Autumn #6: In a Pickle / 秋＃６：一夜漬け

In a perfect world, I would never have any responsibilities beyond cooking (and eating).
私にとって、理想郷というのは料理以外の責任がない世界である。

Reality is a bit different.　理想と現実の差はね。。。

Sometimes I may be reduced to reheating frozen leftovers, but at least I also keep stashes of...
ですからたまに私も冷凍された料理の残りにする必要がある。幸いにこの備え。。。

Anyone who has lived with me knows I keep mystery jars of my culinary experiments in the fridge.　台所実験を発見！

Tonight seemed an auspicious time to break out my onion pickles, which I made a week ago. As you'll notice in the above photos, I added a little kick to the basic pickle juice formula of water, vinegar, salt, sugar with star anise, peppercorns, darjeeling tea, garlic, and ginger.
今晩の食卓に手作りタマネギ漬け物を！上の写真で見えるように、シンプルな水、酢、砂糖、塩という漬け物 汁にスターアニス、コショウの実、ダージリン紅茶、ニンニク、ショウガで贅沢をした。

Lately I've really fallen for this little spice in particular:
最近このスパイスに愛着を感じ初めて：

In chicken soup, pickles, jams, or curries, a hint of star anise makes the flavors both more cozy and intimate, and yet also more exotic. So speaking of curries...
チキンスープにも、漬け物にも、ジャムやカレーなどに、スターアニスをいれると何となく深みがあるエキゾチックな味を生み出す。ところでカレーと言えば。。。

The main dish tonight was reheated curry rice (with my tea pickles in a dazzling cameo). I got the basic recipe for Japanese curry rice from scratch here. The key really was carmelizing six onions for ninety minutes. It was also the reason why I froze a few portions of the curry for later, since it keeps well and I certainly could use some easy curry when I'm feeling short on time. I highly recommend adding a little bacon with the beef, and kabocha with the vegetables.
今晩のメインは前からの手作りカレーライス。レシピは ここで見つかった。ポイントは９０分にちかくタマネギをいためること。そのためにもたくさんのカレーを冷凍した。冷凍されてもカレーはおいしく保存できるので時間に迫っている時にまた暖めるだけでいい。私のおすすめはお肉と同時にベーコンを入れると野菜と同時にカボチャも。

Here is the meal, in all it's rushed-preparation glory:
これで１５分以内に作ったメニュー：

How could I resist a little sesame on the rice and an egg on the curry? Sometimes this modern life gets messy, and we feel like we don't have enough time to pamper ourselves. If you can plan ahead for those moments just a little bit though, you'll be able to find yourself in a pickle and yet also happy to to just...
ご飯にごま、カレーに卵。たまにこの現代的な人生は散らかったものだ。その時に余裕なくなってしまうね。本当はきれいな食卓を整えればいいけど、結局一夜漬けしかできない。大丈夫だよ。ちょっとだけ準備すると、乱雑になっても。。。

   Dig in. がつがつ食えばいい。