Daikon Radish Pickled in Lemon Zest

⏳ Time

5 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

In Japanese cuisine, rice vinegar is often paired with sugar. It is not uncommon to combine it with a rice wine called mirin. When sugar, rice vinegar, and mirin come together, the result is a mixture used to season the rice for sushi. Pickled radish can be enjoyed as a standalone appetizer or served as a side dish with grilled meats. A more delicate pickling method involves adding a splash of rice vodka to the vinegar.

Ingredients

Rice Vinegar for Sushi - 3 fl oz
Daikon - 17.6 oz
Raw cane sugar - 1 tablespoon
Toasted Sesame - 0.4 oz
Citrus Zest Mix - 1 piece

Step by Step guide

Step 1

In a small skillet, lightly toast the sesame seeds. Once a nutty aroma fills the air, remove the skillet from the heat and transfer the seeds to any suitable container.

Step 2

Mix the rice vinegar with the cane sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

Step 3

Grate the zest of one large lemon completely.

Step 4

Peel the daikon radish to remove the thin skin and slice it into thin rounds, similar to how they cut cervelat in the deli sections of Russian stores.

Step 5

Layer the radish in a deep dish, drizzle with a sauce made of rice vinegar and cane sugar, and generously sprinkle with lemon zest and toasted sesame seeds.

Step 6

Basically, from this moment on the dish is completely ready to eat, but Japanese traditions dictate that the radish should be marinated for a while in vinegar, sugar, and zest. "A while" typically means about half an hour. It is preferable for the radish to spend this half hour in a cool place.