2
Issue #11 November 1, 2013
Pickles and preserves are almost as trendy right now as the mason jars that hold them (among foodies and DIYers, at least), but here in Honolulu we have our own take on vegetable transformation: tsukemono—Japanese pickles.
One simple style of tsukemono is namasu, which involves salting to draw out water followed by marinating in sweetened vinegar. “The purpose is to take some kind of vegetable or food and transform it, more than preserve it,” explains Nanette Geller of freerangegourment.com.
Geller is becoming known as “the tsukemono lady.” She ran a well-received tsukemono workshop last July as part of GreenWheel Food Hub’s “preservation celebration,” and she’s on a mission to teach people how to cook via personalized cooking lessons in their own homes.
“I hate that people don’t know how to feed themselves,” she says. Geller grew up cooking and eating French, Italian and Jewish food. She picked up on how to cook Japanese food over the course of 16 years in Tokyo spent learning from Japanese friends and housewives. Her passion for the food led her to deciphering Japanese recipe books, watching Japanese cooking shows and observing professional chefs in sushi shops.
In contrast to the country-style cooking that has influenced Japanese food in Hawai‘i, “My own preference in general … is for the Kyoto style, which is much more refined … more delicate, subtle flavor,” she explains.
Geller started making her own tsukemono after moving to Hawai‘i and finding that most locally made namasu has preservatives and artificial coloring—and there’s no reason you shouldn’t make your own. “They’re super easy to make … especially in the small batches you’d make for a family,” she says.
Another benefit is that when your veggies have soaked up a bunch of delicious flavors, you end up eating a lot more of them. Come to think of it, that’s how my grandma got me to eat vegetables.
“People still do some of this at home … which is a wonderful thing, [that] it never died out here,” says Geller.
“Every ethnic group has its own way of preserving food. Whatever way of preserving food you grew up with—whatever that taste is—it never leaves you. It’s a very nostalgic taste that people continue to want,” she says.
Contact Geller for a personalized lesson at [email protected] or follow her on twitter @freerangenan.
Cover image: Kyuri namasu
This image: Tsukemono