A New Pickled Daikon
February 2nd, 2009 Posted in Cooking ideas
I picked up two gorgeous daikon from the farmers market, one for a wacky yet delicious “lasagne” made of big sheets of daikon and plenty of red savinas (it had 16 layers of various vegetables in it as well), the other for pickling. We’ve talked about pickled daikon before, but not this one: its complexity and color comes from matcha salt, which replaces regular salt. Why had I not thought of this before?? The result is a supercrisp, superflavored pickle that I can eat all day long. I really like the wabi-sabi off-green color, and the subtle taste of the tea. It’s incredible when taken with well-cooked meat, and acts with the same palate-cleansing sensibility that pickled ginger does with sushi. Here it is:
Peel the daikon and thinly shave it with a benriner, that el-cheapo mandoline that’s incredibly useful for tasks like this (or, just thinly slice it with a sharp knife). You should wind up with something like 5 cups. Place the daikon in a large mixing bowl and add a big handful of matcha salt. Spread it around with your hands, so that it’s reasonably evenly distributed. Let it sit for 30 minutes, then squeeze all the (by now green) water out it with your hands. Then add
- Juice of 3 meyer lemons
- 1/2 cup ginger syrup
and gently mix around. They’re excellent straight up — truly instant pickles – -but they get even better over time, and will keep, tightly covered in the fridge, for a long time (at least several weeks, but probably much more). But I wouldn’t count on them lasting that long — they’re pretty addictive. Try it out.
And if we needed another bonus: another use for matcha salt!
5 Responses to “A New Pickled Daikon”
By
Divina on Feb 2, 2009
Sounds refreshing. I would like to try that.
By
ila on Feb 3, 2009
mmmm, daikon. and it’s pickled!
that and a bowl of rice is all i need for breakfast. okay, maybe a fried egg too because i won’t last till lunch…
By
Karena on Feb 5, 2009
I made the pickles this morning and am now crunching a few slices while I type. I even brewed up a batch of ginger syrup while the daikon slices were sitting in the matcha salt. I did make one mistake–forgot to squeeze out the water before adding the lemon juice and the ginger syrup, but it doesn’t appear to have affected the pickles. Terrific with egg salad sandwich on baguette.
By
Eric on Feb 5, 2009
Yeah, I think the extra water doesn’t hurt them, it just makes them different. The squeezed version has more of the texture of takuan, those supercrunchy/crispy big yellow daikon (how do they get it that shade of yellow??) that are so ubiquitous in Japan. But I’m better the non-squeezed version is good, too.
By
Norma Fogelberg on Mar 9, 2009
Hi all,
I have to sing Eric’s praises, not only is he a fabulous chef but a great guest chef personality wise. Our guests loved both the food and his presentation and discussion about each course.
My personal favorite – Each item was sooo special that it would be hard to pick a favorite so I will have to go course by course:
Mezze: Carrot Pate
Salad of Crab, Pomelo and Pea Tendrils
Both Lambs were to die for and I loved the Steamed Pearl Rice Balls
The Matcha Panna Cotta was amazing
So try them all.
Eric – thanks again.