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  • 1 day ago
Hakusai no asazuke is a quick Japanese napa cabbage pickle recipe that turns crisp cabbage into a refreshing side dish with bright citrus flavor. This simple method usually uses napa cabbage tossed with salt, kombu, yuzu, lemon, or other citrus, allowing the leaves to soften slightly while keeping their fresh crunch. The salt draws out moisture and helps the seasoning reach each layer, while kombu adds gentle umami and citrus brings a clean aroma that balances the cabbage’s natural sweetness. After a short rest, the pickles become lightly seasoned, juicy, and crisp without needing long fermentation. The final asazuke works well with steamed rice, grilled fish, fried chicken, ramen, curry, or Japanese breakfast plates, making it an easy side dish with freshness, texture, and a bright homemade finish.
Transcript
00:00Ever find yourself with leftover Napa cabbage that you don't know what to do with?
00:03This exact problem happened to me recently and with the weather too hot to make a hotpot,
00:08I opted for this delicious and crunchy Napa cabbage quick pickle infused with citrus flavour.
00:13Let's get started.
00:15For a printable version of this recipe, visit my website, just google Napa cabbage pickles
00:19that you'd find me. For this dish, you will need about 1 quarter of an apple cabbage,
00:24or 300g if you want to be exact. Remove the base then cut into rough by size pieces,
00:31about 1-2 inches or 2-5cm pieces. I'm just going to place these in a sealable bag,
00:37a ziplock bag also works fine. I prefer bags to jars because it's easier to evenly coat the ingredients,
00:44but if you choose to use a glass jar, mix everything together in a bowl first.
00:49Next, I have 5g of dried kelp called kombu. We want thin matchsticks and I find strong
00:56kitchen scissors work better than a knife in this situation. Just make sure to cut lengthways,
01:01otherwise the kombu will crumble. Now, usually I make this dish in winter when usually it's in season,
01:07but I couldn't find a single user this time so I'm substituting it with a mixture of orange and lemon.
01:13Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peels, then thin the julienne them to help extract more flavour.
01:20I would usually use half a yuzu, but for lemon and orange, I'm using quarter of each.
01:25I do find the flavour milder than yuzu, so you can double these for a more intense citrus flavour.
01:32Ok, place those in a bag along with the kombu, then squeeze the lemon and orange thoroughly to
01:38release the juices. You can also use bottled yuzu juice if you don't want to
01:43skip the yuzu flavour. Fresh yuzu doesn't contain much juice, so about half tablespoon of the bottled
01:48stuff would be enough. Next, we're adding half tablespoon of salt, half teaspoon of sugar,
01:54one teaspoon of sliced dry red chilli and one teaspoon of light soy sauce. Then all you need to
02:01do is massage the bag until everything is evenly coated. One reason I like to use syllable bags for
02:07pickles is because you can just throw everything in and massage it together. No one should not.
02:13Not only that, but when it's resting in the fridge, the bag touching the surface of the vegetables helps
02:19the liquid pour around the surface, making them more evenly flavoured.
02:23Ok, once it's all mixed, push the air out of the bag and seal it up tightly.
02:28I also take the extra measure of placing it in a container so that if it does unfortunately leak,
02:34it doesn't make a big mess in my fridge.
02:37Wear it down with something heavy to help squeeze the liquid out of the cabbage and then place it
02:42in the fridge for 24 hours. After a night in the fridge, it should look something like this.
02:47Pleasantly salty, refreshingly citrusy with a subtle kick of umami from the kombu
02:53and heat from the chilli. This recipe is a delicious way to use up the leftover napa cabbage.
02:59Want even more delicious recipes? Grab my free cookbook from the link in the description.
03:05Ok, let's go over the ingredients one more time, and if you're ready to cook, grab the written
03:10instructions by clicking the full recipe box with a picture that's about to pop up on your screen.
03:15Here we go, the link to the full recipe is on the screen for you now, and if you want
03:19to watch more
03:19similar videos, don't miss my ginger pickled cucumber video popping up on your screen as well.
03:24Thanks so much for watching, and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye.
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