Welcome to issue #015 of the 🔒 Cookbook Confidential 🔒, a private newsletter with recipes, guides, and drafts we’re developing for the book.
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It’s been a while!
Hi friends and fam,
I’m starting to emerge (kinda) from my rabbit holes of cookbook writing! We are still not done, but getting closer every day :) We’re almost done with writing all of the recipes, and I’ve been working on the ingredient guides and all of the technical information that I want to put into the book, all while raising our 3 little kids at home.
This issue is all about daikon (白蘿蔔), the long white radish you see piled up at every Chinese grocery store.
In Cantonese, we just call it lo baak (蘿蔔). It is the same radish in lo bak go, the “turnip cake” you get at dim sum. (It’s not a turnip at all!)
Daikon is one of the most useful vegetables in our kitchen. It goes into soups, stir-fries, braises, and pickles. When raw, it has a gentle, nose-tingling bite, a bit like a mild wasabi. Cooked, it turns soft, sweet, and almost see-through.
It’s also daikon season, at its best in the colder months, from about December to March. So now is a great time to start cooking with it!
What’s inside this issue
Pork & Daikon Old Fire Soup (豬肉蘿蔔老火湯): A simple, clean Cantonese soup with pork, daikon, carrots, and ginger.
Stir Fried Daikon (炒白蘿蔔): An easy weeknight stir-fry with dried shrimp and a light sauce.
Our daikon ingredient guide: How to pick a good one, how to store it, and how to cut it for each kind of dish.
Full recipes, cookbook spreads, and the guide are inside for paid subscribers.
