Three basic Japanese veggie dishes

Advertiser Staff

In her classic book, "Cook Japanese, Hawaiian Style" (self-published in 1974) former Gas Co. home economist Muriel Kamada Miura outlined three styles of preparing vegetables side dishes, pickles or relishes:

• Aemono, or dressed foods — blanched vegetables, often with fish or shellfish and/or tofu or sesame. Chef Hiroshi Fukui said these preparations tend to be seasonal, based on what's fresh and plentiful (and inexpensive). In Japan, aemono is traditionally not made with a dressing, but it's becoming trendy to do so. In Hawai'i, the dressing varies widely.

• Sunomono, vinegared vegetables — a "salad" of vegetables and possibly seaweed, shellfish or even chicken with a vinegar-based dressing. Su or zu means vinegar. In Japan, the dressing is likely a vinegar-dashi (bonito flake and seaweed broth) mixture while in Hawai'i, it's often vinegar and sugar.

• Tsukemono, pickled vegetables — vegetables preserved by means of salt and pressure (shio-zuke); a sugar-vinegar mixture and pressure (su-zuke); or vinegar-shoyu mixture with other ingredients, such as mustard, and pressure (karashi-zuke). The classic Japanese tsukemono is made with Chinese cabbage and salt, weighted down and allowed to age. Konbu (kelp) strips and/or chili pepper can be added during the marinating period, Fukui said. In Hawai'i, however, tsukemono is often made by pouring a hot vinegar marinade over vegetables, then pressing and marinating them. Popular takuwan (daikon pickle), namasu (pickled vegetables, often with citrus and seafood) and umeboshi (pickled Japanese apricot, often called pickled plum) are in the tsukemono family.

Language note: Mono means thing or material, so aemono means dressed thing, sunomono means vinegared thing and tsukemono means pickled thing.