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Recipe Wed Jan 20 2010
Grating Rocks! (Asian Slow Made Easy)
I love cole slow in its its many embodiments, but I hate julienning the vegetables. Without the knife-moving-so-fast-it's-a-blur skills of competent chefs, julienning takes a lot of patience, the lack of which, I have to admit, is one of my major shortcomings. The other day, I was looking at a recipe for a French carrot salad that used grated carrots. Then I thought: if that works in carrot râpée, it should work in cole slow, too. So I tried. I used an old multi-purpose grater to roughly grate daikon radish and carrots. It worked beautifully.
The daikon and carrots were in shreds in no time. The shreds were just the right size, and because grating on a dull surface (rather than cutting with a sharp knife) destroys more cell walls, it eliminated the wait before squeezing out the excess moisture from the vegetables. (Usually, I would sprinkle some salt on the cut vegetables and let it sit for a while to draw out the moisture before squeezing it out.) I'll never go back to julienning--at least when making cole slow with root vegetables!
Grated Daikon Slow with Peanuts and Cilantro (serves two)
1 1/2 cup daikon or other radish, grated
1 cup carrot, grated
1 tablespoon peanuts
2 teaspoons roasted sesame seeds
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
For Dressing:
1 tablespoon prepared sushi vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Dry-roast the peanuts in a small skillet (I use a cast iron one) for five minutes or so, until fragrant. Grate the daikon and carrots, and squeeze out some of the moisture. Toss everything in a bowl with the dressing ingredients. Sushi vinegar can be found in many Asian grocery stores. Since it's mostly a mixture of rice vinegar, salt, sugar (and often some MSG), you can make it at home, too.
