Pickle of the Sea

Recently I came across a great recipe from Toshio Suzuki in an article in Saveur magazine that I just had to try–Pickled Nori.  I love seaweed, so I knew this would be a hit, plus I was in a pickling kind of mood and didn’t have fresh vegetables on hand.  It’s a simple enough recipe, but it requires some ingredients that you may not always have on hand, like mirin and yakinori sheets.  I actually discovered that I didn’t have rice vinegar, so had to make due with regular white distilled–which works fine.

Tsukudani (Pickled Nori)
1 1/2 oz. yakinori sheets
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp. mirin
3 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

You take the yakinori and soak it in water for about five minutes, then drain out the excess water in a tea towel.  It’s going to look like a big slippery lump of coal, which is not exactly appetizing but keep pressing on.  The taste makes it all worthwhile.

Add it to a saucepan, along with the soy sauce and other ingredients and warm it over a medium flame.

Keep stirring occasionally as it simmers, for about fifteen minutes, until most of the liquid evaporates.  Be sure to chill it before serving.

This is great in many ways–that night we ended up serving it on some cod we’d broiled (and I added it to my baked yam as well).  For a couple of post-Thanksgiving meals we served it as an appetizer, spread on crackers with a dollop of non-fat greek yogurt on top.  Now this is seafood.

photos by Andrew Wilder

2 Comments to “Pickle of the Sea”

  1. Wesley 28 November 2010 at 12:35 am #

    So good! I like it with ramen but have never made it myself. We're still trying to source some decent guerrilla-harvested seaweed for yakinori.

  2. Nicolee 1 December 2010 at 10:58 am #

    Hey Matty! It sounds like something I grew up on…Hijiki. Great on white rice. hot rice!

    I posted the recipe on your FB!

    XO


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