00:00Making Japanese style pickles at home doesn't have to be scary and this quick bettara-zuke
00:05is so easy and delicious. It's made with crunchy slices of daikon radish soaked in
00:11a sweet rice drink flavoured brine. You've gotta try it.
00:16Start by taking 300 grams of daikon radish and peeling the skin. Make sure you wash it
00:21before you peel it. Once it's peeled, cut it in half lengthways. If your daikon is especially
00:27thick, you can cut into quarters. Place the pieces in a bag and then add 15 grams of salt.
00:39Rub it over the daikon until it's evenly covered. The salt amount is 5% of the weight of the
00:44daikon, so if you use a bigger or smaller piece of daikon, make sure to adjust the salt amount
00:50so that it's 5%. The salt draws out the excess liquid in the daikon
00:55and also helps soften the bitterness, so that's why it's necessary to do this.
01:01Once it's evenly covered, seal the bag and place in a bowl to prevent any leaks.
01:06Then place in the fridge overnight. Okay, so this has been resting overnight
01:11and as you can see, the salt has drawn out a lot of liquid. We will need to throw that
01:16away,
01:17but you can wash out the bag and use it again.
01:22Dry the surface of the daikon with kitchen paper and then cut into slices. The thickness depends
01:28on your personal preference, but I like my pickles to be quite thick and crunchy. Feel free to slice
01:34them thinner if you prefer. Once they all cut, place them back into the washed bag and add one
01:44dried chilli. I like to break it up so that the flavour spreads more easily and also the final
01:50pickles will have little red flakes on them, which looks really nice. Next, I have 5 grams of kombu or
01:56dried kelp. Use scissors to cut into thin strips. This will add depth of flavour and umami to the pickles.
02:04Then I'm adding 10 grams of salt, 20 grams of light brown sugar and finally, the most important
02:11ingredient in this recipe, a traditional Japanese fermented rice drink called amazake. I'm going
02:17to measure out 125ml for this. As you can see, it looks creamy and it has a mild and sweet
02:25ricey flavour
02:26that makes these pickles really unique. Scrunch it back to mix everything together,
02:31then seal it up and place it back into the bowl. Ready to refrigerate for one more day.
02:39You can start serving these pickles from day 3, so here they are. Place them on a plate and decorate
02:46with the kombu and chilli. They're sweet, crunchy and not bitter at all. They're really addictive.
02:53You can enjoy them as a side dish with a Japanese meal or simply as a crunchy snack.
02:59And great news, I've launched a free mobile app that makes following along with my recipes even easier.
03:04It's the perfect kitchen companion after watching my videos. You can access step-by-step instructions
03:10right on your phone while you cook. The download link is in the description below.
03:16Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed this one. If you want to read the written version of this
03:21recipe, it's on my blog. The link is on the screen. And if you're interested in Japanese pickles,
03:26check out the cucumber pickle video on the screen too. Hope to see you in the next one. Bye.
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