DAIKON SLICE

Things to do with daikon radish. The daikon is a huge beast of a radish and if you grow them, as I do, then you are always looking for new and interesting ways to cook them. Here is a useful recipe for a daikon radish slice. Essentially it consists of cooked, grated daikon held together into a slice by rice flour - very simply but very nice as a side dish hot or cold.

INGREDIENTS

One and a half cups of grated daikon
About three quarters a cup of water
One cup of rice flour
One tablespoon of kuzu starch (or cornflour)
Half a teaspoon of sea salt
A good dash of freshly ground pepper
Two tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)

METHOD

Put the grated daikon and water in a small saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for about quarter of an hour or until most of the water has evaporated. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a mixing bowl mix together the rice flour, kuzu, salt, pepper and cilantro.

Add the grated radish and remaining liquid to the dry ingredients. Stir into a thick paste or wet dough.

Oil a small shallow baking tray (about 15 cm x 15 cm) and pour the paste/dough in, smoothing it out with a spatula. You want the mixture about two or three cm deep, no more.

Steam in a large steamer for about 50 minutes.

Remove from the oiled tray. Cut into squares. Fry the squares in a lightly oiled griddle, turning until they are brown on both sides.

Kuzu starch is ridiculously expensive. Use cornflour or arrowroot flour instead if you wish. Don't use glutinous rice flour - just the ordinary rice flour. Add more or less pepper and cilantro according to your taste. Try different peppers: white pepper, black pepper or green.

You could also substitute half a cup of grated onion for some of the daikon and/or add finely chopped spring onion (scallions) if you prefer.

This is sort of a poor man's mochi. The texture you want in this recipe is chewy but not rubbery. If it is rubbery, use slightly less rice flour and slightly more grated radish.

The combination daikon + cilantro + fresh pepper is a winner and can be applied to many dishes.