Japanese pickles are a snap to make at home. Here are some basic recipes and techniques to get you started on pickling veggies on your own.
Summer’s bounty tempts me most when it’s presented as pickles—in the steamy season, cool pickled vegetables are particularly welcoming on the palate. The good news is, making your own tsukemono is one of the easiest tasks in the Japanese kitchen. You just have to learn a few techniques before you’re ready to pickle a wide variety of vegetables.
Transforming vegetables into tart, tangy or piquant pickles is worth the minimal effort—all you need a plastic bag and some salt. If you must, invest in a pickle pot that applies pressure to the marinating veggies.
There are many types of pickling methods, including shio-zuke (salt), su-zuke (vinegar), nuka-zuke (rice bran) and miso-zuke (miso). Shio-zuke and su-zuke can quickly be mastered at home. Experiment with different produce and see what tickles your tongue.
My grandmother encouraged me to start pickling 20 years ago by showing me how to throw some Japanese cucumbers, cut up into bite size pieces, inside a plastic bag with a bit of salt. Massage the bag, let it rest in the fridge for up to 15 minutes, and you have your first batch of pickles. Enjoy them as a snack with beer, or with a bowl of hot rice and miso soup. In lieu of salt, try a handful of shio kombu (salted strips of kombu) or some yukari (dried, salted purple shiso leaves). Use this same technique with cabbage, turnips or daikon, and you will quickly gain confidence.
For vinegar-based pickles, combine 6 tablespoons of rice-wine vinegar and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a small pan. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, take vegetables such as carrots, daikon or thinly sliced renkon (lotus root), and toss in a bowl with some salt. (This process draws out the water from the vegetables and brings out the umami.) Rinse in water, pat dry, then put into a plastic bag (or pickle pot); add your sweetened rice-wine vinegar and marinate. For citrusy notes, add julienned peels of yuzu or lemon.
Many vegetables just call out to be pickled. Myoga (from the ginger family) or baby ginger turn a blushing color when marinated in the sweet vinegar. Tender Japanese eggplants are a nice contrast to the cooked aubergines we usually see. The bitterness of turnips softens with a soaking in salt. Green leaves from vegetables such as daikon can be transformed into pickles instead of meeting their usual fate of the trashcan.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start to play around. Try pickling with kombucha, umeboshi or soy sauce, or use combinations like cabbage, salt and sesame seeds; or cucumbers, soy sauce and katsuobushi. Throw in a bit of julienned ginger for some extra heat. It’s hard to mess up when you’re making pickles, except for maybe over-salting, so taste as you go along and have fun with it.
If you are in a rush, check the supermarket for instant “asazuke.” Just sprinkle it over vegetables in a plastic bag, massage, and you’re ready to go.
If you’re not inspired to make your own pickles, you can still get creative in the kitchen by cooking with ones that you buy at the store. I like to throw some chopped-up pickles into cooked rice for a maze-gohan, or into the pan when making chahan (fried rice).
The charming restaurant Kintame in the shitamachi area of Monzen-Nakacho may be the best place to sample a wide variety of pickles (above). The colorful array, each with its own texture and aroma, makes for an interesting and offbeat dining experience.
In depachika, you will find several stalls tempting customers with a comprehensive array of colorful and tart pickles. While at the depato, stop by the sake department and pick up some nihonshu, which makes a complement to tsukemono.
Some regions of Japan are particularly well-known for their pickles. Kyoto is famous for senmai-zuke, which are thin slices of large turnip pickled with kombu and a sweet vinegar. Neighboring Nara specializes in a heady and funky Nara-zuke, which is various vegetables pickled in sake lees and salt. In Tokyo, you’ll find sweet bettera-zuke—daikon pickled with koji yeast and sugar.
You too can be as cool as a cucumber this summer if you get this technique under your belt.
Kintame 1-14-3 Tomioka, Koto-ku. Tel: 03-3641-4561. Nearest stn: Monzen-Nakacho. www.kintame.co.jp
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/751/localflavors.asp
The aromas of smoked katsuobushi fill the air in front of this shop in Ameyoko. Katsuobushi here before it is shaved looks like dusty sticks. 
