I checked my blog to see how old my nukadoko was, and I was surprised to realize that it was more than two years old. Time flies!
Here's my nukadoko as of today. I took two cucumbers out of it before I took this photo.
自分のブログをチェックして、自分のぬか床が何年経ったか調べました。驚いたことに、もう二年も二経っていました。速いものです！
今日の私のぬか床です。きゅうりを二本取り出してから写真を撮りました。
Now I don't care this much of film yeast any longer. I mix my nukadoko once a day or two days.
もうこれくらい産膜酵母があっても気にしません。一日または二日に一度かき混ぜてます。
I finely cut the cucumbers,
きゅうりは細く切って、
mixed with finely cut shin shoga (young ginger),
細く切った新生姜と混ぜました。
like this.
こんなふうに。
Great with natto. My wife now likes this very much. She has it with hot rice. She says nukazuke wasn't popular here in the Uonuma region of Niigata, and she didn't have nukazuke when she was a child.
納豆と一緒に食べると美味しいです。妻も今では大好きになりました。温かいご飯と食べています。妻が言うには、新潟県の魚沼地方ではぬか漬けは一般的でなく、小さい頃は食べたことがないそうです。
Now I use cooking chopsticks to mix nukadoko. Very efficient. After the cucumbers, I put some daikon greens. They are also great with natto!
今では菜箸を使ってぬか床を混ぜています。とても効率的です。きゅうりの次は、大根の葉っぱを入れました。これも納豆と食べると美味しいです！
The cucmber pickles are looking good,just like the salt pickled ones. On a first look your picture reminded me on russian cucmber pickles with horseradish. The horseradish is shredded the same way as you cut the ginger - totally different taste (laugh). My mother always provides me with such pickles. I messed up my nukadoko bed long ago.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me want to try nukadoko again.
ReplyDeleteKiki: But, believe me, the aroma and flavor are more profound than the salted ones. Probably because of that, my children still dislike nukazuke. Horseradish? That sounds interesting. Will try that combination if I can ever get horseradish!
ReplyDeletemuskratbyte: My No. 1 suggestion is to start small. You can always increase the amount by adding more rice bran and salt.
Because of the small size, I can put my nukadoko in the freezer or in the fridge whenever I want to.
Hiroyuki, I must empty my fridge so that I can put nukadoko (if you saw my fridge today... it's hardly closing because I bought lots of fruits and vegetables yesterday: in the summer I have to keep all of them in the fridge. A big salad alone takes half of a shelf!)
ReplyDeleteI agree that these cucumbers look like long-term European salt pickles!
Sissi: All women are like you and my wife???
ReplyDeleteWhen I was the main cook in the house, the fridge was never crowded. And, now, my wife almost always keeps it crowded with all kinds of foodstuff!
Hiroyuki, it is deep down in our genes - women were always the main feeder of the family by collecting and hording stuff.
ReplyDeleteLucky our fridge has a big vegetable section... We have a second fridge for the beer and other drinks in the basement. Husband is the main user. I could glue his name tag on the basement fridge..
Hiroyuki, Kiki is probably right ;-) Though in my case it's partly also due to a lack of organisation and meals planning incompetence...
ReplyDeleteKiki, a second fridge is an excellent idea!
Kiki and Sissi:
ReplyDeleteAnother difference: When going out, (some) women like to put (just a lot of) things in her bag, whereas men simply put all they need in their pockets.
I don't want to carry a bag when I don't have to.
Yes, yes never carrying their own bag but asking the woman to store something in the pouch for them. Cigarettes, paper tissues, head ache pills, keys, map, small ambrella..whatever may not fit into their pockets right at the moment. And always making funny comments about the size of pouches...
ReplyDeleteHaha! You have both made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteHiroyuki, my handbag weighs a ton! I have so many necessary things there... My experience is similar to Kiki's! I would like men here to carry real bags, like I saw in Tokyo (in Tokyo lots of young men carry leather "hand" bags which don't look like business bags, only bags to carry stuff; I found it very wise and practical).
Kiki and Sissi: I, for one, wouldn't ask a lady to carry something for me!
ReplyDeleteYoung men carrying leather hand bags? Oh, do they? I usually don't look at men when I'm out.
Haha! In Tokyo at least, yes... I was surprised (my husband too) to see so many men wearing shoulder bags.
ReplyDeleteI look at everyone when I travel (thoug frankly more at women, the way they dress etc.). People interest me much more than buildings or monuments (I am not the "temple visiting" kind of tourist...). Of course I like watching -and eating - food too! I could spend a whole day in underground section of department stores in Tokyo...