Last month, I was given three beautiful daikon radishes, so I decided to try making kiriboshi daikon (Japanese dried daikon) for the first time!
At our house, we use an outdoor mesh net as a vegetable-drying rack.
It’s compact and perfect for our apartment balcony.
I washed the daikon, cut it into thin quarter-round slices with the skin still on, and spread them out on the net hanging from our balcony.
This was enough to make one whole daikon’s worth of dried daikon.
Luckily, the weather was beautiful every day around this time, and the air was nice and dry.
It was so much fun watching the daikon get smaller and smaller day by day that I kept sneaking peeks out on the balcony.
Every time I looked, I’d say,
“Whoa! It’s getting so much smaller!” 😊
By the third day, the daikon was already pretty dry and crispy.
I tasted one piece as it was.
“It’s sweet…!!”
Then I had another one.
And another.
And another…
Standing there on the balcony, I just kept munching away. Haha.
They were so delicious that I couldn’t stop! ✨
The pieces from the upper part of the daikon, where the leaves had been attached, were especially sweet.
I thought I’d save some to use in cooking, but I ended up eating the whole batch just as it was.
Later, I dried another daikon, but…
Yep.
I ate that whole batch, too.
Of the three daikon I received, I used two to make kiriboshi daikon.
I used the remaining one for things like grated daikon and soup.
When I sliced the top part—the part where the leaves had been attached—and ate it raw, it was incredibly sweet and juicy.
Daikon is delicious whether you eat it raw, dried, or cooked.
No wonder it was one of the famous Edo Sanpaku—the “Three Whites” that were beloved by people during the Edo period in Japan—along with white rice and tofu.
And honestly, the daikon I received this time was absolutely delicious…!
Apparently, my friend’s father grew it organically in his own garden without using pesticides.
I’m so grateful to my friend’s father for growing such wonderful vegetables, and to my friend for bringing them to me. ✨
Thank you for the wonderful meal! 😊