Eats: Jalapeno Bread And Butter Pickles

By Aimee Misovich – Lenconnect.com

Hello! As mentioned in my previous post, I really enjoyed sampling all the goodies at Galena Canning Company’s two stores in Galena, IL. It was so hard to choose a favorite or two for purchase that I ended up not buying anything. I came very close to purchasing a jar of their jalapeno bread and butter pickles though.

I normally prefer garlic dills to the sweeter pickles, but when jalapenos are the main item in the jar, the combination of sweet and hot was a good one. When we returned home I decided to see if I could find a recipe for jalapeno bread and butter pickles online.

And I was in luck with this recipe, which comes from Elise Bauer’sSimply Recipes blog. I’m not a canner, but with Bauer’s recipe the pickled veggies are stored in a refrigerator after being made – no further processing is needed. She says they’ll last for a year or two thus stored.

(For those that do canning, she does mention that possibility at the end of the recipe.)

Minus a couple of the spices called for in the recipe and two pounds of jalapenos, I had everything for the recipe already on hand. So needless to say, I headed down to our Farmer’s Market yesterday and got those jalapenos.

Once home, according to recipe instructions, I cut off the jalapeno stems, then cut the peppers in half. I was supposed to remove the seeds and ribs next but left them in to keep the heat level up. I can handle a LOT of chili pepper fire, plus Bauer says that the bread and butter jalapenos seem to lose some of their punch after awhile.

Skipping this step made the cutting-up prep go much faster too! But I don’t advise bypassing the de-seeding if you want a mild level of heat.

Added one pound of sliced onions and the specified type of salt to the veggies – either canning, kosher or sea salt can be used. I used sea salt because that’s what I had on hand.

Here’s the cut-up jalapenos, onions and salt:

The mixture had to sit, covered, in the refrigerator four hours, then rinsed of the salt a couple of times.

Then it was into a pot along with white and apple vinegars, sugar and various spices:

You may recall earlier in the post that I had all the spices on hand except for two – star anise and a cardamon pod. Did I go to the upscale spice shop downtown to see if they had these? No, instead I looked up other jalapeno bread and butter pickle recipes online to see if they included those spices in their recipes.

They did not, so I felt comfortable in staying away from the spice shop. However, I did notice that one of the other recipes included 1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder, so I added that.

(Note: I later learned that typically bread and butter pickles don’t call for cinnamon and cloves, but Bauer’s recipe did, both in whole form. I have these on hand, so I put them in the pickling mixture. You may experiment with leaving these spices out if you don’t have cinnamon sticks and whole cloves in your pantry.)

Above, the jalapenos and onions are simmering in the pickling mixture. Bauer says to cook just until the jalapenos turn from bright to dull green. This step only took a few minutes. I stirred several times so that the peppers would evenly cook.

Then it was just a matter of placing the mixture into two one-quart jars:

One mayonnaise jar, one canning jar – and one cook eager to see how the pickled peppers turned out! In the recipe’s comment section, Bauer suggests waiting a day before sampling. Instead, I waited only until they cooled down, then tried one. Fantastic! And they really did taste very close to the ones I’d tasted at Galena Canning Company.

Added some of the peppers to my lunchtime sandwich earlier today:

The jalapeno bread and butter pickles turned out to be a delicious complement to a turkey and Swiss on homemade potato bread (along with Farmer’s Market lettuce and tomato plus some other yummy stuff). Hey, do I eat good or what?

And I know there’ll be plenty of good eating ahead with these spicy-sweet pickles. I am sure glad I made them – and now you can too if you go to the link above.

LEMON-CHILE GREEN BEAN PICKLES

ALISON ROMAN  –   BON APPÉTIT AUGUST 2015

YIELD: Makes 2 quarts

INGREDIENTS

For the brine:

  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons spices (e.g., peppercorns, coriander seeds, and/or mustard seeds)
  • 2 cups water

For the pickles:

  • 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed
  • 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed
  • 4 chiles de árbol or jalapenos (if desired)
  • 4 smashed garlic cloves

Special equipment:

  • Two 1 quart canning jars with lids

PREPARATION

For the brine:
Bring 1 cup distilled white vinegar, 2 tablespoons kosher salt, 2 teaspoons sugar, up to 2 tablespoons spices (e.g., peppercorns, coriander seeds, and/or mustard seeds), and 2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Pour over vegetables in jars.

For the pickles:
Divide 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed, 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed, 4 chiles de árbol or jalapenos (if desired), and 4 smashed garlic cloves between jars.

Dividing evenly, pour hot brine (see formula, left)—using 1 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes for the spice—into jars and cover. Let cool, then chill.

Do Ahead
Green beans can be pickled 2 months ahead. Keep chilled.

cooks’ note: Also try it with…Cucumbers, fennel, okra, cauliflower, jalapenos, cascabellas, chile peppers

THE GHOST PEPPER CHEESEBURGER AT BLUES BURGERS IS THE RIGHT KIND OF SPICY

Everything is hot. The steering wheel, the bridge, those metal birds in Deep Ellum, the hose nozzle out back, Jim Schutze and the mailbox are all like smoking nuclear rods. Yesterday I grabbed a metal chair that had been sitting outside on a bright patio, and now I can shoot powerful repulsor rays out of my hand like Iron Man. Don’t even think about using the parking brake on your car, unless you love plastic surgery. Everything is lava, but spicy foods are welcome. Whatever the science is, the thunderclap of a eye-opening, spicy dish can awaken the mind and clear out the weeds in a big whoosh. At Blues Burgers on West Mockingbird Lane, the HMF (confirmed acronym of Hot-Mother-Fucker), is the spicy burger you need right now.

Blues Burgers is an unassuming little place. It’s an order-up-front spot, with three flat screens showing the menu in ocean blue above the bar-area. I’m there on a Sunday, the sun strong-arming like the cop in a noir film. Faux-brick lines the dimmed sitting area, and fans churn along. I ordered the HMF, which has ghost pepper cheese, apple-wood smoked bacon, grilled jalapeños, grilled onions and a “Spicy Blues Sauce.”

The burger comes, bun glistening and those grilled, blistered jalapeños are nearly leaping out of the burger with excitement. The ghost pepper cheese looks like a white dwarf underneath. I should probably order a backup burger, right? To cleanse the heat from the palate? I dive in, expecting a column of orange flames to erupt from my hair as I run around looking for a horse trough full of water. I didn’t ignite.

First: Those jalapeños are buttery, sliced into a long strips, and fired enough to not feel like you bit through a handful of road flares. Raw, crisp jalapenos can be caustic. The ghost pepper cheese provides just enough heat to linger, growing in strength like an orchestra tuning up. That Spicy Blues Sauce, an addictive mayo-based mix, is tangy. Very crisp bacon adds texture to the softened onions. The patty is right around medium rare, well-salted and held up by a good and puffy bun.

After a few bites, I feel a wash of heat move up to my collarbone. The burger is a mind-clearer, but it’s not too much. I think it budged-loose some previously lodged thoughts, like how to answer that trigonometry question and where my copy of Michael Crichton’s Sphere is. So, the HMF burger is the good spicy. It’s not tears of the hategret (hate + regret) spicy.

I was the last one in the place by the time I finished the first half of the burger. The staff is memorably kind: At several points they check in with me, casual enough to not be intrusive. I let them know the heat didn’t punch me in the face, and it is damn good. The Toadies are playing. It’s a hell blaze of a summer, and this fun, spicy burger will actually save you.

Food Notes: ‘Pickle addict’ wins Akron contest

By Katie Byard  Beacon Journal staff writer

Yeah, yeah, yeah … I relished the assignment.

And it was a cuke contest.

Those puns are courtesy of Beacon Journal colleague Jim Mackinnon, about my task of helping to judge this year’s Pickle Making Contest, organized by the nonprofit Downtown Akron Partnership.

This was the fifth year for the contest, held in conjunction with the Friday farmers market at Lock 3 park downtown. Most contestants had dropped off their pickled this and that at the Downtown Akron Partnership office; others showed up Friday with their entries.

Delila Owens, a professor at the University of Akron, was one of the few contestants who showed up for judging, and she was one of the winners, snagging first place in the “sweet” pickle category.

The other winners were: dill pickles, Dave Clay of Richfield; hot pickles, Chris Robertson, Akron; and other pickled vegetable, Bob Epling, Green.

It was a blind judging, so Owens’ presence didn’t sway the judges.

I’ve included her recipe below. She calls her entry “Sweet and Sour Lime Pickles,” and like many refrigerator pickles, it is easy. You put cucumbers and the other ingredients into a container (Owens used a plastic one-quart container) and you let it sit in the fridge. I’m going to try it with some beans I have on hand.

Owens did let us know she was there, and made it clear that she was hoping to win. It was a low-key affair, with myself and three other judges sitting at a table under a small tent at the market, sampling pickled this and that from little plastic cups.

After the contest, Owens told me she’s a “pickle addict.” This was her first pickling contest.

At UA, Owens is an associate professor of school counseling and counselor education. Outside of work, she loves to cook and loves pickles. “I eat them daily,” she said.

The other judges were Bryan Edwards from the Akron office of the Economic and Community Development Institute; Heather Linebarger, a senior associate at accounting firm Bruner Cox; and Beth Magalski, branch manager of Citizens Bank downtown.

The next contest at Lock 3 is the Salsa Making Contest at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 4. Salsa should be turned in Sept. 1-3 at the Downtown Akron Partnership office at Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Registration forms and rules are available at www.downtownakron.com/marketor by calling Anthony Long at 330-374-7676 or emailingalong@downtownakron.com.

Here’s Owens’ recipe:

Sweet and Sour

Lime Pickles

About 7 pickling cucumbers or two “giant” cucumbers

1 lime (remove peel and chunk up “for the flavor kick,” Owens says)

3 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt; more as needed

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup water

Place chunks of lime in bottom of plastic container. Bring sugar, vinegar and water to boil in a saucepan. Let cool and pour over sliced cucumbers in container. Sprinkle salt on top. Refrigerate overnight.

Being a beet fan, my favorite pickled vegetable was David Boughton’s beets. Boughton, of Akron, sells produce from the family’s Copley Township farm each Friday at the farmers market at Lock 3. The market is open from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Fridays through Sept. 11.

Boughton said he added dried orange zest to the pickled beets recipe from the Ball canning jar folks: www.freshpreserving.com/recipes.

Pickles and ice cream promo markets new U maternity ward

By Star Tribune

Pickles & Ice Cream might sound like the latest Minnesota State Fair craze, but it is actually a new marketing gimmick that the University of Minnesota Medical Center has launched to compete in the crowded world of maternity care.

 Starting late last week, a food truck bearing the “M Health” logo started appearing outside OB-GYN and pediatric clinics in the Twin Cities area to give away free pickles and ice cream — the stereotypical food cravings of expecting mothers — and to promote a $21 million renovation of the U’s Birthplace maternity ward.
“We wanted to think of a fun way to engage new moms,” said Dr. Dan Landers, the medical center’s director of maternal-fetal medicine. “You can’t take these buildings and drive them around town.”
Competition for deliveries has intensified recently: The annual number of babies born in the state has declined 6 percent since the start of the last economic recession in 2007, but the number of competing hospitals has increased. Maple Grove Hospital went from delivering five babies in 2009, its first year in business, to 4,317 in 2014 — making it the second-most-active maternity ward in the state.
Meanwhile, Allina Health found success with its Mother Baby line of holistic maternity care, which increased the number of deliveries at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and is being mimicked at Allina’s United and Mercy hospitals in St. Paul and Coon Rapids, respectively.
The U Medical Center, Abbott and United have remained top hospitals for high-risk pregnancies, in part because of their proximity to pediatric hospitals with sophisticated neonatal intensive-care units. Their survival rates for premature births are among the best in the nation. But while Abbott has increased its status as the state’s busiest maternity ward — it delivered nearly 8 percent of all babies in Minnesota in 2014 — the number of babies born at the U center declined from 2,543 in 2009 to 2,333 last year, according to state birth certificate data.
Amenities such as flat-screen televisions in recovery rooms and comfortable futons for visiting family members help to entice patients, who already expect top-flight nurses and doctors, Landers said. “We needed to have facilities that reflect the level of care we are giving and not look like it is the 1980s — because we’re not providing ’80s medicine.”
Such features are now standard in the larger, more private recovery rooms at the U’s new maternity ward, which is adjacent to the Masonic Children’s Hospital on the West Bank campus. So are ceiling-to-floor windows with dramatic skyline views.

Sarah Peterson of Elk River said she’s excited about the renovations, even though she plans to use Maple Grove to give birth to her first child in three weeks.

 A patient-care coordinator at the U hospital’s oncology ward, Peterson is working until her due date and is braced for the possibility of going into labor at work on campus.

“I could deliver at the U, or I could deliver at Maple Grove,” said Peterson, who picked up pickles and ice cream when the truck stopped at the Fairview Health Services outpatient center in Maple Grove.

The U hasn’t been alone in feeling the competitive pinch. North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale went from 2,896 babies born in 2009 to 933 last year, but as a co-operator of Maple Grove, it has shared in the new hospital’s success.

Declines in births at Unity Hospital in Fridley compelled Allina to cease scheduled deliveries there as part of its expansion of maternity care at Mercy hospital — which also has seen declining numbers. Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park saw its birth numbers decline by one-fifth in the past five years.

The migration of young families to Maple Grove made a maternity boom likely at the new hospital, but the demand outstripped expectations, said Jennifer Krippner, who directs patient relations at the hospital.

Empty hospital space that had been planned for a 2017 expansion was opened in 2012 instead to accommodate the demand for maternity care.

“We just didn’t think we’d grow that fast,” Krippner said.

‘Where the patients want to be’

The Pickles & Ice Cream truck will return to Maple Grove later this month and park outside the Maple Grove Hospital to market the university’s new maternity ward to potential patients.

It’s friendly competition, considering that the U hospital is part of Fairview, which has a 25 percent stake in the Maple Grove hospital.

“It’s really got to be about where the patients want to be,” Krippner said. “As long as the services they need can be provided, I think they’re both great options.”

Melissa Berends stopped at the truck on Monday for pickles and ice cream.

The physical therapist is already planning to return to the Maple Grove hospital for her third childbirth in January, though.

The only mystery is whether her husband will get the boy he wants to complement their two girls.

“Knowing his luck,” she said between ice cream scoops, “it will be a girl.”

 

Cilantro Jalapeno Pesto with Lime

Here’s a very simple recipe that uses jalapenos to make a sort of southwest style pesto with cilantro instead of basil.  Basil could be substituted as well and the jalapenos would give the more traditional pesto a nice kick too.

1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded

Combine the cilantro, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, and Parmesan cheese in a blender; pulse until the mixture reaches a soft, paste-like consistency.

ENJOY!

People’s Pharmacy: Lotion’s acidity neutralizes jalapeno burn

by Joe Graedon M.S.   –  www.spokesman.com

Q. I de-seeded 15 jalapenos without using gloves, so of course afterward my hands were burning. My daughter-in-law said that her grandfather had always told her to apply “something creamy,” so I rubbed on some AmLactin I normally use for dry skin.

The burning stopped almost immediately! I hope you will share this tip with your other readers.

A. Capsaicin, the hot stuff in chili peppers, is alkaline. AmLactin hand and body lotion is acidic, containing alpha-hydroxy acid. We suspect that may explain why it worked so well.

Capsaicin is not soluble in water, which is why running your hands under cold water probably wouldn’t do much for the burn. But the casein protein in milk (or cream, as per grandfather) can grab onto capsaicin and help neutralize it.

Tsukemono! The Wonderful World of Japanese Pickles

by

When we think of pickles in the US, it’s mostly the spear along with our sandwich or the slices on a burger. When I was growing up we had two types, sweet and sour. And maybe there were some pickled beets in the fridge that I refused to eat. Little did I know the riches I was missing elsewhere in the world.

In Japan, they’ll pickle anything that’s not moving. All kinds of things are pickled in different ways, creating healthy side dishes that add variety to traditional meals based on rice.

If you’ve never been to Japan, you may have seen a couple of these in restaurants (That pickled ginger with your sushi is one of them). But when you get there, you’ll find all kinds of mysterious things on little dishes with your fancy dinner and tucked in your convenience store bento. Come along with Tofugu on a journey through the wonderful world of Japanese pickles and find out what all those amazing little tidbits are about.

Many Ways to Get In A Pickle

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-at-a-local-grocery-store-in-japan

Photo by Tokyo Times

Tsukemono 漬物 is the Japanese word for pickles, derived from tsuke “soaked” and mono “things.” You’ll see that most of the Japanese names for different types end in -zuke, which is the same word as tsuke when it undergoes rendaku in the second part of a compound word.

But “soaked” is far from the only way that pickles are made. Yes, some are made in liquids like vinegar, but other methods will probably surprise you.

Shio-zuke – salt pickles

The original and simplest, there are a couple of different ways of making salt pickles.

In one method, the vegetables are sprinkled with salt – although the word “sprinkled” may be misleading given how much salt is used – and put in a container. They’re covered with a weight or lid that presses down on them, which makes sure the salt penetrates. (Nowadays you can buy plastic containers that come with a pickle press). The salt makes the water content of the vegetables seep out by osmosis, so the container needs regular attention to drain the liquid.

Removing the water from the vegetable concentrates the flavor, and with less water, the vegetables are less susceptible to rotting. Salt pickles can take varied length of time. There’s a version that you just leave overnight. Another one is measured in months. Pickled plums, for example, are supposed to be left in the salt for the whole rainy season. The longer the pickling time, the more intense the flavors.

In the other method, vegetables are put in salt water in an airtight container. As Kikkoman describes it, “in this environment, the enzymes in the ingredients break down the food’s components into very different and flavorful substances.” That sounds a little scary to me actually but it’s nothing compared to our next example….

Nuka-zuke – rice bran pickles

Rice bran pickles are made by laying vegetables down in a specially prepared bed of rice bran. Boiled salt water is mixed with the bran. Then, similar to sourdough bread, you add some of the bed from an old batch that contains microbes to get the lactic acid fermentation process going. It must be mixed up regularly, traditionally with your bare hands, to keep all the little microbes growing and healthy.

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-radish-in-rice-bran

Photo by Max Wheeler

I’ve never had the privilege of getting close to one of these beds (although I’ve seen them displayed in shops). But The Black Moon says this is how you know when it’s ready: “After a week or so the pickling medium should have a heady aroma and look like damp sand.”

Some rice bran pickling beds have been passed down for generations. It’s an astonishing thought in a century where everything in the supermarket has an expiration date printed on it. Like salt pickles, vegetables can be left in briefly or for a long time, up to several months, with different flavor results.

Kasu-zuke – sake lees pickle

Sake lees is the solids left over after sake, which is made from rice, is filtered. Like rice bran, instead of being discarded, people figured out how to use it to make pickles. Also cured for a variety of lengths of time from a few days to several years, they may actually be slightly alcoholic. Kampai!

Koji-zuke – koji pickles

You probably have never heard of koji, but Japanese food wouldn’t exist without it. It’s a microbe (let’s not call it mold, that sounds so unappetizing!). This little one-celled friend is responsible for soy sauce, miso, and sake, and it’s even been proposed that it should be called Japan’s National Fungus. Koji is mixed with rice to start the fermentation process that results in those fundamental products. And this koji mash can also be used to make pickles. These are somewhat sweet because koji produces amylase, an enzyme that produces sugar from the starch in rice.

And the rest….

Pickles are also made using soy sauce, miso, and vinegar. The most familiar to us, vinegar pickles are not usually for long-term storage. This is because Japanese vinegar is low in acid. I make one regularly with vinegar and a little soy sauce and sugar. Eaten fresh it’s more like a little side salad. Leftovers the next day are more pickle-y.

What’s that? You’d like to try the recipe yourself? No problem. Here it is.

Recipe for quick pickled cucumber:

Use pickling cucumbers or another type with the minimum of seeds – they have a better texture. If you have to use a regular American cuke, scoop all the seeds out.

  1. Slice cucumber and cut slices in quarters or halves. Finely shred some gingerroot.
  2. For a large cuke, mix 1/4 c soy sauce, 1/4 c rice vinegar and about a tablespoon of sugar. (Start there and experiment – you can go up to 2 T next time if you want it sweeter.)
  3. Mix it all up and refrigerate for an hour or two or three before serving. It’s also good but different the next day.

(Adapted from a recipe by Harumi Kurihara)

Tsukemono’s Little One-Celled Friends: Fermentation and Microbes

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-man-with-a-glass

Some of these methods may seem weird to us. In our culture, we think food will spoil if left out of the refrigerator for five minutes. How can it possibly be a good idea to put vegetables in a tub of rice bran and leave them there, at room temperature, sometimes for months? And those pots of rice bran have been passed down for generations! And people mix them with their bare hands! Why aren’t people dying of food poisoning left and right?

Because these methods actually preserve food: They encourage good microbes, which keep out the bad microbes that make you sick.

In the US, fermentation is the new cool hipster foodie thing. There’s a kombucha bar at my Whole Foods and a stand at my local farmers market selling kimchee and sauerkraut. Maybe we’re finally starting to catch up. But Japanese cuisine always been all about the fermentation. As mentioned earlier, miso and soy sauce, both fundamental to Japanese cooking, are produced by fermentation. And aside from those quick vinegar pickles that are more like salads, most of the pickling processes involve fermentation too.

Preserving vegetables this way not only made them last longer when there was no refrigeration, some methods even made them healthier. Some types of pickles aid digestion. Rice bran pickles are high in B vitamins – a vitamin that the Japanese diet was short on when it was based mostly on white rice. Rather than throw away the B-vitamin-rich rice bran after it’s removed while making the white rice, pickling with it adds these vitamins back into the diet.

Famous Japanese Pickles

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-umeboshi-in-a-basket

Photo by Shigemi.j

Japanese people make pickles out of almost every vegetable in so many ways that we could never list all the combinations. There are local specialties and all kinds of ingredients added for flavor. From herbs and citrus fruits to ingredients that add umami like kombu seaweed, bonito, and shiitake mushroom.

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-hanging-daikon-radish

Photo by Sushicam

But there are a few pickles that you’ll see everywhere:

  • Umeboshi is the Japanese plum, salt-pickled then dried in the sun. They come in a variety of sizes and different textures. They’re colored with red shiso (an herb) and are intensely sour. You’ll see them in bento and inside onigiri rice balls (careful, because they still have the pit). They’re said to have been made for over a thousand years, and to have an antibacterial effect that keeps the other foods in your bento fresh.
  • Gari is the pickled ginger you get with sushi. It’s a simple vinegar pickle. And in case you didn’t know, you’re supposed to eat it between pieces of sushi to cleanse your palate so you can appreciate the different flavors of each kind of fish. Young ginger naturally turns pink when pickled. But the bright pink kind you’ll often see is made with artificial dye.
  • Takuan is rice-bran pickled daikon radish.  It’s usually served in half-moon slices, and makes a good vegetarian sushi roll filling. Manufactured takuan is also often dyed nowadays, to a bright yellow color. Traditionally it’s dried in the sun before being pickled, which can make a pretty awesome photo.
  • Beni shōga is ginger in little red strips. You probably seen these on top of yakisoba or takoyaki. It’s pickled in the vinegar used to make umeboshi pickled plums. So its bright red color ought to come from the red shiso leaves. Sadly, today it is also usually artificially dyed.

How to Approach a Strange Tsukemono

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-on-a-dish

Photo by Ruth and Dave

The earliest pickles were vegetables preserved in salt. One legend of the origin of tsukemono places it at Kayatsu Shrine in Nagoya. The shrine is now nicknamed Tsukemono Jinja and home to a festival celebrating the occasion each August. It’s said that the local people there traditionally made offerings of salt harvested from the sea and the vegetables from the first harvest. Because the offerings spoiled quickly, someone came up with the idea to combine them together in a barrel.

The result was a fermented product, which lasted a longer time. This was considered a gift from the gods, and with good reason. Before refrigeration, and greenhouses, and flying produce all around the world from places where seasons are different, there weren’t a lot of vegetables around in the winter. Pickles were the answer. They preserved spring and summer’s bounty for the cold time of year.

Now we can buy all kinds of fresh produce at any time of year. So they’re no longer necessary for providing vitamins and fiber when they’re out of season. But Japanese cuisine developed to include them, so a traditional meal doesn’t make sense without them. In fact, just rice, soup, and pickles count as a complete traditional Japanese meal.

Japanese food is often stereotyped as having delicate, subtle flavors. That may fool you into taking a huge mouthful of pickle, which could be a shock. Think of them more like a condiment. And remember that Japanese cuisine is based around a bowl of rice. Rice is indeed a subtle (some would say bland) food, and there’s nothing like a little bit of pickle to kick it up a notch when you take a mouthful of rice.

If you watch Japanese cooking shows, you’ll often see them taste something and say “this makes me want to eat a lot of rice.” That’s tsukemono in a nutshell. Oh, and that’s supposed to be a good thing.

Aside from their flavor, don’t forget how important presentation is to Japanese food. Tsukemono in their varied colors add eye appeal as well.

Japanese Pickles Today

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-vendor-in-japan

Photo by anjuli ayer

Pickles used to be made by hand in each household, and each tasted a little different. Your mom’s rice bran pickles really were different from everyone else’s, because the microbes on her hands were different. Now, homemade pickles are usually lighter kinds that only take an hour or a day or two to make. Most people go to the store and buy the more labor-intensive kinds.

japanese-pickles-tsukemono-ingredients-from-store-bought

As noted above, manufactured pickles are often made with artificial dyes. Read the ingredients on the packaged ones. You’ll find they are about as similar to traditionally made pickles as instant ramen is to a real local ramen shop. Remember that many of these pickles take days or weeks or even months to make in the old-fashioned way. So commercial ones take a lot of shortcuts.

However, you can still find traditional stores specializing in handmade pickles, which may have hundreds of kinds. You should look for them when you’re in Japan, because even if you don’t buy anything, it’s as much a true traditional Japanese sight as any temple or rock garden.

‘Pickles Granny,’ 96, Looks to Grow Business

Source: youth.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China

Song Xiuying, 96 years old, is affectionately referred to as “Pickles Granny” by the local people in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province: Despite being four years shy of the century mark, she still keeps busy selling pickles at a local market.

Setting up a shop in one of the market’s corners, Song is always seen smiling to each of her customers, old and new. She handles all of the transaction tasks — including weighing and calculating the orders — swiftly and accurately. If any customers express interest in making pickles of their own, she is more than willing to share with them her skills and long-accrued expertise. And during the lulls in her day, she will often be found chatting with people around the market.

When Song was a young woman, her husband passed away, leaving behind seven children for her to raise and nurture alone. “She would [back then] make several tons of pickles a year, attracting customers from surrounding villages from dawn to dusk,” said an acquaintance. Through her painstaking efforts, Song successfully brought up her children and now sits proudly atop a family tree that has grown to over 60 below her. Still, she sticks to her pickle business and stays by her stall in the market every day. She even wants to run a company and sell her pickles in foreign countries, said her son.

In her house, dozens of large vats are full of various kinds of pickles, all hand-made with care on her own. “See, I’m old, but I can still see and hear clearly,” she said proudly.

“I have been selling pickles for over 50 years and have never cheated my customers. The daily sales can reach one or two hundred yuan. I’m really happy!”

All financially capable, Song’s children intended to let their mother stay at home and enjoy her elderly years in peace and calm — but their intentions were met with the firm refusal of their mother. “Everybody is busy making money; I can’t just stay at home doing nothing.”

“My mom is very happy in making and selling pickles, and we’re also happy about that. We can’t force her to do things she doesn’t want to do,” said Song’s eldest daughter.

“‘Pickles Granny’ doesn’t sell pickles only for the money. She gets to exercise and interact with others, and that may very well be the secret to her longevity,” revealed Song’s nurse.

Spicy Food Longevity: Bring In Those Jalapeños, Study Suggests Hot Foods Might Make You Live Longer!

By Victoria Guerra – foodworldnews.com

Not everyone can handle spicy additions to their regular food intake, but the newest research on the subject shows that those who favor this kind of flavors might actually live longer, as it appears that spicy food and longevity are connected in a way.

According to The New York Times, the spicy food longevity study found that those who had a preference for hot foods were far less likely to develop ischemic heart disease, different types of cancer and respiratory disease, and although the researchers didn’t pinpoint exactly the cause and effect relation, they noted that capsaicin (an important ingredient in chili peppers), in the past has been found to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. A health study hailing from China found an interesting link between spicy food and longevity after surveying more than 485,000 people, and it was found that those who consumed hot foods on a weekly basis (particularly different chili peppers) were actually less likely to die at a young age.

Of course, there may be other causes for the spicy food longevity theory, such as the lifestyle associated with eating hotter foods; for example, it was found that the people who consumed more foods of this nature were more likely to live in rural areas, and there’s of course a particular lifestyle associated with this.

“Supportive data from population-based studies are sparse,” Lu Qi, the lead author of the spicy food longevity study, told CBS News. “For the first time, we reported that intake of spicy food might benefit health and lower risk of death in a large population. This is significant because consumption of spicy foods is common in many populations.”

The spicy food longevity study was published in the most recent issue of British Medical Journal (BMJ) under the name “Consumption of spicy foods and total and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study.”