My sister Didi turned me on to this. It's fast-acting tsukemono powder! Whaaaa? For real.
There were all different kine powders to choose from at Marukai (the shopping cart day). I chose these two because each bag came with eight 4-gram packs and I could divvy up the packs and share with my sisters. The one on the left is katsuo flavored and the one on the right is umami-spicy.
The directions say that one 4-gram pack is good for 1 cucumber or 1/2 carrot or 2-3 cabbage leaves or 1/8 daikon.
I cut up one good-sized cucumber and used one pack of the katsuo and one pack of the spicy.
I put the cut-up cucumber in a zip lock bag and poured out the contents from the two packs.
Then I squoosh, squoosh, squooshed the bag and threw it into the fridge. The directions say that it's ready after 20 to 30 minutes.
I was so surprised at the flavor . . . so UMAMI!! I dug out the bag and read the ingredients. MSG . . . no wonda.
On a side note, since making this tsukemono I've been online trying to find the Japanese characters for MSG. There are several. I found the following on Jisho.
化学調味料 chemical seasoning
グルタミン酸ナトリウム MSG
味塩 salt and MSG
And I've seen this on the front of packages before but never knew what it meant:
無化調 No MSG
Good to know, yah.
9 comments:
I used to buy something similar, I forget the name but it was supposedly only 1 hour marinade powder. I would sprinkle that on cubed daikon and add Korean chili pepper powder. It would come out like gakktugi (chunky Korean daikon kimchee). My co-worker would grate a little apple or japan/korean pear and she said it was even better.
Thank you for the Japanese characters. I'm going to carry that with me when I go to Japan!
V
I try to stay away from msg if I cook at home bec when we eat out we know we can't avoid it. Tsukemono is not tsukemono without the msg though. My sis in law sent me some dashi packets without msg for when I make miso soup. I'm going to check if it has the "no msg" characters on it.
definitely good to know:)
whaaaaa??? awesome!
V, Wendell made a Korean dish that called for grated pear too. I thought that was so interesting. Getting excited thinking about Japan trip, yah!!
Susan, us too . . . we no more Ajinomoto at our house anymore.
Yah, Kat. Now I gonna be spending even more time reading labels at Marukai.
So fast for us impatient people, Les.
I love tsukemono. Tsukemono and rice = happiness.
So, you going to Japan again soon? Goodie, goodie!
I am, Aunty . . . in October!
Mmmm... I love cucumbers.
I have been living in Japan for about a year now. One of the women at church brought some vegetables soaked in asazuke no moto, it comes in a liquid form here. I just had to have the recipe. It is really simple, and is good for daikon, carrots, onions, asian eggplants, and garlic as well as for cucumbers. I just made a gallon bag of daikon, carrot, onion, and garlic tsukemono for church tomorrow morning. I love how fast it gives that tsukemono taste, and it is fun as well to massage the vegertablles together in the zip lock bag before putting them in the frig for a few hours.
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