Fermented & preserved
Yuzu Daikon
Yuzu Daikon — dried daikon rolled around yuzu peel and pickled sweet
Sun-dried daikon slices wrap strips of yuzu peel, tied with kelp and steeped in sweet vinegar — a winter dish rooted in the north's yuzu harvest, eaten as a palate cleanser in New Year's spreads.
- Origin: Ibaraki
- About 130 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
Sun-dried daikon rounds are wrapped around julienned yuzu peel, tied with a strip of kombu, and pickled in a sweet vinegar mix — a winter dish eaten across a wide stretch of the Kanto region. The crisp bite of the daikon and the bright fragrance of yuzu play off the vinegar's tang, and it's valued as a refreshing counterpoint among the richly seasoned dishes of osechi.
How it's made
Daikon sliced into two- to three-millimeter rounds is sun-dried for about two days to firm it up, then rehydrated in water and wrapped around julienned yuzu peel, tied with a three-millimeter strip of kombu. A sweetened vinegar mix, heated until the sugar dissolves, is poured over it while hot, and it's left to rest for about two days before eating. Some skip the sun-drying and salt the daikon instead to draw out its moisture.
Why it took this shape
Ibaraki is one of the Kanto region's yuzu-growing areas, and winter once meant daikon hanging to dry outside nearly every farmhouse, a pairing of the two local ingredients said to have given rise to this pickle. Curing it in vinegar extends its shelf life, and in the northern region it remains a fixture of the New Year's osechi spread, still made in households today.
Dishes in the same style
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Yuzu MakiFragrant, cold-grown yuzu peel from northern Utsunomiya is wrapped in daikon and steeped in sweet vinegar for a few days — a New Year's dish also served at autumn festivals, its bite and shelf life improved by pre-drying the daikon.
- ShikinbaiSaid to have been devised by Mito lord Tokugawa Nariaki to use every plum from Kairakuen, damaged fruit is split, pitted, and salted with red shiso — a preserve also called ume-bishio, eaten over rice or tossed with smashed cucumber.
Also from Ibaraki
- Aka MochiReddish sorghum flour is kneaded with hot water, boiled into dumplings, and coated with sweet bean paste or soybean flour. In flood-prone areas where rice and wheat often failed, sorghum alone survived, making this a stand-in staple.
- Ankou-nabeMonkfish meat, skin, liver, and stomach simmered with vegetables, a winter pot of northern Ibaraki. It is described as a more approachable version of dobujiru, which fishermen ate aboard their boats, and comes in miso and soy-sauce versions.
- Ankou no TomozuBoiled monkfish — flesh, fin, liver, and more — is dipped in a vinegared miso worked through with its own liver, a winter dish from the north coast often paired with fugu as one of Japan's twin winter delicacies.
- Garigari NamasuDaikon is coarsely grated with a bamboo oni-oroshi grater — hence the crunchy 'gari-gari' name — then tossed with vinegared fish. The rough texture is the point, and the dish turns up at New Year's and other gatherings.
- Gomoku InarizushiFried tofu pockets are stuffed with vinegared rice mixed with carrot, burdock, and shiitake. In Kasama, home to Kasama Inari Shrine, the mix grows even more colorful with local soba and walnuts, served to shrine visitors.
- Gosai-zukeSalted, fermented sardines are layered with daikon, yuzu, and chili for a winter preserve from the Rokko coast. As sardine catches have thinned, saury increasingly takes their place.