November 16, 2012

Using a Whole Daikon for Supper/夕飯に大根一本を使う

Do you know how to use a daikon for cooking properly? It is generally said that the upper part of a daikon is sweet and good to eat raw, grated or in salad, the middle part is good when simmered, and the lower part is pungent and is good when pickled.
大根一本の正しい使い方を知ってますか?一般的には、上部は甘く、生でサラダや大根おろしとして食べると美味しく、真ん中の部分は煮物すると美味しく、下の部分は辛く、漬物にすると美味しいと言われています。

 We got a lot of daikon from my wife's sister, so I use them often for cooking these days.
妻の姉から大根をたくさんもらったので、この頃、大根を料理に使ってます。

For supper tonight, I decided to use a whole daikon.
今日の夕飯に大根を一本まるごと使うことにしました。
The upper part was grated, the middle part was cut into thin slices, and the lower part was cut into 1-cm cubes.
上の部分は、おろし、真ん中の部分は薄くスライスし、下の部分は1 cm角に切りました。
I sprinkled some salt to the slices and the cubes.  I made kkakdugi (kakuteki in Japanese) with the cubes.  I used the slices to make "daikon no hasami yaki".
薄く切った大根と角切りした大根には塩を振り掛け、角切りした大根でカクテキを作りました。薄く切った大根は、大根のはさみ焼きにしました。
The rest of the daikon slices and ground beef and pork went into the toaster oven.
残った大根と牛と豚の合い挽きはオーブントースターに入れました。
I added 30 ml soy sauce and 10 ml vinegar to the grated daikon to make "daikon oroshi sauce".
大根おろしにはしょう油30 mlとお酢10 mlを入れて、「大根おろしソース」を作りました。

I poured the sauce over the hasami yaki.
ソースをはさみ焼きにかけました。
We also had leftover daikon-and-cabbage miso soup.
残りの大根とキャベツの味噌汁も飲みました。

6 comments:

Sissi said...

It's funny, I bought two daikons yesterday. I'm going to cook a Korean dish I saw in my cookery book but I have been planning to make your cute "dumplings" for a long time (I have already seen them some time ago). Thank you for reminding me.
The different taste according to different daikon parts is fascinating. I had no idea! I will try to impress my Japanese friends next time ;-) I'm sure few people know it.

Hiroyuki said...

Sissi: I know from your blog posts that you are a huge fan of kimchi (and other Korean dishes)!

These small dumplings are supposed to go into my son's bento box.

Impress your friends with your knowledge of Japanese and other cuisines!

Yangsze said...

Mmm -- looks delicious! I've noticed that different types of daikon also seem to have different tastes. The short, fat daikon from the Korean supermarket seems a bit milder to me than the long daikon from the Japanese supermarket, which is a bit sharper. Do you also notice that?

Hiroyuki said...

YSC: Sadly, I know nothing about Korean daikon.

I completely forgot the fact that in present Japan, "ao kubi" (lit. blue (which means green) neck) daikon is the dominant variety. When I was a child, Nerima (練馬) daikan, bigger than ao kubi, was also very popular in Tokyo.

My father likes nezumi (lit. mouse, rat) daikon, which is very pungent and is often grated to make dipping sauce for udon.

Fräulein Trude said...

I wish I could have japanese daikon to know how it tastes. Our big white radishes (aka Daikon, breed originated from japan me think) are very mild in taste. For more pungent flavor I buy the smaller varieties (white or red radishes big carrot sized, white called beer radish goes well with beer). Now is the time for pungent black winter radish (round shaped) good to make granny cough medicine: just cut out the inner core flesh and fill the radish with honey. Let sit over night, radish juices and honey will turn into a nice tasting sirupe, medicine to treat coughs.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: I think that your daikon is quiet similar to ours, because ao kubi daikon is less pungent than our varieties.

Radish with honey? That's interesting. That's exactly the same as what some Japanese do with daikon and honey, except that the Japanese way is much simpler: Just cut daikon into cubes and add honey:
https://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&rlz=1T4GGLL_jaJP325JP326&q=%E5%A4%A7%E6%A0%B9%E3%80%80%E3%81%AF%E3%81%A1%E3%81%BF%E3%81%A4&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=-mOnUPz4DqTNmQWCj4H4Bw&biw=800&bih=331&sei=_mOnULPNJqSfmQWb4oDQAg