tsukemono – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today. Sun, 18 Oct 2020 13:00:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/05/en_rocket_1024.png?w=32 tsukemono – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com 32 32 176746664 Muji’s Nuka Paste for Pickling is perfect for making your own Japanese pickles at home https://soranews24.com/2020/10/18/mujis-nuka-paste-for-pickling-is-perfect-for-making-your-own-japanese-pickles-at-home/ https://soranews24.com/2020/10/18/mujis-nuka-paste-for-pickling-is-perfect-for-making-your-own-japanese-pickles-at-home/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2020 13:00:19 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=519174 
This is a must-have for tsukemono fans!
Tsukemono, or Japanese-style pickles, are a staple of traditional Japanese cuisine. They’re often served as an accompaniment to rice, but they’re also a popular drinking snack because they’re crunchy and have a nice sweet and sour or salty flavor, which goes great with alcohol.
You can make Japanese pickles out of almost any vegetable, with ginger, cucumbers, and daikon being the most common, but the process for making tsukemono can be rather time-consuming, depending on the type of Japanese pickles you want to make. But if you want to try your hand at making your own, you don’t always have to keep tubs of pickling solutions lined up in your kitchen for weeks and months at a time. You can use something easy like Mujirushi Ryohin’s Nuka Paste for Pickling to simplify the process.
Muji’s Hakkou Nukadoko (Nuka Paste for Pickling) makes nukazuke pickles, which are often served with Japanese meals to aid in digestion. Nukazuke pickles are made using rice bran that has been sitting for days, or even weeks, together with vegetables and fruit peels to create a fermentation culture, so making your own can be kind of a lengthy and sometimes very stinky process.
But Muji’s nuka paste contains rice bran that has already established fermentation cultures, and sells for just 890 yen (US$8.46), making pickling your own nukazuke pickles super easy and cheap. It’s so simple that it’s become an explosively popular product; many Muji shops are already sold out of it, and when we went to buy one to try out, we saw at least two other people with one in their baskets.
Muji’s bag of nuka paste was surprisingly heavy. Well, it does come in a one kilogram (2.2 pound) bag, so it should be pretty heavy, but for some reason it didn’t look like much from afar. It is a big bag though…just look at how huge it is compared to our Japanese-language reporter K. Masami! It’s got plenty of room for lots of vegetables.
Since the bran paste is already fermenting, you don’t have to do anything special before you put your vegetables in. You don’t even need a separate container; the bag comes with a zipper, so all you have to do is put in your vegetables, sliced or whole, bury them neatly in the bran, zip up the bag, and put it in the refrigerator for 12 to 32 hours, depending on the vegetable.
Easy-peasy! If you’re a fan of Japanese pickles, this is definitely a must-have. The price is very good for the volume you get, and the bag is big enough that you can pickle a lot of vegetables at once.
Plus you can reuse the rice bran over and over again, and even buy supplementary packets from Muji!
▼ 290 yen for 250 grams
The only problem is that you have to use your hands to really cover the veggies with the paste, and the bag takes up quite a lot of space in the fridge, which is inconvenient if you have a smaller fridge. But for those who want to try making truly authentic Japanese pickles from scratch, this is an indispensable tool!
▼ Our home-made nukazuke pickles
Just make sure to check Muji’s website to find out which stores have it in stock before you go out to buy it. Since it’s a popular product, it can be hard to find, and though there are plenty of other nice things to buy at Muji, like garlic sauce potato chips and cricket crackers, we wouldn’t want you to waste a trip!
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]]> https://soranews24.com/2020/10/18/mujis-nuka-paste-for-pickling-is-perfect-for-making-your-own-japanese-pickles-at-home/feed/ 0 519174 nuka paste1 Waste not, want not: Japanese netizens share delicious ways they prepare watermelon rinds https://soranews24.com/2016/08/29/waste-not-want-not-japanese-netizens-share-delicious-ways-they-prepare-watermelon-rinds/ https://soranews24.com/2016/08/29/waste-not-want-not-japanese-netizens-share-delicious-ways-they-prepare-watermelon-rinds/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2016 14:00:32 +0000 http://en.rocketnews24.com/?p=341233 
If you thought the red flesh was the only edible part of a watermelon, this is for you!
Watermelon is a delicious summer treat, be it part of a fruit salad or on its own. It’s a healthy, low-calorie way to satisfy a sweet tooth and get some vitamins and minerals in as well. But did you know that the green rind — the part most of us throw away — is good for you too? It contains a good amount of the amino acid citrulline, which the body converts to nitric oxide, a chemical that helps relax your arteries and improves blood flow in your body.
You’ve probably never even thought of eating watermelon rind before. I mean, after enjoying the sweet, juicy flesh of the fruit, who would want to gnaw on its bitter white and green outside? But with a little bit of ingenuity and a few extra ingredients, you can turn the rinds into some pretty tasty eats.
Japanese pickles, or tsukemono, are popular and often eaten as a garnish or side to rice. So, why not try pickling your watermelon rinds?
▼ “Before, I had been pickling watermelon rinds in just soy sauce, but have started doing 2 parts soy sauce to 1~2 parts vinegar. It’s so good, even on egg salad sandwiches.”
https://twitter.com/roominbkk/status/763976334414454785
▼ “Recycling watermelon rinds. Left is sweet vinegar, middle is young ginger juice, right is honey and lemon with young ginger slices. Yum! Would be a waste to throw away.”
スイカの皮の再利用
左は甘酢漬 真ん中新生姜の液 右 はちみつレモン新生姜スライス
美味捨てるには、勿体無い
pic.twitter.com/tRkLvCl3uy
— 丸越アピタ刈谷店 036 (@054kariya) June 29, 2015
▼ A recipe from Japanese idol Yamapi: put rinds in a Zip Lock bag with vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and scallions.
山Ｐのレシピ
スイカ皮漬物 作ってみたよ〜♫お酢 醤油 胡麻 ネギをジップロックに入れて漬けてみた～
胡麻は白だったかな？
山Ｐこれで合ってる〜！？結構イケる〜～♡美味っ♡
暑い夏にぴったりだねッ♫#山下智久 pic.twitter.com/rQczmDTRAO— ･ﾟ*.。ゆきだるま
。.*･ﾟ (@tenshi321) August 1, 2016
▼ Watermelon rinds apparently work well in the side dish kinpira…
https://twitter.com/nishiyama_t_/status/620587711448023040
▼ …as well as in stir fried miso pork and green peppers.
食品ロスを気をつけているのりオさん的最近のごはん。大好きなスイカ！の皮とピーマン、豚肉の味噌炒めー！これがうまいんだな！いっちばん外の緑と黒のシマシマの部分だけはロスしちゃうんだけどね……。皆様もお試しあれ！ pic.twitter.com/md7HzOETxG
— 野良のりオ (@yeliangshan) June 15, 2016
▼ A soup made with chicken, scallions, celery, and the white part of the rind.
こんばんは
今日もみなさんとの繋がり嬉しかった。
今日の夕飯のスープです。材料は、鶏肉にネギ セロリと、後はなんとスイカの白い外側を入れてみました。辛めに味付けしたので冷たい訪が美味しいかな
pic.twitter.com/IzAzgXZh2I
— まーちー (@goblinmama) August 13, 2016
▼ Watermelon tempura? Why not! Just julienne the rind, dip in tempura batter, and fry until crisp.
スイカ大好き
スイカ
やってみたpic.twitter.com/FUnOc6Siuf
— ゴチミツ (@U2KEPKyehwSy7qs) August 19, 2016
Still have more rinds than you know what to do with? Before you throw them out, set them out in the sun for a day or two to dry up so you don’t have heavy, soggy rinds sitting in your garbage can until trash pickup day.
ゴミ出しを憂鬱にさせる重い重いスイカの皮ですが、この炎天下に丸2日間干してみたところ軽量化に成功しました pic.twitter.com/BZKVIebydw
— ハワンヌ ザグレート委員 (@furykaicho) August 12, 2016
Let us know in the comments if you have any delicious ideas for watermelon rinds, or if you plan to give any of the above a try!
Source: NAVER Matome
References: Nutrition Data, WebMD
Top image: FreeDigitalPhotos/SOMMAI
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