冬の終わりに漬けたい冬菜漬け Pickled winter vegetables
常備菜研究室 Preserved Food Laboratory
ストーリー Recipe trivia
冬菜は冬に育つ葉物野菜の総称。主に、白菜、高菜、青梗菜、水菜などアブラナ科の葉野菜を指す（アカザ科のほうれん草を含める用法もあるようだ）。中国語の冬菜（dōngcài）もほぼ同じ意味で使われる。積雪もある冬の厳しい気候に耐えながら、大きな葉を広げて糖分を始めとした栄養分をせっせと蓄え、春の繁殖期を待っているのだ。そして、栄養分を使って春に一斉に董立ちして子孫を残す。
中国から東アジアにかけての地域では、この冬菜を塩蔵して活用してきた。江戸時代には日本国内でも各藩が品種改良を奨励して改良品種を競い、何十種類もの派生品種を生み出していった。今でも小松菜や野沢菜といった地域の自慢の品種として栽培が続けられている。気温の低い間、塩漬けされた冬菜はゆっくりと乳酸発酵し、保存性を高めるだけではなく、塩味と酸味の素晴らしいハーモニーを醸し出す。ビタミンやミネラルが不足しがちな冬季には貴重な常備菜だ。暖かくなってくると発酵が進みすぎるので、漬け込んだ後に乾燥させたり、炒めたりして夏野菜が育ってくるまで食べ繋ぐ運用サイクルができていたのだ。日本でも白菜漬け、高菜漬け、野沢菜漬けといった名産が残っている。アジアでも活用されていて、魯肉飯など東南アジアの米料理や麺料理に添えられる酸っぱい青菜漬けもこの系統の常備菜だ。にんにくや唐辛子を入れて漬け込んだ中国の冬菜漬や朝鮮半島の白菜キムチもこのカテゴリーに属する。欧州にも同じカテゴリーのザウアークラウトという逸品がある。ちなみに日本語訳の酢漬けキャベツは誤訳。乳酸菌発酵由来の酸味であって酢は入っていない。
ただ、日本の状況で言えば常備菜という認識は薄れてきてしまっていて、スーパーで売っているものは、調味液に短期間つけただけの別物になってしまっている。酸味も発酵によるものではなく酸味料由来だ。工業的な生産を前提に都度買ってきて冷蔵庫に放り込んでおくものでしかない。僕は、個人的にこの工場と流通のブラックボックスが技術者として嫌なのと、貧乏人としては何倍もの値段がつけられているのが気に入らないので、自分で作っている。
Winter vegetables are a general term for leafy vegetables that grow in winter. They mainly refer to leafy vegetables of the Brassicaceae family, such as Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, bok choy, and mizuna (it seems that they are also used to include spinach of the Chenopodiaceae family). The Chinese word winter vegetables (dōngcài) is used in almost the same sense. They endure the harsh winter climate with snowfall, spread their large leaves, and diligently store nutrients such as sugar, waiting for the breeding season in spring. Then, using the nutrients, they all erect in the spring and leave their offspring.
In areas from China to East Asia, this winter vegetable has been salted and used. During the Edo period, each feudal domain in Japan encouraged breeding and competed with each other to produce improved varieties, resulting in dozens of derivative varieties. Even today, it continues to be cultivated as a proud variety of the region, such as komatsuna and nozawana. During the low temperatures, salted winter vegetables slowly undergo lactic acid fermentation, which not only improves their shelf life, but also creates a wonderful harmony of saltiness and sourness. It is a valuable preserved food in winter, when vitamins and minerals are often lacking. When it gets warmer, fermentation progresses too much, so after pickling, they dry or fry them, and eat them until the summer vegetables grow. In Japan, there are famous pickled Chinese cabbage, pickled Takana, and pickled Nozawana. It is also used in Asia, and the sour pickled greens that are served with rice and noodle dishes in Southeast Asia, such as Lu Rou Fan, are also staple dishes of this type. Chinese winter cabbage pickles, which are pickled with garlic and chili peppers, and Chinese cabbage kimchi from the Korean Peninsula also belong to this category. In Europe, there is a masterpiece in the same category called sauerkraut. By the way, the Japanese translation of sauerkraut is pickled cabbage, which is a mistranslation. The sourness comes from lactic acid fermentation and does not contain vinegar.
However, in Japan, the recognition of it as a preserved food has faded, and the ones sold in supermarkets have become something different, simply soaked in seasoning liquid for a short period of time. The sourness is not due to fermentation, but comes from an acidulant. It is just something that you buy each time and throw in the refrigerator, assuming industrial production. Personally, I don't like this black box of factories and distribution as an engineer, and as a poor person, I don't like the fact that it is charged several times the price, so I make it myself.
もう季節も終わって春が訪れているが、いつも３月には冬の最後に安く出回った何種類かの冬菜や董立ち前のプランターからの収穫品を漬け込むことにしている。これで胡瓜などの夏野菜が安く出回り始め糠漬けを作り始めるまでの期間は、漬物に困らない。ここでは、一番安く出回っていた青梗菜の冬菜漬けを紹介する。漬け方は、他の冬菜でも一緒だ。
The season is over and spring is here, but in March I always pickle some types of winter vegetables that were cheap at the end of winter, or vegetables harvested from planters before they started to bolt. This way I won't have any trouble with pickles until summer vegetables like cucumbers start to come on the market cheaply and I can start making pickles in rice bran. Here I will introduce how to pickle bok choy, which was the cheapest pickle available. The pickling method is the same for other winter vegetables.
Ingredients:
材料：
青梗菜※
自然塩
輪切り唐辛子
※安く手に入る冬菜
Bok choy※
Natural salt
Sliced chili peppers
*Cheap winter vegetables
procedure:
手順:
青梗菜は根元に十字の切り込みを入れ、手で割いて四等分する。小さい株ならそのままか二等分でも良い。根本の隙間に土が詰まっていることが多いので、よく洗って取り除く。水気を十分に切っておく。
以下は、手をよく洗って、よく洗った容器を使うように心がける。ただ神経質になりすぎて薬剤消毒などはしない方が良い。風味を損なってしまう。乳酸菌は酸素がなくても増殖し、元々かなり強い菌なので、肉類と隣接した場所で調理したり肉類とまな板などを共有したりといった大腸菌のリスクにさえ晒さなければ、常識的な清潔度を保ておけば、悪玉菌が繁殖することはない。
自然塩を材料の1パーセントから3パーセントを目安に加え、唐辛子を散らし、よく混ぜて軽く揉み、そのまま３０分ほど放置する。保存性を気にせずにすぐ使うなら１パーセント、保存性を重視するならより多くの塩を使う。塩が多いと尖った塩辛さを感じるが、発酵が進むにつれちょうど良く味がこなれてくるので、多少塩辛く感じるくらいがちょうど良い。
３０分たったら軽く揉みながら何度か上下を返し、広口の保存容器か壺に入れて重しをする。放置中に出た水分は捨てずに一緒に入れる。その方が水分が野菜全体に回って空気を遮断し、カビなどが生えるリスクを減らせる。漬物専用の器具があればより手軽につけ込むことができる。浅漬けなら１週間、古漬けならそれ以降も楽しめる。長期保存は冷蔵庫ないし冷凍庫で行う。
Make a cross cut at the base of the bok choy and split it into quarters with your hands. If it is a small stalk, you can leave it as is or cut it in half. There is often soil stuck in the gaps at the base, so wash it well and remove it. Drain the water thoroughly.
For the following, wash your hands thoroughly and make sure to use well-washed containers. However, it is better not to be too nervous and use chemical disinfectants. It will ruin the flavor. Lactic acid bacteria grow even without oxygen and are originally quite strong bacteria, so as long as you do not expose yourself to the risk of E. coli by cooking in close proximity to meat or sharing a cutting board with meat, and as long as you maintain a reasonable level of cleanliness, bad bacteria will not grow.
Add sea salt at a rate of approximately 1 to 3 percent of the ingredients, sprinkle with chili pepper, mix well, rub lightly, and leave as is for about 30 minutes. If you are using it immediately without worrying about shelf life, use 1 percent, but if you value shelf life, use more salt. If you add too much salt, it will taste too salty, but as the fermentation progresses, the flavor will become just right, so it is best to use a slightly salty taste.
After 30 minutes, gently rub the vegetables and turn them over several times, then place them in a wide-mouthed storage container or jar and weight them down. Do not throw away any water that has come out while they are left out, but put it in together with the vegetables. This way the water will circulate throughout the vegetables, blocking out the air and reducing the risk of mold growing. If you have a special tool for pickling, you can pickle them even more easily. Lightly pickled vegetables can be enjoyed for up to a week, and aged pickles can be enjoyed even longer than that. For long-term storage, store in the refrigerator or freezer.
Tips and tricks:
コツと応用のヒント：
大家族やレストランなら真空パックの手法を使うのもおすすめ、場所を取ることなく発酵を管理でき、そのまま保存できる。
気温にもよるが１５度以下なら、１週間から２週間くらいは酸味をあまり感じない浅漬け状態。その後から徐々に発酵が進んで酸味が増し、最後は古漬け状態になる。発酵は温度でコントロールできるので、夏季や発酵を意図的に遅らせたい場合は、冷蔵庫の温度分布を調べておき、発酵を遅らせると良い。こういった冷蔵庫の戦略的使い方は前の記事でも触れたので、興味ある方は参照してほしい。
古漬けとして楽しんでも良いけど、苦手な人は１時間から数時間ほど水に浸けて塩抜きし、唐辛子や味噌、醤油、砂糖、酒などを加えて炒めてから使っても良い。
ここでは、塩と腐敗対策に唐辛子を使っただけのシンプルな塩漬けにしたが、副材料を使えば色々なタイプの漬物ができる。にんにく、生姜、スパイス類、柑橘類の皮、リンゴなど果物のスライス、好みなどを一緒に漬け込んでも良い。また、塩の代わりに醤油を使っても良い。
キムチのように２段階に分けてつけ込む場合は、最終的に塩辛くならないように、塩の入れすぎには注意した方が良い。
For large families or restaurants, I recommend using the vacuum packing method, which allows you to control the fermentation without taking up space and allows you to store the pickles as they are.
Depending on the temperature, if it is below 15 degrees, the pickles will be in a light pickle state for about one to two weeks, and will not taste very sour. After that, the fermentation will gradually progress, the sourness will increase, and the pickles will mature and become aged. Fermentation can be controlled by temperature, so if you are making them in the summer or if you want to delay the fermentation depending on the purpose, it is a good idea to check the temperature distribution in the refrigerator and delay the fermentation. I mentioned this kind of strategic use of the refrigerator in my previous article, so please refer to it if you are interested.
You can enjoy them as aged pickles, but if you don't like it, you can soak them in water for an hour or several hours to remove the salt, add chili peppers, miso, soy sauce, sugar, sake, etc., and stir-fry them before using them.
Here, I used salt and chili peppers to prevent spoilage, but you can make various types of pickles by using other ingredients. You can also pickle them with garlic, ginger, spices, citrus peels, slices of fruit such as apples, and nuts. You can also use soy sauce instead of salt.
When making kimchi in two stages, it is best to be careful not to add too much salt so that the final product does not become too salty.