Simple Takuwan
Takuwan (takuan) is pickled daikon, a type of tsukemono, or preserved vegetable. In our house, we called tsukemono, “ko-ko,” which I’m just now learning is perhaps a pidgin pronunciation of the actual Japanese name, “okōkō.” My mom would serve just a tiny portion of ko-ko, nestled up against the rice, with every dinner. And yes, 99% of dinners included rice. It sounds fancy, but it wasn’t. It was just a matter-of-fact thing—a tiny bit of ko-ko needed to be next to the rice. While we’d cycle through a few different kinds of ko-ko depending on what was on sale, the one we had most often was takuwan. My mom loved it so much, she used to (still does) call me her “little takuwan.” Here’s a recipe for this ko-ko that is usually bright yellow, but if you are wary of food coloring, you are welcome to leave it out.
