Photo/Illutration Simmered dried daikon radish and fried tofu (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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While she was in her 30s, Toshiko Okuzono appeared regularly on a program aired by a TV station in Kyushu where she lived and was well known locally. She decided to ride the crest of her visibility and try her luck in Tokyo.

She arrived in the nation’s capital in the 1990s without any promise of a job.

“There were countless people who could cook, and my self-confidence vanished,” she recalls. Stylish and fine dishes made by charismatic cooking experts adorned the television screen and magazine pages.

“It was a time when homemakers longed for such dishes and tried to imitate them.”

These were cooking experts whose mothers were skilled cooks or who themselves had studied overseas. Okuzono was born into a family where she taught herself how to cook as her mother wasn’t very skilled in the kitchen. Life was tough in Tokyo for Okuzono because she couldn’t make stylish dishes. She was beset by a sense of failure.

One day, she got the chance to show off her skills to a magazine editor. Although she made smart dishes following the example of others, the unfamiliar dishes she tried her hand at turned out with disastrous results. The editor departed with the words, “I wish you success.”

In a nutshell, Okuzono lacked the requirements the cooking experts in Tokyo had. But she decided that could be a strength in itself?

“In ordinary circumstances, home-cooked dishes are made by people like me. There must be dishes which ‘ordinary people’ without money, time or cooking skills are able to make.” Okuzono finally reversed her way of thinking.

She decided to focus on dried food that cooks at home tend to shy away from. To Okuzono, dried food products that are nutritious and keep well were indispensable and they came in handy while she was raising her children. She decided to come up with new ways of cooking that would make the ingredients more accessible. She went on to pursue her own style of home cooking that was different from so-called stylish dishes.

This week’s recipe features “kiriboshi daikon” (shredded and dried daikon radish). Although the instruction on the bag usually urges people to reconstitute it by immersing in water for about 10 minutes, Okuzono skips the step and does so while simmering with the other ingredients. All it takes is to place a lid on the frying pan and wait for 10 minutes. It is a simple and tasty simmered dish that you will want to make time and again.

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Toshiko Okuzono (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Toshiko Okuzono, an expert in home cooking, was born in 1962. She made her mark by offering fuss-free recipes. Her recent book published by Gakken Plus is titled “Chotto tsukutte mitakunaru otonano kashikoi tenuki gohan” (Clever and fuss-free dishes for grownups you may want to try).

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serve 4)

50 grams dried radish, 1 thin deep-fried tofu (aburaage) (cut into strips), 1 carrot (cut into strips), 300 ml water, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 pack (4 grams) dried skipjack shavings (katsuobushi)

1. Rinse dried radish and cut into appropriate length with kitchen scissors. Add to frying pan.

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Cut the dried radish above the frying pan with kitchen scissors. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

2. Add fried tofu, carrot and water in pan. Place lid, turn on stove and simmer for about 10 minutes.

3. Remove lid when dried radish and carrot have softened. Add soy sauce in circular motion and mix in dried skipjack shavings.

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Add the soy sauce after the ingredients have softened. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

About 80 kcal and 1.4 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

You may add the dried radish directly to the frying pan by cutting it above the pan. Do not mix the ingredients before simmering, and keep the dried radish immersed in the water at the bottom.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column

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