Pickling Attempt #1 -- Daikon

And now, we shall reveal our produce of choice: daikon. If you are unsure what this is, continue to read on.

Daikon (literally "large root" in Japanese) is also known as: Mooli, Oriental Radish, or White Radish. It is a large, mild-flavored radish that comes from Asia. Most likely, our variety of choice was aokubi-daikon. It is looks like a giant carrot, only it is white.

We visited the local farmer's market on Saturday and purchased the produce in the picture to the left. Not only did we purchase daikon (3 for $1.00, normally $.50/ea.), but we also bought a bunch of fresh carrots, a bag of baby purple potatoes, and a head of broccoli. We had a wonderful time at the market looking at all the produce and other products that vendors had brought to sell. Most interesting to us was how far many of the vendors had traveled to come to this tiny farmer's market at Sunrise Station. But most fortunate for us.

We returned home and set our beautiful produce out as a centerpiece on our tabletop. This way, we could enjoy it visually until we decided what to do with it. As we thumbed through our canning books, we came across "Do Chua" (phonetically: doe jew-uh, with the emphasis on the first syllable). Do Chua is a Vietnamese carrot and daikon pickle.

However, due to the sale price, we found we had purchased a considerable amount more than was necessary for the recipe. Therefore, we needed to get another recipe to use the rest of our daikon.

We searched the web for suggestions and were prepared to settle for a chicken and daikon soup. However, on http://www.allrecipes.com/, we found a great idea for Pan Fried Daikon Cakes. They looked very delicious and would be a great way to use up our supply. Plus, we could provide a sample of this recipe with our jars of Do Chua to our "test group." (P.S. If you are in the test group and do not wish to be, please let us know. Also, if you are not in the test group and would like to be considered, feel free to let us know that, as well.)

Sunday, we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day, due to the work schedule not affording a holiday for Monday. It was quite an eventful day. What follows is a series of pictures in progression:

1. Pretend the daikon is an extension of your nose. This step is essential, as it lets the daikon know who is in charge and prepares it adequately for what it is about to endure.

2. Using a julienne peeler, shred the daikon (and carrot) into a large bowl. This process was a little time consuming, but rather entertaining, especially when the pieces go flying anywhere except the bowl. And you end up with little pieces that are too small to julienne. (We used the cheese grater for the ends.

3. After peeling, we weighed the shredded daikon. (We were kind enough to not announce its weight aloud, as we didn't want it to be self-conscious.)

4. The mixture of daikon and carrot is then salted. This is to draw the water out of the vegetables. It also helps mute the bite of the radish a little.

5. Once we finished the salting, we drained the liquid off the "roots" and stuffed the blend into jars. After the jars were filled, a vinegar and sugar mixture was poured to cover the produce in each jar. These were sealed and placed in the refrigerator.

6. Before storing in the refrigerator, we had the jars pose for a few snapshots. They sure turned out nice. (We haven't sampled them, yet.)