Winter is certainly the time of year for beautiful radishes. The colors of the wonderful daikon are tremendous, especially on pizza. Yes, that might sound like heresy in some tradionalists circles but I think the beautiful crunch of cured daikon like tha pizza above are brilliant. This “Super Radish Pie” I made with a 50-hour cold-fermented sourdough with natural starter and dressed with a celeriac, (celery root) and purple kholrabi pudding with roasted garlic. I then topped it with Gruyere, Manchego and aged mozzarella. Just out of the oven I dressed it with organic, salt-sugar-cured “Green Meat” diakon (aka- Chinese “tsingato or luobo green” and Japanese “minowase”) from Primatera Farms and the fat organic purple daikon I get from Shade River Organics. The highlight of every bite is the sriracha mayonnaise on top.
Unlike many root vegetables I put on pizzas and breads, daikon doesn’t de-colorize if you don’t add to much acid like lemon or vinegar. The Turkish-style Pide, (pee-DAY) above with Peruvian Purple potato and turmeric-garlic roasted celeriac took alot longer to roast before pairing them with the simple combination of Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma.
This summer, the fine folks at Shade River Organics have supplied me with purple daikon. I just love the purple color and have shredded it for an after-oven topping on to striking effect on this Kimchi-Bacon roulade with provolone, Barbari Spice, King Family bacon ends, cilantro, sesame and some kimchi made with Cowdery farms napa cabbage, gochujang and ferment mother.
The taste of daikon varies from year to year as hotter temperatures make for spicier daikon. Farmers are using large daikon to replace lost nitrogen in soil and even at Ohio State University, they are experimenting with daikon growing in between rows of corn. I love to combine the different colors of daikon in cubes for our Vegan Boxes that we sell alot of.
These boxes (above) consist of local cabbages and greens, cured and roasted root vegetables as well as any other vegetable that doesn’t fit those descriptions. I also add a salsa verde or asian-flavored dipping sauce and some za’atar manoushe.
My new favorite this winter is the Green Meat daikon. I just love the flavor and that beautiful round of green is gently acidic and gets spicier as you gobble your way down into the white part of this root.
This week, I am combining two kimchi/pickling techniques with cubes of the tri-colored daikon. First I cubed them like traditional Kkakdugi then cured in salt and sugar, ginger and garlic and added some Calabrian Chilies for a nice heat and kept it for four days. Tomorrow I will add some scallion and water to the mix and wait for fermentation to occur like a classic Dongchimi or Korean Radish Water Kimchi. This will make a great vegan side…or maybe I could add some bacon…ha!
