Takuan-zuke! Hai!

From Food Adventures

Since we have had abundant success of daikon in our garden, I decided to try making takuan, daikon pickled in the traditional Japanese fashion, fermented in a rice-bran mash.

I've done plenty of vinegar and brine pickling with a fair degree of success, but I have not had much luck with fermented pickles. Two attempts at sauerkraut resulted in an enthusiastic colony of mold taking over the brine and the whole mess ending up in the compost bin. So it was with measured enthusiasm that I bought a bag of rice bran from the Co-Op and started the nuka-doko according to a recipe from The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking by Gaku Homma. I also referred to Quick and Easy Tsukemono by Ikuko Hisamatsu, whose instructions for making nukamiso-zuke (rice bran pickles) differ slightly from Homma's, but has suggestions for additional flavorings, more vegetables to pickle and instructions for fixing nukadoko problems (such as going sour or becoming watery). I can't say exactly why I chose to follow Homma's recipe, perhaps it was because it is simpler than Hisamatsu's recipe which calls for less bread, but includes soybeans, ginger root and a large quantity of mustard powder.

It is rather unscientific method and some might think it unsanitary, but pickles have been made this way for hundreds — if not thousands — of years. Nevertheless, I dove in. Rice bran gets mixed with water, salt, bread, chilies, kombu (kelp), and "a few wilted outer leaves from any leafy vegetable, such as cabbage or daikon." This mash is stirred daily for three or four days, replacing the leafy veg with fresh wilted veg. Once the nuka-doko is ready, salt-rubbed vegetables are added, covered with the mash and left to ferment for a day or so until ready.

So, did I get takuan or a tub of moldy mash? I admit there were a few small spot of mold starting up on the edge of the tub, but the rest of the mash was healthy and best of all, there was takuan! Mold removed, takuan rinsed, then the taste test: success! These takuan had a fresh crispness devoid of MSG and that neon-yellow color, quite unlike any store-bought takuan I have had.

I discovered two problems with this batch of pickles. Unfortunately, I had oversalted the daikon when I added them to the nuka-doko, so the takuan was unpleasantly salty. Soaking in fresh water for a couple hours remedied the situation. The other problem, if you can call it that, is that there are no preservatives in these pickles, so they must be eaten quickly. Stored in the refrigerator, they soon develop a strong smell which I've countered by keeping them in a lightly salted brine, and frequently rinsing them and changing the brine. A better solution would be to pickle only what will be consumed in a few days and eat those pickles quickly.