Monday, May 18, 2015

A Radish Inspired Meal

After the glorious bounty of pretty radishes I grew last month, I planted a new kind called "white icicle".  Somewhere, I read that they are also called Daikon and are Asian.  I don't know a lot about radishes, but I thought it would be fun to try.

They sprouted right away and went complete crazy.  Last week, I noticed some little white parts poking up, and I've found that radishes are ready when they push themselves to the surface of the soil, I decided to pick a few.  I expected them to be thin and small.

Imagine my shock when a few of them were far longer than any carrots I've grown! 


I was also fooled by the greens.  Some of them had short greens while a few were screaming LOOK AT ME, so I was really surprised when I pulled the one with the biggest greens and found it so much smaller than one with not a lot of greens.

As soon as I picked them, they started to get a little brown looking and I wondered what they'd be like after a day or so.

And what the heck was I going to do with them?  I can only use them so much before k-ster is like ENOUGH, and I don't want to smell like radishes every day.

The packet says "mild, crisp flavor" so I thought maybe I could sneak them in in more ways than the last round.  If mild means blowing your tongue right out of your mouth with the powerful spice that theses little babies contain then mild it is.  I couldn't eat more than a bite of the raw piece I took without thinking my esophagus would be ruined for the day.

Off to the interwebs I went, in search of what to do with white radishes.

I kept coming to pickled recipes and I thought that sounded pretty good.  I figured the vinegar would help remove the sharpness or at least the dirty radish taste that I often find with radishes.

When I was at my sister's house a few weeks ago, we had the traditional pulled pork sandwiches that I love the way she makes.  She added pickles as an option for the sandwich which I thought was nuts but she assured me I'd like it.  I LOVED IT!!

I thought maybe I'd make crockpot pork and then make a sort of radish coleslaw with the pickled flavor of the radishes as an option.  I had some Swiss chard to use up and I mixed in the radish greens from the radishes I used for the pickle.

I also found that if I peeled the radishes with a carrot peeler, it took off the outer layer which was slightly thicker than I expected.  Inside, they really were pure white.

So, here's what I did.  I had a recipe for the pickle/slaw but I had to change some things out of necessity.

Pickled Radish Slaw:

5 white radishes, peeled and sliced as you'd like.  I did thin "coins" but the recipes suggested matchsticks.
half of a bag of pre-cut cole slaw veggies (carrots, cabbage and broccoli) because I had it left over from the Chinese Egg Roll casserole.

Pour 1/4 cup of rice vinegar and 2 T. sugar over the veggies and sprinkle with a little salt.  Mix and let sit in the refrigerator for as long as you can.  I did the entire afternoon.

Mix together 1.5 T. olive oil, cayenne pepper to your liking, juice of one lime, 2 green onions (sliced thinly) about 2T. chopped parsley.

Pour out the vinegar mixture and pour in the new mixture with the green onions.  Let it sit a while.


Pulled Pork Sandwiches:

A large pork butt or shoulder
barbeque sauce of your choice

Put them together in the crockpot for the day, until the pork is easy to pull apart.  I added a little more barbeque sauce when I took out all of the pork because I hadn't put as much in the crockpot as I should have.

Greens:

I slice the stalk of the chard, and the thicker parts of the radish greens and saute them with garlic in olive oil for about 5-8 minutes.  Then throw in all of the leafy part of the greens, chopped as you like.  Stir them around and put the cover on the pan until they wilt.  Add a little salt.   I sometimes add vinegar but I didn't want to ruin the effect of the pickle/slaw.

The rolls are courtesy of www.annies-eats.com and they are the best "hamburger" style roll I've ever had. I haven't bought a nasty, white, store bought hamburger roll in the 2-3 years since I've know about her Light Brioche Buns recipe.

In the picture, I had the Radish Pickle/Slaw on the side but I put some in the sandwich and WOW.  Definitely amazing.

Linking here:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/05/clever-chicks-blog-hop-139-with-most.html
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com
http://www.skiptomylou.org
http://www.sewcando.com
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2015/05/show-and-tell-link-party-11/
http://olives-n-okra.com/funtastic-friday-25/ 
http://www.thetipgarden.com/2016/04/country-fair-blog-party-april-16.html

3 comments:

  1. I love white radishes! I'm going to give your salad a try. Thanks for linking up and sharing your recipe with us at Fantastic Friday. I hope you join us again this week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love these white radishes! Thanks for linking up with The Country Fair Blog Party!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the idea of making the radish slaw and topping on a pulled pork sandwich. I make a coleslaw with cabbage, carrots and peppers that I love using as topping on pulled pork. Adding radishes to the slaw is a great idea. I can't wait to try it this summer. Stopping by from the Country Fair Blog Party!

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