Gather your ingredients! In addition to white shortgrain rice, mild white miso, sugar, daikon, and rice vinegar, you’ll need a small amount of shiitake no dashi, made from boiling shiitake mushrooms with vegan furikake.
This recipe is an okazu (a Japanese side dish typically served alongside rice as part of a larger meal). As such, the cloudy water from rinsing the rice can conveniently be used as an ingredient.
Pour your desired amount of rice in a sieve and rinse into a large bowl of water. You’ll need enough water to have two inches standing in your stew pot.
Wash the daikon and cut it into large, two inch long pieces. The final product will be very tender, so you don’t have to cut it into bite-size pieces.
Submerge the daikon slices in the starchy water from rinsing the rice. Raise to boiling, then simmer for at least two hours. The daikon is done stewing when it is as tender as cold butter.
For the winter sauce, combine the 1/3 cup of mild white miso with 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar.
Add 3/4 cup of shiitake no dashi (shiitake mushroom stock) to the bowl with miso, sugar, and rice vinegar. This stock can easily be frozen and defrosted for use, or made fresh. To make the stock, boil 8 oz of fresh shiitake mushrooms in 6 cups of water with 1 tablespoon of vegan furikake (kelp seasoning.) Separate the mushrooms from the final liquid stock and use them in another dish, such as a stir fry or soup.
Whisk together the sauce ingredients.
When the daikon slices are tender, serve hot in individual dishes. Drizzle in the sweet winter sauce.
Enjoy!
