Apr 5, 2025
TtoE The Daikon
How’s your grocery budgeting going this month? The Japan Times reports that for the fourth straight month, we’ve seen price rises on food and drink. Ouch. In anticipation of the April 1st price hikes, I stocked up on items that keep.
However, prices for seasonal produce is reasonable after a spendy few months with winter and early spring veggies costing a lot more. But this week, the supermarkets are stocked with bargains - bunches of carrots and komatsuna and whole daikon, each about 100 yen.
青首大根, aokubi daikon blue necked radish, in season until around March
So, what to do with a huge daikon? Still reconsidering recipes to cope with inflation, I riffed on some recipes that I found online using ingredients I have on hand. My easy-to-prepare and economical variation is daikon salad with green peppers and tinned mackerel. It’s easy to prepare.
Half a daikon julienned
A green pepper sliced thinly and roughly chopped
A tin of mackerel
The dressing, too, is made from pantry staples.
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
A teaspoon of honey
A sprinkle of sesame seeds
A half teaspoon of sesame oil
I cut back on the sesame oil just for flavour. Most recipes call for more, but mackerel is oily enough. The dish was great on rice. Some recipes call this style のっけごはん nokkegohan, a one-dish meal of something over rice.
How do you prepare daikon?
4 Comments
genkidesu
on Apr 5
My family (my kids, especially) like spicy food a lot, so we often make daikon kimchi. It's easy to prepare!
TonetoEdo
on Apr 5
@genkidesu Tell us more! :-) How do you prepare it?
genkidesu
on Apr 5
@TonetoEdo this is the recipe we use: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kkakdugi Most of the items are easy to get at any regular supermarket—daikon, green onions, garlic, ginger. We omit the fish sauce, but it still turns out plenty flavorful! The hardest thing to find is the gochugaru, but if your local supermarkets don't stock it then Amazon JP has it. It's great as a side dish not just for the health benefits but because it lasts a good amount of time in the fridge once prepped, so you can make a big batch of it if you like it. The next time we make it, I'll take pictures and blog about it!
TonetoEdo
on Apr 5
@genkidesu Thanks for the recipe recco. Yes, please blog it!