Inherited from my mother

 

It's strange how as you get older, you suddenly start craving things that you used to be able to get by without.

One of them is bran pickles.

When I was a child, bran pickles were an essential part of our dinner table, and my mother would pickle seasonal vegetables in some way every day.

My mother's favorite food is this pickled rice bran, and she seems uneasy without it.

Whenever he was hospitalized or went on a short trip, he would always say, "I want to get home quickly and eat pickles and rice," or sometimes, even after eating French cuisine, he would say, "If only we had some ochazuke and bran-pickled vegetables to finish, it would have been perfect."

The sight of my mother pickling vegetables was a part of our everyday lives.

The rhythm and sound of my mother skillfully stirring the bran.

It still remains deeply ingrained in me.

When I suddenly think, "Ah, I want to eat pickled rice bran," the memory of living with rice bran suddenly pops up in my mind, and I'm probably feeling nostalgic for my everyday life.

The scene in the kitchen bathed in morning light is gentle and beautiful.

The taste of bran pickles varies from household to household and is very diverse.

Apparently the individuality of the product is determined by the environment in which it lives and the bacteria on the hands of the person who makes it.

My mother always said, "You have to mix the rice bran every day."

No matter how tired I am, I stir the rice bran in the kitchen.

Chili peppers, kelp, yuzu peel, and Japanese pepper berries were sometimes mixed into the bran bed.

Chili peppers are used as a preservative,

Kelp is delicious,

The yuzu peel and sansho pepper fruit are added to enhance the flavor.

First of all, bran is rich in nutrients.

We usually take the trouble to scrape off the nutritious parts and eat them as white rice.

It would be a waste to throw away the shaved parts.

The prototype of nukazuke seems to be a pickle called "suzhori."

Apparently Susufori made the floor by mixing ground grains and soybeans with salt.

I think that bran pickles are more efficient in terms of ingredients than suzuhori and are less wasteful.

When pickled in rice bran, the nutrients from the rice bran penetrate the vegetables, and the fermentation by lactic acid bacteria and yeast increases the sweetness and aroma, making them more delicious.

Currently, the most delicious pickled vegetables are probably cucumber and eggplant.

The crisp texture of cucumber,

Eggplants freshly taken out of the bran bed have a beautiful purple hue.

I inherited my mother's rice bran bed and decided to grow it myself from now on.

By the way, it seems that it is okay to put fermented foods such as cheese and wine in the bran bed.

It takes a bit of courage, but I'll try it someday.