OCHIKERON Recipe: Tasty Simmered Daikon Tortoise Shell 大根のこっくり煮

OCTORBER 2022 (vol. 180)

In Japanese, people call this dish “大根のこっくり煮 OR 大根のべっこう煮”. 大根=Daikon. こっくり=Tasty. べっこう=Tortoise Shell. 煮=simmered.

My daughter had this dish at her elementary school and said it was good, so I decided to recreate it at home.  Pork belly slices are commonly used but if you think pork belly has too much fat, use any portion you like 🙂  I used affordable pork shoulder trimmings 👍
Daikon radish is from my son’s Daikon digging at Kindergarten BTW 😉

Directions:

1. Cut daikon into 2/3 inch slices, quarter rounds. Cut pork into bite-size pieces.

2. Heat sesame oil in a large pot and cook the meat until no longer pink.

3. Mix Dashi broth (or water), soy sauce, Mirin, and sugar very well.

4. Add  Daikon and the Dashi broth mixture into the pot. Bring to a boil and remove the foam if necessary.

5. Turn down to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

6. Open and simmer on medium for 10 minutes until nice and amber.

7. You can simmer down more, or stop the heat and leave in the pot for a while or overnight is better! It will become nice, brown, and tasty in this way.