Monday 15 October 2012

Red Purple Pink

We bought roasted corn from a veggie stall near Nikko and they brought out a dish of home-made pickles for us. The pickles disappeared almost as quickly as the corn - both were delicious and U was very disappointed to discover the stall didn't sell their pickles. When he asked the obaachan laughed and the younger woman said they did sell raw red daikon! So, we bought a red daikon of our own and the obaachan instructed me in the making of pickles.

Despite the name it isn't red, on the outside it is a purplish brown.



And purple and white inside.



When it was peeled, quartered, sliced, and covered in salt and left to sweat, it became a deep purple (as was the liquid I poured off!)



When sugar and vinegar were added, however, it turned from purple to a bright pink!

A slice of un-vinegared daikon on the outside of the jar looking in...



It doesn't taste quiteas good as did the veggie stall obaachan's, but it sure is colourful and U still  ate double the amount of rice at dinner he normally does!

6 comments:

  1. Those pickles look really good.
    Maybe you could have dyed a few white hankies with the water you drained off. I bet it would have made a lovely shade of pink.

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    1. Oooh! I love the idea of trying to use the water to dye something! I have a whole 'nother half of the daikon so I may end up doing another batch of pickles, and if I do I will try using the purple water and see if it takes.

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  2. I didn't even know you got red daikon. I would've guessed sweet potato for that top photo, and the last photo looks like beetroot! o_0

    Hmm. Häagen-Dazs pickled red daikon ice cream, anyone? ^^

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    1. I had heard of red daikon, particularly that they are sweeter than regular daikon, but had never seen one before. I wasn't prepared for the purple colour, and when it turned bright pink it was all I could do to grab my phone and take pictures!

      Unpeeled it does look a bit like satsumaimo but the one we bought is HUGE! Longer than my forearm and easy as big around as three or so sweet potatoes.

      It is yummy, but I'm not sure about ice cream....

      We also bought an even larger daikon - with leaves still attached. Yesterday I made miso daikon leaves and stewed daikon with chicken in addition to the pickles. Tonight was daikon leaf miso soup and daikon and pork stirfry... And we still have more than half the daikon and leaves! I'm going to have to figure out some more recipes to use it up!

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  3. Replies
    1. Yup! But unfortunately it is also rather fragrant... The whole fridge smells of pickled daikon!!

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