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What's for Dinner? v.18.24 Tsukemono [1]

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Date: 2023-12-16

Hi, everyone. Been a while since I asked What’s for Dinner, but I wanted to talk about one of the favorite meals around our house.

Every week or two, GF and I tire of the usual workday fare and declare

Sushi Picnic!

Which is, in nearly every way, a misnomer. Our "picnics" are almost exclusively indoors. On the couch. And very rarely do we have "sushi," the sweet rice seasoned with vinegar and mirren.

What we call a picnic is a meal that can be eaten over the space of 1 1/2 to 2 hours consisting of multiple small dishes--predominately tsukemono ("pickled things") with a couple of proteins like grilled tofu and tuna tataki,plus some crunchy snacky bits like roasted nuts, sesame sticks and the like. Combine those elements with hot sake, cold soda water or a Kirin Ichiban, add a good movie and you have... Sushi Picnic!

radish in green tea and kosher salt, carrot in ginger juice and rice vinegar, red onion in ume vinegar

cukes 3 ways: soy sauce and rice vinegar, fish sauce salt and rice vinegar, kosher dills



When I say the main course is really "pickles," don't worry. We're not going to be sweating over a pressure cooker full of Mason jars. These are fresh vegetables set with very light brines and watered vinegars for a few hours, technically "icebox pickles."

butter beans in chili paste and sesame oil, broccoli in dark soy sauce and rice vinegar, pickled beets with celery slices filled with umaboshi (pickled plum)

The bulk of the work is chopping, with a blanch or a boil here or there. They aren't put up for the winter, just the afternoon.

snow peas in soy sauce, sesame oil and white vinegar with roasted black sesame seeds, white mushrooms sauteed in butter and Worcestershire with hjiki, mirliton (chayote) in cane vinegar with kosher salt

There are plenty of other side possibilities, traditional and otherwise.

celery in sweet chili sauce and rice vinegar, water chestnuts in soy sauce rice vinegar and white pepper, traditional wakame seaweed salad

And don’t forget fixings for rolls, rice or no.

for rolls: clover sprouts in lieu of rice, nori wraps, fine-chopped carrots and cucumber

But you have to have some protein with your vegetables. In South Louisiana, we are fortunate to have access to reasonably priced seafood, so we can have mini-entrees like shrimp boiled or broiled.

broiled jerked shrimp, cocktail and remoulade sauces, baked tofu in ponzu sauce

Another favorite with us (and the cat) is tuna tataki. Here's a (very) quick recipe for it:



1 tsp. chili garlic paste

1 tsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. sesame oil

1 squirt Heinz ketchup (sorry, between the sugar and the pectin, it's about the perfect emuslier for any sauce)

Blend all of the ingredients into a thick sauce and marinate the tuna steak for at least 2 hours. At picnic time, fry the steak in a hot, lightly oiled pan for 1 1/2 minutes a side. Remove from heat and immediately slice thin and serve.

The cat gets hers without all the fancy prep.

In the end, it matters little what your "main dishes" or tsukemono side dishes are, so long as you can stretch them out to accompany a Myazaki anime feature, a feelgood Tom Hanks outing, or the season’s must-see. The point is to carve out a leisurely moment with your closest ones.

Kampai!

And now… what’s for dinner ‘round your way?

Oh, maybe just a snack...

Some notes:

Many of the tiny bowls you see were made by my dear GF, a sculptor in porcelain who sometimes uses small bowls instead of tiles to test glaze formulas. They’re perfect for Sushi Picnic.

Scales in individual images vary. Images and descriptions are © 2023 Louie Ludwig, as I some time may or may not write a book about all this cooking stuff.

The sake image at the top is not from a Sushi Picnic at our house, but from Umaya Izakaya, a very comfortable spot in Northwest DC, should you find yourself in our nation’s capital with a wish for fish.

Oh, and we really don’t serve every one of those sides at every sitting. Just wanted to give y’all some ideas.

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