Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Daikon roti avec sauce de soja et graines de sesame

It's been a long time, I know. And, honestly, while I've been cooking, it hasn't been worth sharing. You see, I've been working--teaching French and stage managing--which has left very little time for meals. Tonight, however, I was finally able to (almost) take a day off, stock my terrifyingly empty refrigerator with a much-needed trip to Trader Joe's (we'd been making due with Fresh Direct orders for the past two months) and make a real dinner that didn't include the use of my slow cooker and involved two dishes.

For my first meal "back," I decided to use a vegetale I encounter quite frequently on the streets of Chinatown, though, to the best of my knowledge I had never tried it. I'm talking about daikon, or lobak, as it's commonly referred to down here. Daikon looks like a giant white turnip, but smells and tastes like a radish. It has a nice sharp bite raw. Roasted, however, it becomes delightfully caramelized and almost sweet. Paired with soy sauce, it remains a savory side dish and we quite enjoyed it with Broiled Lime and Vinegar Chicken, whose acidic sauce paired beautifully with the daikon. It was also a lovely marriage with our Sauvignon Blanc. Definitely a vegetable I'll be exploring again soon!

And, to give credit where credit's due, I got the idea to roast the daikon in the first place from Kalyn's recipe for Roasted Radishes. As you can see, I tweaked it slightly. Thanks for the inspiration, Kalyn!

Roasted Daikon with Soy Sauce and Sesame Seeds
(inspired by Kalyn's Kitchen)
Preheat oven to 425 F. Toss daikon pieces with vegetable oil in a baking pan. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add soy sauce and green onions. Toss everything together with tongs as best you can, trying to get the soy sauce on all the daikon pieces. Roast for an additional 5 minutes. Once done, remove from oven, transfer to serving bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds and rosemary. Enjoy!

Links to other daikon noshes: