Shortcut Tokyo's Pickled Daikon Radish (Bettarazuke)

Making Japanese style pickles at home doesn't have to be scary and this quick betterazuke is so easy and delicious. It's made with crunchy slices of daikon radish soaked in a sweet rice drink flavoured brine. You've got to try it. Start by taking 300 grams of daikon radish and peeling the skin. Make sure you wash it before you peel it. Once it's peeled cut it in half lengthways. If your daikon is especially thick you can cut into quarters. Place the pieces in a bag and then add 15 grams of salt. Rub it over the daikon until it's evenly covered. The salt amount is 5% of the weight of the daikon so if you use a bigger or smaller piece of daikon make sure to adjust the salt amount so that it's 5%. The salt draws out the excess liquid in the daikon and also helps soften the bitterness. So that's why it's necessary to do this. Once it's evenly covered seal the bag and place in a bowl to prevent any leaks. Then place in the fridge overnight. Okay so this has been resting overnight and as you can see the salt has drawn out a lot of liquid. We will need to throw that away but you can wash out the bag and use it again. Dry the surface of the daikon with kitchen paper and then cut into slices. The thickness depends on your personal preference but I like my pickles to be quite thick and crunchy. Feel free to slice them thinner if you prefer. Once they're all cut place them back into the washed bag and add one dried chili. I like to break it up so that the flavor spreads more easily and also the final pickles will have little red flakes on them which looks very nice. Next I have five grams of kombu or dried kelp. Use scissors to cut into thin strips. This will add depth of flavor and umami to the pickles. Then I'm adding 10 grams of salt, 20 grams of light brown sugar and finally the most important ingredient in this recipe a traditional Japanese fermented rice drink called amazake. I'm going to measure out 125 milliliters for this. As you can see it looks creamy and it has a mild and sweet ricey flavor that makes these pickles really unique. Scrunch it back to mix everything together then seal it up and place it back into the bowl ready to refrigerate for one more day. You can start serving these pickles from day three so here they are. Place them on a plate and decorate with the kombu and chili. They're sweet, crunchy and not bitter at all. They're really addictive. You can enjoy them as a side dish with a Japanese meal or simply as a crunchy snack. And great news I've launched a free mobile app that makes following along with my recipes even easier. It's the perfect kitchen companion after watching my videos. You can access step-by-step instructions right on your phone while you cook. The download link is in the description below. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed this one. If you want to read the written version of this recipe it's on my blog. The link is on the screen. And if you're interested in Japanese pickles check out the cucumber pickle video on the screen too. Hope to see you in the next one. Bye.