Mottainai – The Taste of Japan

Japan meets Italy: Okara Grissini

I told you here about my mission to make proper Kinugoshi (Japanese silken tofu) at home. By now I can reliably repeat making both – momendofu (firm tofu) as well as Kinugoshi, which is especially wonderful with the heat of the summer that is finally approaching Germany. Kinugoshi is by far my most favorite lunch snack in hot weather. Served chilled with a refreshing ponzu sauce, some grated ginger and dry roasted katsuo bushi or equally wonderful with a sauce that I call ‘liquid umami’ and some wasabi for a little kick.

Okara are packed with fiber, protein and iron

Yesterday was tofu-making day in my kitchen and every time you make tofu you end up with about as much okara. The left over lees. As nothing goes to waste in the Japanese kitchen there are many ways to use up okara, which by the way is packed with fiber, protein and iron.

On my Shōjin Ryōri event I used okara to make croquettes – alongside with potatoes, pumpkin and adzuki beans -finished off with some freshly ground sancho pepper and super fine ‘snow’-salt.

Today though we will get a much-valued visitor that we haven’t seen for quite some time. There will be a lot of talking and sake to catch up and I prepared okara grissini as a nibble to go with the sake (Tskudani make a good nibble as well, so do pickled cucumbers) . Not exactly a Japanese recipe, but highly recommendable. You can make the okara-grissini using eggs as well as a replacing the eggs with flaxseeds. I prefer the vegan version, because the flaxseeds add an interesting component to the grissini.

Freshly powdered flaxseeds ground in a suribachi

Recipe for 14 (vegan) Okara-Grissini

Ingredients
200g	fresh okara
100g	Bread flour
1 1 Tbsp. 3 Tbsp.	Egg or alternatively Powdered flaxseeds and Water
¾ tsp.	Salt
1 tsp.	Baking Powder

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180° C. If you are preparing the vegan version mix the powdered flaxseeds with the water and let them rest for 10 Min. In the meantime mix the other ingredients in a bowl. Add the flaxseeds once they are done and knead well. The better you knead the better the dough will hold together. Especially important should you decide to use low-gluten flour.

Portion out about 25g of the dough and roll each of it up to a 20cm grissini. If you use larger amounts of dough or prefer the grissini to be thinner make sure to adjust the baking time accordingly. Put them on a parchment lined baking tray and bake them for 30 Minutes. After they have cooled for a few minutes you can eat them straight away. Ideally consume them the same day to enjoy their crispiness.

Okara-grissini just before they went in the oven

If you want to add nutrition you may change the flour to whole-grain flour. I also like to make okara-grissini with whole-grain spelt flour, but in this case I need to be a bit more conscientious when kneading the dough and rolling the grissini, as the dough doesn’t hold together as well.

* Okara can be kept up to five days in the fridge or several weeks in the freezer if you do not have the time to use it up right away.

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Nuka zuké @ home: What is Nuka zuké?

“A bowl of rice with a small plate of pickles and some soup is not merely food, but cuisine…”

(Michael Ashkenazi, The Essence of Japanese Cuisine)

I remember a sunny early autumn day in Tokyo. The heat and cruel humidity of the summer was finally over when a bunch of people literally from around the world gathered in Elizabeth’s kitchen around a big dark brown earth ware pot, waiting for its secret to be unveiled. ‘Take a whiff ‘ was the invitation to carefully look and smell into the pot.

But no hands, because hygiene is extremely important in keeping a nuka-pickle-pot healthy. Nukadoko (pickling bed) can be passed down for generations and as such the one in front of me was easily some 150+ years old. Given that nukadoko is a living organism that requires constant monitoring and attention, it doesn’t come on a surprise that Elizabeth is very cautious.

My nuka-pots carefully packed for the long trip down south

The only one allowed to touch Elizabeth’s nuka pot besides her is her neighbor that takes care of it whenever she is out of town for a long time. Sounds irritating in the beginning, but after having to throw out nuka-pickle-pots that had gone bad three times, I find myself being as careful and restrictive. I even take my nuka-pickle pot with me on vacation or weekend-trips. Is that absolutely necessary? No. There are ways to maintain your nuka-pickle-pot even though you are not around, but as I have Elizabeth’s 150+ years in mine , I am not going to take chances.

Nuka zuke in France — Making nuka zuke in my holiday home kitchen in Southern France last year

Nuka, Nukadoko and Nuka zuké: What’s the difference?

But before I go on, let me explain a few terms here, so that you don’t get confused:

Nuka is the Japanese term for rice bran. In Japan, nothing goes to waste and as such, the nuka that is left after polishing rice (e.g. for table rice, sake making etc.) is used as a pickling medium.
Nuka mixed with water salt and aromatics becomes the pickling medium, called nukadoko.
The nukadoko is usually kept in a (non-reactive) container, a ‘nuka-pickle-pot’ or nuka-pot and
the generic term for vegetables, pickled in nukadoko is nuka zuké.

Nuka zuké ferments vegetables in a couple of hours

Nuka zuké is fairly easy and fast compared to other fermented products, but it needs to be mixed by hand to aerate the nukadoko. Yes, everyday! It only takes a few seconds, but you should be willing to commit to this before you start you own nuka-pot at home. Your reward? Cucumbers turned into crisp, savory pickles over night and tart red radishes get enchanted into exhilarant crudités in a couple of hours.

Nuka zuké: Cucumbers and turnips topped with yukari and shio zuké on the side

Nukodoko thrives off the bacteria that live on your hands and the vegetable’s skin. They also influence the taste as well as the aromatics that you can put in. So each nukadoko has its unique taste that will constantly change. Generally spoken an aged nukadoko will be more round and smooth than a young one, similar to wine, that’s why nukadoko can be passed down the generations.

Nuka zuké contains brown rice nutrients

Nukadoko is made from nuka – rice bran. The vitamin rich outer layers of rice – undoubtedly nutritious and healthy – would create off flavors in sake and are often unwanted for table rice. So one way to get back some of those nutrients that have been milled away is pickling vegetables in nukadoko. Nowadays it is fairly easy to source nuka either in Asian markets or online (e.g. here or here), but you could also substitute nuka with wheat bran. Wheat bran is lighter and more fluffy. When using wheat bran instead of nuka you should use a little more water and make sure that your pack down your ‘wheat bran-doko’ tightly on your vegetables to ensure contact with the bacteria.

Become a tsukémono addict

Ever since that one sunny autumn day in Tokyo when I smelled and tasted nuka zuké for the first time, I am enamored with it. But while a taste of vegetables pickled in nuka can prise the gates to Tsukémono heaven ajar, making it yourself will fling them open and convert you to the delights of preserving the Japanese way.

For those that are interested to learn how to start a nuka-pot and to handle it properly, how to influence its taste and troubleshooting-strategies to avoid it going bad, subscribe to the newsletter to get the information on the next nuka zuké-workshop delivered directly to your inbox.

Tsukemono: Cucumbers pickled with Ginger and Kombu

Today’s recipe is a fast one. And easy. Another example of mottainai – in this case using left over kombu from making dashi. Full-flavored pickled cucumber with an addictive hint of sweetness, illustrating once more that Japanese cuisine per se is neither complicated nor that it needs many ingredients.

Tsukemono ingredients: Pickled cucumbers with kombu and ginger — Tsukemono ingredients: Mirin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, cucumbers cut into 0,5cm rounds, threads of kombu and ginger

The recipe calls for cucumbers that do not have a lot of core, so Lebanese cucumbers are not what you are looking for. Japanese cucumbers are perfect, of course, but even if you don’t have access to real Japanese cucumbers you should be able to find mini-cucumbers in your grocery store, that usually have a better flesh-core ratio.

Recipe for one jar Cucumber-Tsukemono

500g Cucumbers
2,5 cm Ginger (peeled)
3-4 pcs. Kombu, left over from making dashi (in threads a small hand full)
180 ml Soy Sauce
120 ml Mirin (sweet sake)
60 ml Rice Vinegar

Method

How to make Tsukemono: Put cucumbers into the cooking liquid

Wash the cucumbers and cut them into 0,5cm rounds. Take the ginger and the kombu and cut them into fine threads. Combine soy sauce, mirin and vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the cucumbers, ginger and kombu and reboil for a minute. Take the pot off the heat source and let cool (about one hour).

How to make Tsukemono: Stain the cooking liquid if you want to repeat the process — How to make Tsukemono: Strain the cooking liquid before reheating it if you prefer the vegetables to be less crunchy

If you like your pickles to be less crunchy, repeat the process after the pickles have cooled down. In order to do so, strain the liquid and bring to a boil once more. Add the cucumbers, ginger and kombu and reboil for another minute before leaving it to cool again.

Fill pickles with the liquid into a clean glass jar and store in the refrigerator