Double daikon “buta no kakuni” (March Daring Cook Challenge)

buta no kakuni (simmered cubes of pork) is a popular dish in Japan. People often buy it because it is long to prepare and many shop make it deliciously.
There are many recipes, I tried a few before but that’s my first time with the “grated radish trick”. That’s my experiment of this month for the Daring Cook Challenge.

Blog-checking lines: The March, 2012 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Carol, a/k/a Poisonive – and she challenged us all to learn the art of Braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman’s technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book “Ruhlman’s Twenty”.

Daring Cook Page Here.

I made a second braisé dish :
pork daube

The meat is pork belly. I didn’t have the ideal cut. I’d have prefered larger and in a long block, with a little more red. But I went shopping a bit late that day. A few minutes before starting, I patted the meat with a little rock salt.

The vegetable is a big daikon radish :

Double, because first I grated about a cup of daikon. And I used it for the first cooking. With the rest, I cut a few 5 cm high cylinders of daikon, peeled them.

In boiling water, I added the grated daikon. Then the meat and big chunks of daikon. Simmered 30 minutes on low/middle heat.

No, that not what you get (not photo). The next day pick up the meat and radish blocks, rinse them.
Put the meat in a cast iron pot with a cup of mix 1:1:1 soy sauce, mirin, sake, a 1s of sugar and a dry chili. Add enough water to cover. After 40 minutes on low heat, add the daikon and more water. About one hour later, that’s ready to be served with a little hot mustard :