Pickles
made from rice bran... nuka-zuke, are delicious
and easy to make. They have a pungent aroma, a tangy flavor,
and are very nutritious since they harbor vitamins and minerals
from the rice bran. Unlike salt pickles, nuka-zuke last
for only a few days once removed from the pickling medium.
It is best to pluck them fresh from the pickling medium,
wash them, pat them dry and then immediately eat them. Like
all Japanese pickles, these are particularly tasty with
sake or beer!
In
order to make nuka-zuke you will need a large wide mouthed
glass jar or ceramic pot with a tight fitting lid, I use a
large glass jar with a lid that clamps shut (plastic,
wood, or metal containers won't work for this pickling
method). A jar with at least a quart capacity is required.
Begin by purchasing 6 cups raw (rice bran)
from a health food store.
Place
6 cups of rice bran and 1 tablespoon of salt in a bowl and
add 1 3/4 to 2 cups of water. Mix together with your hands
until the bran has the consistency of slightly moist sand.
Place some of the moist bran in your jar and then add a
small 2 inch strip of konbu seaweed (this helps maintain
the moisture balance in your pickling medium), add more
bran to cover and then add 2 cloves of peeled but uncut
garlic (this adds much flavor to the final pickles, you
can also use a small knob of fresh ginger). Continue to
fill the jar with bran and then add 2 dried red peppers
(this adds flavor to the pickles but also discourages bugs
from entering the rice bran mix.
Finish
filling the jar with bran, making sure that the kombu, peppers,
and garlic are completely buried. It will take at least
a week for the rice bran medium to ripen and be ready for
use. You can speed up this process by adding vegetable scraps
(peels from cucumbers, wilted cabbage leaves), to the bran
but remove the scraps after a day or two. After a week or
so the pickling medium should have a heady aroma and look
like damp sand. It will then be ready to use.
A
nice batch of rice bran medium can last for years, if it
becomes too wet after much use just add a little bit of
dry rice bran. A good trick to prevent your rice bran bed
from getting too soggy is to ad a handful of dried soybeans
to the mix! The beans absorb excess moisture and also impart
a mild flavor. It's also a good idea to "air out" the mix
on occasion, stirring it up with your hands or a spoon.
Vegetables to be pickled should be completely embedded in
the rice bran and left in the pickling medium for no more
than two days. The finished pickles should be bright in
color, limp but crunchy, and possess a subtle aroma and
earthy aftertaste. Good pickles are only slightly salty
and have a delightful tangy flavor to them. It takes some
effort to keep the pickling bed in good shape, for instance,
in summer your bed can sprout white mold... if that happens
just pluck out the mold, air out the bed, and add a bit
of fresh rice bran. Tending your pickling bed takes work...