I love to eat different types tsukemono (Japanese Pickles). When I first got married, my husband and I had this in common and if you had opened our refrigerator, you would have thought that an old Japanese couple lived there. Well, many years have passed and now we ARE that old Japanese couple still loving our tsukemono. 
I learned to make a few variations of tsukemono with different vegetables (some of which are in my laminated recipe card collection), but one of my favorites is this Yatsume Zuke which I got from the Honpa Hongwanji ‘Favorite Island Cookery’ Book 1. Here is the recipe:
Yatsume Zuke
1 medium head cabbage
3 medium mustard cabbage
4 T or 1/4 cup Hawaiian salt
2 T roasted white sesame seedsSauce:
1/3 c shoyu
1/4 c Japanese vinegar
1/4 c brown sugar, firmly packed
chili pepper to tasteChop the head cabbage and the mustard cabbage into 1/2″ size. Put them in a large container and sprinkle the Hawaiian salt and mix well, leaving for about 30 minutes or more. (I ‘massage’ the cabbages every 10 minutes or so, to help the salt saturate the cabbage). Squeeze the vegetables to drain the excess water and put them back into a big container. Add sesame seeds.
Prepare the sauce bringing it to a boil. Pour the hot sauce over the vegetables and mix well. Leave the mixture for 3-4 hours at room temperature. Keep in covered jar in the refrigerator.
Now are you ono for ochazuke?
Pomai Says:
October 20th, 2006 at 12:38 pmVisit Pomai
Lindy,
You already seen my entry at T.I. about “Taste of Shirokiya” where I got a photo of their Tsukemeno selection. I think Shirokiya is a bit cheaper than Marukai for these particular items.
My late aunt who taught me how to make the Oden showed me the (plastic) press or “Tsukemonoki” she used to make Namasu. Namasu isn’t categorized as Tsukemono is it?
My sister LOVES ochazuke! She usually uses the one in that striped yellow and red foil packet.
Funny you mention the Honpa Honwanji cookbooks. We have most of them.
Lindy Says:
October 20th, 2006 at 6:10 pmVisit Lindy
yeah …i can spend some time and $$ browsing the tsukemono section at shirokiya! i like namasu too.,, i figure it is still part of the ‘pickling’ process. now if i could only figure out a way to make our takuan NOT smell up the whole refrig and the whole house. do you notice that?? the takuan from japan …many don’t smell. i heard that they dry the radish first, then pickle it. but in hawaii, it’s hard to dry it without it getting spoiled. oh well.
my parents went to Honpa ..in fact my mom submitted a few recipes for the Book 1. My Aunty is an active member and is on the committees for all them.
thanks for your comments, pomai !