes and ways of cooking. The most common is Koikuchi or dark soy sauce and Tamari is a wheat free version of this made from the process of fermenting miso. Usukuchi is a light soy sauce but can have a saltier flavour and Saishikomi is twice brewed making it much darker and stronger in flavour than koikuchi. Finally, Shiro is a very light soy sauce using mostly wheat and is a popular accompaniment to sashimi.
It is impossible to eat sushi without a small dish of glossy soy sauce. The rich salty flavours perfectly compliment bundles of rice, fish and vegetables. Soy sauce is so important in Japan it even warrants its own tableware including attractive ceramic soy sauce dispensers and small sauce dipping dishes and you will never see a table set without some receptacle for soy.
Mixed with honey, soy sauce makes a delicious marinade for chicken or beef or it can be mixed with a splash of rice vinegar and a blob of wasabi for a fiery Japanese salad dressing. You can even add a few splashes to stews or casseroles to add a rich flavour or shake it over a stir fry or noodles for an instant eastern flavour.
It truly is one of the most versatile sauces in the world and an essential for the kitchen cupboard for anyone who loves to cook.
The first time I saw seaweed on a menu, I found it hard to picture anything but the knobbly, wet greenery that washes up on beaches across Britain.
It was not the Chinese that brought seaweed to our dinner plates, we have been eating it here for years (like in Welsh laver bread) though in the Far East, it has been a staple of their diet for thousands of years.
Historians have found evidence that six types of seaweeds were used in 800 A.D in everyday cooking in Japan and nori, which is used in sushi, dates back to this period.
Nori is just one type of edible seaweed which comes in dried sheets to wrap round your sushi. The dried sheets are made by a process of shredding and rack drying. It was originally made as a paste and then turned into sheets using similar methods to traditional ways of making paper. The nori is farmed in nets on the seas surface and, in Japan; over 230 square miles of Japanese coastal waters are used to produce 350,000 tonnes of nori each year.
Nori sheets are a true sushi essential and used for sushi rolls, temaki cones, gunkanmaki and more. There are different brands and different qualities but sushi is generally best eaten fresh as the nori stays slightly crisp and doesn’t pick up moisture from the rice or filling.
In Japanese cooking seaweed is used for a range of other dishes. Different seaweeds like Wakame, come in dried strips that expand when wet and are perfect for flavouring soups and can be used in salads if fresh. Other types like Dried kelp can also be used to make a delicious stock for soups or vegetables.
Seaweed is also something of a superfood and is low in fat and high in iron, calcium, vitamin A, B and C, fibre, and protein so it is good for your diet and your taste buds and a delicious way to eat your greens.
Lay out your chosen ingredients as described in the sushi magic
handbook. Grab the sushi roller handles
and bring the roller bar over the ingredients.
2> Roll your sushi!
The special bar holds the fillings in place.
Then when you turn the handles the sushi magic sushi roll maker evenly rolls up the rice
around the ingredients.
3> Shape your sushi roll
Professionally designed moulding allows perfect and
even pressure to compact and accurately shape
the sushi roll Just like only a skilled sushi chef can.
4> Unroll the sushi makers mat
Un-roll the non-stick silicone mat. Using a
table knife, spread tobiko or sesame seed topping on your maki sushi roll.
5> One perfect sushi roll
Makes a perfect compacted sushi roll. Here we’ve
made an inside-out California roll but the sushi magic sushi making kit makes all kinds of sushi rolls, just use your imagination!
6> Slice and Serve!
Slice and serve with freshly mixed wasabi paste. gari ginger and kikkoman soy sauce for the perfect sushi dish. The sushi magic sushi roll maker is now really easy
to clean due to its construction from hygienic materials. it’s so easy!
I had some vegetarian friends for dinner the other night who were new to sushi and I wanted to prove to them that Japanese food is not always dishes with fish or meat.
There is a wide choice of sushi for vegetarians and I won them over early on with my Red Pepper and Takuan Hosomaki.
I served them as canapés but Hosomaki are also ideal for a lunchtime snack as they are the smallest sushi rolls.
Hosomaki usually have the nori seaweed sheets on the outside. My friends liked them so much they took home my recipe for this delicious veggy roll so I thought I would share it with you.
First, make some Yutaka sushi rice, which takes about 30 minutes, and then transfer it to a large bowl and fold in some sushi rice seasoning.
For the seasoning, mix 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 2 teaspoons of castor sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.
How to make a sushi roll is one of those things you need to know. The way to make maki sushi is actually not as hard as you would think. After checking out sushisushi.co.uk you should have all the sushi info you need to know how to make sushi like as good as any London sushi bars and maybe even some sushi bars in Japan!To learn how to make maki sushi we must understand that there are three stages to make maki sushi. The first stage of making maki sushi is to prepare the sushi rice. The sushi rice should be done a few hours before you want to make sushi to allow the sushi rice to cool. Check our how to make sushi rice section for more info.
The next stage is to take to cooled, cooked sushi rice and spread it evenly on the nori seaweed sheets. The nori sheet should be on the sushi rolling mat while you do this so the sushi roll doesn’t stick to the work surface. Be sure to spread all the sushi rice evenly to the edges of the nori sheets, leaving a 2 cm gap from the edge facing away from you. The sushi rice should be around 10mm thick.
When you have prepared all the nori sheets with sushi rice, you need to prepare the ingredients to go in the maki sushi roll. Chop the ingredients and place them across the rice in a line from left to right on the sushi rice.
Finally you need to roll the sushi! This is the tricky bit. If you have the correct consistency of sushi rice and correct sushi rolling technique you should be fine. Start rolling the edge that’s closest to you towards the 2cm gap. Roll the sushi roll as tight as you can without squashing it. When you have done one full roll over, tightly squeeze the sushi rolling mat to form the sushi and help it bond together. Then lightly wet the nori sheet on the 2cm gap and finish rolling. This will allow the nori sheet to band and form a closed maki sushi roll.
Don’t worry; it’s going to take practice to make sushi rolls! You get better every time you make sushi rolls.
Now you’ve learnt how to make sushi rolls you’re going to have to chop them into bite size pieces. The key is a large very sharp sushi knife, though any sharp knife will do. Wet the knife so the length of the sushi knife is moist then with a decisive forward and backward motion chop the maki sushi roll into 15mm pieces.
Japanese food is an explosion of flavours colours and textures and pickled fruit and vegetables are an essential part of the culinary experience.
