Simmered Daikon radish with squid (Ika-daikon, イカ大根)

Simmered daikon radish with squid is my dad’s favourite food, so my mum used to cook it quite often. It wasn’t my favourite, as the squids were too chewy. If you don’t like squids because they are hard to chew, try this recipe. They are very soft and mild.

Ingredients

(For 4 servings)

• 1 whole body of squid
• 450 g of white Daikon radish
• Water that has been to used to wash rice (otherwise 2 tbsp of flour + 100 mL of water)
• (A) 300 mL of Dashi broth (otherwise 300 mL of water and 1.5 tsp of Dashi powder)
• (A) 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• (A) 2 tbsp of mirin

Instructions

1. Thickly peel the Daikon skin then slice 3 cm thick. Cut it into half if the sliced daikon is too big.
2. Boil the sliced Daikon with a plenty amount of the water that has been to used to wash rice. If not, dissolve 2 tbsp of flour in 100 mL of water, and add to a plenty amount of water. Boiling with starchy water makes Daikon soft and easy to soak the broth. When the Daikon is cooked well enough, turn the heat off. Remove the Daikon and rinse the scum off.
3. Wash the squid and remove the guts, the legs, and the bone. Don’t throw away the guts and the squid ink.
4. Remove the suckers from the squid legs. Be sure to remove the ‘beak’ at the base of the tentacles.
5. Cut the squid into rings. Cut the legs bite-size chunks.
6. Prepare a small saucepan. Put all condiments (A) with the guts and squid ink and heat until it comes to a boil. Then add the squid and turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 seconds. Separate the squid from the broth (Broth (B)).
7. Add the broth (B) the Daikon radish into a pot. Pour in just enough water to cover the ingredients and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes with an “Otoshibuta” (To learn Otoshibuta, check this page).
8. Remove the Otoshibuta and add the squid to the pot. Let it stand for an hour.

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