Japanese cuisine is rich in pickled vegetables. They’re an integral element of a classic Japanese meal. One of such pickles is senmaizuke.
Recipe
The proportions are calculated for 1 kg of daikon radish, but they should be scaled accordingly.
- 1 kg daikon radish
- 25 g salt
- 60 g sugar
- 50 g rice vinegar
- 20 g mirin
- approx. 10 cm piece of dried kombu
- 2 dried chillies
Peel the daikon and slice into 2-3 mm thick slices. Add the prepared salt, making sure that every slice comes in contact with it. Place the slices in a sealable container and refrigerate for two days.
Drain moisture from the daikon. Prepare the pickling solution by mixing sugar, rice vinegar and mirin and stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Using scissors, thinly slice the chillies and julienne the kombu and mix them in. Layer the slices, applying a bit of the pickling solution between each layer. Seal the container and refrigerate for another two days.
Additional Information
This dish is called daikon no senmaizuke. Its more traditional variant is kabu no senmaizuke, which is prepared in the same way, but using a Japanese variety of turnip instead of daikon.
I’ve prepared senmaizuke using other root vegetables too: black radish and kohlrabi. The black radish has a potent flavour that, in my opinion, does not play well with the pickling solution as well as the daikon does. Kohlrabi, on the other hand, is milder and appears to fit this dish very well.
Video Transcription
I think it’s high time I showed a recipe from East Asia. Japan, to be exact. Here’s my take on senmaizuke, specifically the variety called daikon no senmaizuke. The full recipe, as well as some additional information, can be found on the blog.
I peel a daikon. I then slice it into 2-3 mm thick slices and place them in a bowl. Before the daikon starts pickling, I need to salt it. I toss the salt in the bowl and then massage the daikon slices so that salt comes in contact with all of them. The sodium from the salt creates osmotic pressure that draws water from the daikon cells. Once I’m done, I layer the slices in a container. It will remain in the fridge for two days before I continue with the preparation.
Here’s what the salted daikon looks like. Off camera, I’ve also made a non-traditional version of this dish using a kohlrabi.
Two days later, the daikon is ready to be pickled. My ingredients for the pickling solution include rice vinegar, mirin, sugar, dried chillies and dried kombu. In a vessel, I mix sugar, mirin and vinegar. I give them a good mix so that the sugar is mostly dissolved. There’s enough sugar to give the daikon a lot of sweetness. Now, I add the chillies. I like to get rid of excess seeds. I cut them into thin rings or strips using scissors. My chillies are very spicy and I also like my senmaizuke spicy, but it’s possible to use less chillies or substitute them with a sweeter variety. Kombu comes in dry leathery sheets which I also cut using scissors. I won’t need the whole thing. I divide it into strips. Finally, I cut the strips into rectangular shreds. This ingredient cannot be replaced and it adds a bit of umami to the pickle.
I drain off excess moisture from the daikon slices. Then, I layer them again in their container, adding some pickling solution between each layer. And I’m done. The container will spend another two days in the fridge. During that time, the flavours will mix and mature. I did the same with the kohlrabi version.
Finally, it’s time to taste my senmaizuke. I usually have it as part of an ichiju-sansai format dish, but it works well as a side for many Western dishes as well. The aroma isn’t different from what it was at the beginning: the vegetables still smell fresh, but the pickling solution adds several layers of complexity. Let’s have a taste. The daikon is sweet and crunchy, with very subdued levels of saltiness, sourness and umami. The spicy kick from the chillies is very strong in my case, but again, this can be adjusted to individual preferences. The kohlrabi version has, in my opinion, an even richer flavour due to the vegetable itself having a bit more character than the daikon. Both are delicious though.