Pickled Perfection

Even at 88, Kay Ishimoto’s eyes still fill with tears when she recalls making tsukemono, or Japanese pickled vegetables, in her youth.

"My parents owned a hotel in Shizuoka prefecture. We served seasonal food, and I helped the cooking staff in the kitchen. After the war broke out, we lost everything. Literally overnight we had nothing but the clothes on our backs," she recalled.

"As the oldest child of four, my job was to hunt for food. I would hunt for miles to look for vegetables, any vegetable that maybe a farmer picked and threw away. We pickled whatever we could, even potatoes. Luckily, our home was near the beach. I would take salt water to make my own salt, then use it to make tsukemono."

Though the memories may be sad, tsukemono is one of Ishimoto’s most beloved foods. In fact, rice and tsukemono which she still makes herself from the bounty of her garden is a favorite meal.

For Ishimoto the food has provided more than cultural and culinary satisfaction. It also fueled a successful family business, Kewalo Pickle Products, which she and her husband, Tsumoru Ishimoto, purchased in 1968 after finding that "there wasn’t any good tsukemono in Hawaii," said daughter Loretta Monroy. Monroy, a chef-instructor at Leeward Community College, ran the business from "the late 1970s" until the family sold it in 2005.

Since Kewalo Pickle didn’t come with recipes, Kay Ishimoto created her own. During the Ishimoto era, Kewalo Pickle offered 16 varieties of Asian pickles, from takuan and mustard eggplant to kim chee.

Tsukemono starts with brine in which vegetables are soaked. Staple ingredients include soy sauce, salt, rice vinegar and sugar, though the simplest brine is made with salt and water. Some pickles are also marinated in pastes made from rice bran, miso and sake lees, the residual yeast after fermentation.

While living on the mainland in the early 1960s (Hawaii-born Tsumoru Ishimoto was a career military man), Ishimoto served her family tsukemono every day despite a lack of Asian ingredients. She used fermented bread to formulate a paste similar to the one made of rice bran.

Wet chunks of bread combined with salt create a pickling master sauce, said Diane Nazarro, executive chef of Diamond Head Market & Grill and another of Ishimoto’s daughters.

Salted fresh vegetables are added to the bread mixture and soaked overnight, resulting in vegetable jus liquid released from the veggies to become part of the master sauce.

"Keep adding bread to the jus and it will ferment," said Nazarro, noting that the sauce must be refrigerated to prevent it from going sour. It lasts about three weeks, she says.

While in Fort Riley, Kan., Kay Ishimoto followed the lead of Southern picklers and turned watermelon rind into tsukemono using the bread sauce.

In Hawaii, Ishimoto tailored tsukemono recipes traditionally salty and sour to cater to the local palate, which favors sweetness.

One of the family’s favorite tsukemono is asazuke ("quick pickles"), a combination of won bok, daikon, Japanese cucumber and ginger slivers, all salted and soaked in a brine of water and rock salt overnight, then served with a topping of katsuobushi (bonito flakes). It’s less salty than most tsukemono because of the quick turnaround.

Ishimoto says brine recipes aren’t necessarily wedded to specific vegetables.

"Experiment with different vegetables and sauces. The flavors change between the vegetables," she said.

Though busy picklers today might simply layer their veggies in a jar and pour in the brine, traditionally, vegetables soaked in brine were weighted down with water-filled jugs or other heavy items. Ishimoto says this preserves the natural taste of the vegetable, something she appreciates.

Today the Ishimoto women are concerned that appreciation for tsukemono is fading.

"A lot of this stuff is being lost because people are not brought up with it as much anymore," said Monroy.

Like their parents, the five Ishimoto siblings (one boy, four girls) invested countless hours of hard work in the family business. They grew up working at the factory every day before and after school, on each holiday and during every summer.

No matter the changing food trends, tsukemono is a mainstay on their dinner tables.

"There’s always gotta be something on the side during the meal," said Monroy.

"Our kids live on the mainland, and even they need to eat it," said Nazarro. "Every time we go visit we gotta make tsukemono for them.

"I think of it as comfort food, a standard condiment. It’s like, even if something’s very tasty, you still got shoyu on the table, right?"

ASAZUKE

Recipes courtesy Kay Ishimoto
8 cups water 
1/2 cup rock salt, or to taste
1/4 head won bok (Chinese cabbage), washed 
1 medium Japanese cucumber 
1 small daikon or radish 
1 piece fresh ginger root, peeled and cut into thin slivers
Katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

Combine water and rock salt. Stir until salt is dissolved. 

Rub vegetables with salt and marinate in brine overnight in refrigerator.

Remove from brine and slice: Cut won bok into 1/2-inch strips, and cucumber and daikon into thin slices.

Lightly squeeze to remove excess liquid; mix together. Add slivers of fresh ginger and mix again.

Serve topped with katsuobushi and a little soy sauce if desired.

YATSUMIZUKE 
1/2 head cabbage, sliced in 1-inch strips, or to taste
2 bunches mustard cabbage, or to taste
Salt
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup rice vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon julienned fresh ginger (optional)

Chop head cabbage and mustard cabbage, sprinkle with salt and mix. Set aside.

In pot, combine soy sauce, vinegar and sugar; bring to boil and remove from heat immediately.

Once cooled, pour over salted vegetables. Refrigerate and marinate 24 hours before serving. 

KYURI OSHINKO
6 whole cucumbers 
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup water
5 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 piece konbu for seasoning (optional)
Rub cucumbers with salt.

In bowl, combine water, vinegar and sugar. Pour over cucumbers. Refrigerate and marinate at least 12 hours. 

Slice and serve.  

Note: For different flavors, add to marinade, to taste, soy sauce, chili pepper, or sesame oil.

Nutritional information unavailable.