Yesterday, we did hotpot (nabé) for dinner.
I got this tabletop cooking pot/deivice secondhand last summer & this was our first tryout. We cooked nappa cabbage, a few kinds of Japanese mushrooms, and thinly sliced shabu-shabu pork as we ate. It was a big fun especially for Kiliko, who said it's like the Japanese cooking TV show. On the other hand, Randy seemed growingly sleepy from the steam & the steady sound of the fan created by the cooker.
As I got everything ready for dinner and opened to take out our cukes from my pickling bed (nukadoko), though, I gasped. The surface of the bed was covered with this white, slightly slimy film. I admit I forgot to stir it for some days now, but I thought it'd be okay since I kept it in the fridge. It passed my smell-check - it didn't have any bad odor which is a sign of bad bacteria growth. So I just scraped off the top and added some more salt & fresh rice bran.
Later I googled & found out the white film is yeast.
It actually indicats that the pickling bed is maturing - going to the right direction. The film yeast occurs in wine, sherry, beer, too, and they form on the surface because they like oxygen.
But wow, the cukes which over-pickled were sooo salty!
I need three bowls of rice to eat just few pieces. But Kiliko loved it, and when I noticed the pile of cucumber slices on the plate was half gone. Uh oh...
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| Astoria sky today. Leaves turning yellow. |
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