Buridaikon (yellow tail and radish)
Posted by: kirin on 
Oct 16th, 2009 | 
Filed under: Japanese foods
I’d like to share one of Japanese easy cooking recipes. It’s Buri Daikon (ぶり大根) and is a stew only with head and jaw meat of yellow tail (This part is called “ara” in Japanese), radish and some slices of ginger. Cooking books and cooking websites should have nicer pictures, but I intentionally used this one, a little bit gross appearances of the very face part of yellow tail, with its eye’s rolling off. (LOL) Some of you may feel sick, but sorry, it tastes good in spite of its looks! I used this photo not because I wanted you to feel sick, but because I didn’t want you to think like this: “Am I cooking it properly?” or “Is this what I’m gonna eat?” This is it! It looks gross, yes, but that’s how it is. Don’t worry! It’s good, cheap, easy to cook, and less fat. 
Buridaikon is one of the most popular home cooking dishes at the winter season in Japan.
For 4 people, you only need followings.
-500g of head and jaw meat from yellow tail
-1 small radish
-5 tbs of soy sauce
-5 tbs of Mirin
-5 tbs of sake, or cooking wine
-2.5 tbs of sugar
-a small lump of ginger to be sliced
Boil these parts of yellow tail for 2 or 3 minutes.
Drain them in a colander and wash them with water roughly.
Peel off the skin of radish and cut it with each having 2-3cm of thickness, and then cut it into half or quarter, as you like. (I used 2 small different half-cut radish, that’s why the cut-off parts look smaller than the radish next to it.)
Put everything (the washed parts of yellow tail, radish, sliced ginger, soy sauce, Mirin, sake, sugar) into the pot and pour water almost to cover the surface of these ingredients. (For those who study Japanese, it’s said, “hitahita”(ひたひた) that means to almost cover the surface. ひたひたの水を入れます！^^)
And then cook it on high heat. When it starts boiling, reduce heat to low and keep simmering it for 60 minutes, and just leave it more than another 60 minutes with no heat. This 60 minutes with nothing actually means something. 
During this period, the radish absorbs the soup well. Heat it again when you eat it.
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October 16th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Thanks, Kirin, I'll definitely give this recipe a try, when I can find yellow tail heads ! It's not available here.
I'll have to replace it with another firm cooking fish probably.
Yellow tail is farmed in Japan ( and USA and Australia ) in open nets.
Strangely , while looking for an alternative, I found this site http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatc... which tells us to avoid Australian and Japanese yellow tail o.0 . Hmm. It claims that Japanese and Australian use wild fish feed, which can be infected.
Hah! Before farming all fish were caught in the wild ! that's why we learned to cook them properly :p.
And of course fish has to be inspected for infections before being sold , no ?
It shouldn't be a problem with the Buri Daikon recipe
BTW , nice peeler you have there. My mother has exactly the same.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
hehe I'm glad you chose an "ugly" picture.. because it doesn't actually look that bad! I love radishes <3
October 18th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
This radish tasted sooo goood! I thought I could keep eating radish in this way more and more. :p
October 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
No matter what they say, I never had any problems with Japanese yellow tails…anything can happen to me in 10 -20 years later? I don't know. But you can try with other fish, too.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Was that fish 298 yen? So cheap!
October 20th, 2009 at 6:02 am
Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info
Greetings from Tim.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:21 am
Hi Kirin, this dish scared me a little – I am not a big fish fan myself but I love daikon.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Yes, that's because these parts are usually thrown away. :p
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Thank you for your comment!
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 am
Ahahaha! Never mind, I did that deliberately. :p Daikon tastes really really good in this dish!
March 15th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Yes, Buri Daikon is very yummy and suitable for sake! It is a delicacy in winter. In spring, I like to make it with Tai (sea bream) instead of Buri.
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