Shibazuke しば漬け

しば漬けは私の一番好きな漬け物だよ！

When I was in Japan, I unexpectedly fell in love with their pickles. I thought I would go there and eat sushi and kushimono (串もの, things on a stick, like chicken teriyaki) and leave a happy woman. But there was such crazy diversity to the little side dishes they had, and I found that one of my favorite things to buy wherever I went was tsukemono, side-dish pickles. If you are familiar with Korean banchan, they are very similar.

My favorite pickle was shibazuke, made with purple shiso (an herb kinda like a cross between mint and basil), ginger, myoga (ginger bud), eggplants, and cucumbers.

I grew some shiso in my garden this year just to make these pickles. Yay!!

Fried

Anything better than sweet potato fries?

Here in Perú we've got these really great sweet potatoes with purple in the skin, so they're even more delicious with the skin.



SWEET-POTATO FRIES:

Cut the fries to your desired thickness (I like mine a little bigger than shoestring), then leave to soak in water for an hour or two.

Heat a couple inches of vegetable oil in a pot or pan on high heat for 30 min or so, until it's completely hot. Take the fries from the water, dry them, and fry in small batches until golden brown and delicious! Put on salt and enjoy.