Nikkō Tamari Pickles (たまり漬け, Tamarizuke)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1 liter glass jar with lid
• •Pickle weight (tsukemono-ishi), or a small clean ramekin
• •Small saucepan
• •Tawashi brush, or a clean rough cloth for scrubbing gobō

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the roots

   Cut the daikon into batons about 1 cm thick and 5 cm long. Scrub the gobō with a tawashi, a palm-fiber brush, or the rough side of a clean cloth, but don't peel it bare. Much of its clean earth smell lives near the skin. Cut the gobō into 5 cm lengths and quarter them lengthwise, then soak them in cold water for 5 minutes only. Slice the ginger and prepare the garlic. Similar sizes take seasoning at the same pace, and that is the knife doing its quiet work.

2. 2

   Salt the daikon

   Toss the daikon with the sea salt in a wide bowl and leave it for 30 minutes. It will bead with moisture and bend slightly when you press it. This is not to make it salty for salt's sake. The salt pulls out water so the tamari can enter later instead of being diluted at the door.

   If the daikon is old, hollow, or spongy, change the dish. Tamarizuke is dark, but it hides nothing.
3. 3

   Blanch the gobō

   Bring a small pot of water to a boil and blanch the drained gobō for 2 minutes, just until the raw, barky edge softens into a sweeter earth smell. Drain it well and spread it on a clean towel. Gobō is sturdy, but raw gobō can bully the jar. A brief blanch keeps its character and makes it pleasant to bite.

4. 4

   Make the liquor

   Combine the tamari shōyu, sake, mirin, sugar, and dried chile if using in a small saucepan. Bring it to a gentle simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and simmer for 2 minutes. This cooks off the raw alcohol and joins the seasonings into one clear pickling liquor. Let it cool completely. Hot liquor would cook the daikon at the edges, and then you would have bend instead of snap.

5. 5

   Dry and pack

   Pour off the liquid from the salted daikon. Taste one piece. If it is sharply salty, give the daikon the quickest rinse, then dry it very well. Pat the daikon, gobō, ginger, and garlic dry, then pack them loosely into a clean 1 liter jar. Loose packing lets the tamari move around every piece; a cramped jar cures unevenly.

6. 6

   First pickle

   Pour the cooled tamari liquor over the vegetables. Set a small pickle weight, tsukemono-ishi, or a clean small ramekin on top so everything stays below the surface. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning the jar once or twice if you think of it. Submerged vegetables color evenly and keep their bite; exposed pieces taste like hesitation.

7. 7

   Strengthen the tamari

   After 24 hours, drain the liquor into a saucepan and keep the vegetables in a clean colander or bowl. Bring the liquor back to a boil for 2 to 3 minutes, then cool it completely and pour it back over the vegetables. The roots will have given water back to the jar. Boiling the liquor once restores its strength and gives the pickle the deeper Nikkō color you are after.

8. 8

   Rest and serve

   Refrigerate for another 24 hours. The pickles are ready when the daikon is brown at the center, the gobō still has a clean bite, and the ginger and garlic have mellowed into the tamari. Serve a few pieces in a small kobachi beside rice, not a heap. This is a condiment, a bright dark note in the meal, so leave it room. Keep the rest refrigerated, submerged, and use clean chopsticks each time.

Chef Tips

• •Make this when daikon and gobō are in shun, usually the colder months. Choose daikon that feels heavy and tight, and gobō that is firm, slender, and fragrant. If the roots are limp, no tamari will rescue them.
• •Use Japanese tamari shōyu if you can. Dark Chinese soy sauce or sweet soy glaze will not give the same pickle. If you need gluten-free tamari, read the label carefully, because some Japanese tamari still contains wheat.
• •Drying is the quiet discipline of this dish. Wet vegetables thin the tamari, dull the color, and shorten the keeping time. Pat them drier than seems necessary.
• •The reboil after the first day is small work with a large reward. The vegetables release water overnight, and the second soak gives you a cleaner, darker, more settled pickle.
• •Serve tamarizuke in small portions. It is salty by design, meant to sit beside rice, ochazuke, grilled fish, or a simple bowl of soup, not to behave like a salad.

Advance Preparation

• •Tamarizuke is ready after 24 hours, but it is better after 48 hours, once the second soak has settled into the roots.
• •The finished pickles keep about 2 weeks refrigerated as long as they stay submerged and you use clean chopsticks each time.
• •The pickling liquor may be strained, boiled for 3 minutes, cooled, and used once more for a lighter second batch. Do not keep recycling it indefinitely; each batch gives water back to the jar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 140g)