All my ratatouille ingredients have been sulking on their vines, given that we haven't yet had a single solid week with night temperatures consistently above 50°F, but the daikon radishes are ready! These are a smaller and more slender variety than the typical daikon (or, in Korean, mu). They grew solidly to the bottom of the one-foot raised bed, then started pushing themselves up above the surface (like a turkey pop-up timer button) once they hit clay. We'll sample their flavor in a couple of ways: as a Japanese su no mono-type vegetable and fruit side dish (good with white meat and "the other white meat") called kōhaku namasu, mixing the daikon with a sprinkle of carrots, apricots and lemon peel (everything julienned; better get the knives sharpened), in a sweetened rice vinegar amazu sauce; and as Korean mu na mul (as a side dish, this must be eaten with rice, and stands up to beef), where the julienned mu is combined with the four basic Korean spice groups: red pepper, garlic, sesame seed oil, and green onion, then marinated in a sweetened vinegar.
isn't eating out of your own garden the most gratifying experience? Those dishes sound way over my head but delicious nonetheless~Bon Appetit!
Posted by: avril | July 11, 2004 at 11:31 AM
Lovely. Just lovely. Thanks for "virtually" sharing.
Posted by: Patricia Tryon | July 11, 2004 at 11:38 AM
Thank you, thank you! I'm enjoying the vegetable garden so much...from seed to plate.
Posted by: Chan S. | July 11, 2004 at 05:36 PM
Nice! Planted a bunch of seeds about a month ago in a raised bed garden at our high school (i teach foods)...looking forward to fresh daikon salad...love the apricots in the recipe too!!!
Posted by: mike | October 07, 2008 at 02:03 PM