Farmers' Market Finds: Daikon - Let's Pickle It!

Even after growing up on a farm and many, many visits to farmers' markets over the years I can still go to the market and find produce I haven't tried before or sometimes even heard of.  I'm always looking for something new to post about and I think it will be fun, and a good learning experience, to seek out these unusual and sometimes strange fruits and vegetables, prepare them in some way or another, and then write about them. I am an adventuresome cook but often get stuck in the rut of going to my old standby recipes that I don't have to think much about.  So hopefully we will learn something new together.

Daikon, the largest vegetable crop in Japan, is a common ingredient in Asian and Middle Eastern cooking and is a year around vegetable in most markets, but my guess is that many cooks never try it because they don't know what to do with it. Daikon  looks like a large carrot, 8-12 inches in length, and is peeled just the way you would peel a carrot. It has crisp, spicy flesh that is delicious eaten raw in salads and is a  healthy, low calorie addition to relish plates. I used a little more than half of one daikon for my pickles and just sliced up the remainder for a delicious little snack.  It is also used in many cooked dishes, especially stir-fry.

This is one of those deceptive little recipes that doesn't look like any thing special, but, trust me, it is delicious.  The sweet and sour pickling liquid pairs perfectly with the sweet and spicy flavors and the crunch of the daikon and carrot. I served this over the weekend along side Asian grilled chicken  and everybody loved it.   Pickled carrot and daikon radish are the traditional relish topping on banh mi, a Vietnamese baguette sandwich made with meats, cucumber, cilantro and daikon and carrot pickles.

Vietnamese Pickled Carrot and Daikon Radish


1 10-12 inch daikon radish, peeled and julienned
2  carrots, peeled and julienned
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine water, vinegar, sugar and salt and stir until sugar dissolves.
Combine the daikon and carrots and put into a glass jar or covered container, pour the liquid over, cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.  This will keep, refrigerated, for up to a week.

My grandmother used a similar sweet and sour brine for cucumber slices.  A chilled bowl of them was on our dinner table every night through the summer months. Isn't it interesting how some tastes and images stay with us forever?

Trying new things is what keeps cooking interesting and what better source for the strange and unusual is there than a large farmers' market.  Wonder what I'll find next week.