Senmaizuke ✦

Senmaizuke

What it is

A cook attached to the Kyoto imperial palace began slicing Shōgoin turnips paper-thin in 1865 and layering them with kombu in a barrel; senmai, a thousand sheets, gave the pickle its name. It is barely a pickle at all — a few days in salt, sweet vinegar and kelp, with none of the lactic sourness of the other Kyoto tsukemono.

In the kitchen

Slice at one to two millimetres on a mandoline, salt for two hours and squeeze hard before the vinegar goes on — the water you leave in is the water that dilutes the brine. Use the sheets whole, as a wrapper for sashimi or smoked fish, rather than chopping them.

Goes with

Kombu Rice vinegar White sugar Hotate scallop Gilt-head bream Yuzu Salt

Same species

Baek-kimchi Broccoli Brussels sprout Cabbage Cauliflower Cavolo nero

In season alongside

Pauillac lamb Japanese tilefish (amadai) Lily bulb Haddock Olive flounder (hirame) John Dory

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