This daikon salad was made not by me but by my wife.
Ingredients are daikon, carrot, canned tuna, and mayonnaise.
この大根サラダは、私ではなく、妻が作ったものです。
材料は大根、にんじん、ツナ缶、マヨネーズです。
Today, my wife got lots of (about 20) daikon from her father. That means you are going to see a lot more daikon dishes from now on in my blog (laugh).
今日、妻は実父から大根をたくさん（20本くらい）もらってきました。ということは、このブログには、もっと大根を使った料理が出てくるということです（笑）。
8 comments:
Incredible! I made a different but also daikon salad recently, took photos and I plan to post it soon!
Yours (I mean your wife's) looks excellent (all the salads are good with good mayonnaise and the Japanese mayonnaise is the best in the world!).
Sissi: Another coincidence? (laugh) Well, it was really a coincidence to me. I mean, when I dropped by the supermarket that day on my way to Nagaoka to attend a parents meeting, I saw a similar salad sold there, and I thought I would make it some day. When I got home in the evening, I found my wife make a salad quite similar to the one I saw.
When I made that post, I almost wrote "Kewpie mayonnaise" because that's the brand I like the best. Ajinomoto produces mayonnaise, too, but it's not as good, in my opinion.
What a nice salad. I nearly can taste it. Canned tuna and Mayonnaise and the freshness of the daikon and sweetness of carrot - yummy.
Sissi: I did a little google on japanese Mayonnaise and found these specifics, which may be the reason for the different taste ccompared to the common european Mayonnaise brands. Japanese Mayo. contains:
* Rice vinegar - milder than white wine vinegar;
* Dashi - umami (no dashi in european brands for sure);
* double amount of egg yolks - more creamyness and rounder taste?;
* hot japanese mustard - never had this but we have some very hot mustards too (Löwensenf);
* Yuzu juice - yes may taste different than other lemons, no yuzus available;
So I think one could at least try to make a more japanese "style" Mayonnaise at home while adjusting egg content, adding a little dashi powder, using rice vinegar and the hottest mustard available.
Hiroyuki, I think that Kewpie is the only brand I have tasted here or in Japan. If you knew how expensive it is here... about 7 times more expensive than the local mayonnaise... so I buy it rarely and it's used for special treats only. I have no idea how the Japanese producer makes it but we both agree with my husband that it's extraordinary (do the Japanese prepare mayonnaise at home? Maybe there is a special Japanese touch? In Europe mayonnaise is made from oil, mustard (French) and yolk... That's it. Maybe it's the Japanese mustard that changes everything? When I tasted Japanese mayonnaise for the first time I like the taste a lot and also had impression that someone has mixed hard-boiled yolks into it! (Of course I love hard boiled eggs, especially the yolk part, so it was amazing).
Kiki, thank you very much for the explanation! I have just noticed your answer. Now I understand why it's so delicious... I must try making my own Japanese style mayonnaise one day at home :-) (I can buy here yuzu juice in bottles I think too).
Kiki: My wife's version is more like namasu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namasu
My wife said she had to remove the pungency from the daikon by sprinkling with salt, so my children could eat it.
As for the ingredients of mayonnaise in Japan, I don't think store-bought mayonnaise contains dashi. It does contain amino acids (which means it contains MSG).
I'm not sure about Japanese mustard or yuzu juice, either.
Ajinomoto uses three types of vinegar, grape, rice, and cereal vinegars.
Ingredients of Ajinomoto mayo:
http://www.ajinomoto.co.jp/products//detail/index.asp?product=pureselect_1
Ingredients of Kewpie mayo:
http://www.kewpie.co.jp/products/product.php?j_cd=4901577000058
(Both are in Japanese only)
The biggest difference between Ajinomoto and Kewpie mayo is that the former contains whole eggs while the latter contains yolks only.
I think that, like so many other products in Japan, amino acids (which include MSG) are what does the trick, making anything taste better.
Sissi: I have made mayonnaise a few times in my life, using my Milser (small blender). I know that home-made mayonnaise can never be as tasty as store-bought.
Hiroyuki, in this case Japanese producers have mysterious, magic methods because in Europe nothing beats home-made mayonnaise! I have never tasted a commercial mayonnaise as good as the home-made...
I must compare again with the Japanese mayonnaise, but it's so different... Almost like a different product.
Sissi: I will write about mayonnaise in Japan when I have the time.
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