Exotic Foods: Daikon Radish

As I have mentioned in prior posts, Frank and I joined a CSA this year, and we have been cooking primarily with what we receive each week in our haul. This is only the second time we walked away with Daikon Radishes, something I find a bit challenging to work with. Many people are familiar with daikons being used in raw green salads, or being turned into kimchi. I don't necessarily want to make a condiment with my CSA vegetables, so both times I have managed to incorporate them into main-dish items. Daikon radishes are low in calories and high in fiber, as shown in the detailed nutrition breakdown here . Rebecca Wood, on her website, states,
'Daikon cleanses the blood, promotes energy circulation and increases the metabolic rate. It contains diuretics, decongestants and, in terms of phytochemicals, the digestive enzymes diastase, amylase and esterase. This makes it a primary ingredient in a great variety of home remedies. Regular use of daikon helps prevent the common cold, flu and respiratory infections. Daikon treats hangovers, sore throats, colds and edema, and it helps cleanse the kidneys and decongest the lungs. This restorative vegetable also has anticarcinogenic properties'.
Pretty amazing, right? Imagine pairing this with dandelion greens in the same meal! I am sure that many of you have had your hands on daikon and not been quite sure what to do with them, so I would like to share what Frank and I have done.

The first dish that we made a couple of months back was the Shredded Parsnip and Beet salad from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, subbing in daikon for the parsnip. While parsnips are sweeter than daikon, the spicy daikon paired with earthy red beets and a sweet pineapple viniagrette was a great mid-summer all raw meal, as we made fresh pineapple juice for the dressing. We paired this with salad greens as well. I think that adding in walnuts or pecans would also be a wonderful addition to this salad. Imagine if you actually put in the parsnip too!

Tonite, Frank had the pleasure of cooking a daikon-based meal without me around to be the horrible backseat chef that I am, and the results were great. I recently purchased Vegan Fire and Spice by Robin Robertson, so we adapted her Asparagus Daikon Salad and made Broccoli-Daikon Salad served with bulgur. Frank inadvertently increased the cayenne pepper to 1 tsp for a double portion of the salad versus 1/2 tsp, but probably because it was paired with bulgur, the salad was not overly spicy. The daikon in this dish is simply cut and mixed in with the steamed broccoli, so everything comes together quickly for nites when a short cooking and eating time is needed. As you can see, it looks very beautiful in a red bowl! Simple and nourishing, this was a wonderful, quick early fall dish. When spring arrives and asparagus is less expensive, we will definitely try it as it was written in the book.

And don't think that you only have to eat daikon radish raw! It can be cooked into numerous Asian dishes, becoming tender and flavorful when treated this way. Here's to experimentation in the kitchen!

Autumn Massaman Curry

Welcome to the second VeganMoFo post this month. Since I posted bright and early (or late) on Thursday morning, I essentially had the day 'off' yesterday. I have done a bit of thinking about topics I would like to feature during VeganMoFo, and you will be seeing one, using the abundance of autumn and winter squash, in a minute. Each week I will feature a different winter squash and my recipe / adaptation used for it. This week, I bring to you the humble white acorn squash. Yes, you read right. WHITE acorn squash. Frank and I saw it on sale at the grocery and were intrigued. It had a pale white skin and, as seen below, looks beautiful.


Since October has come in full force this week, we both have been craving warm, nourishing foods and decided that a nice Massaman curry that included the squash would fill the job. However, I wanted to preserve the gorgeous paleness of this squash, so I decided to roast it and use it as a serving vessel for our side grain. When roasted the squash yellows in color a bit, and is creamy and mild in taste. The curry sauce was made from a combination of a Massaman paste, coconut milk, almond milk, and tamarind paste. Other delicious early fall vegetables- bok choy, cauliflower, Japanese turnips and peppers, rounded out the dish.

Autumn Massaman Curry

For the squash:
1 medium white acorn squash, cut in half width-wise and seeded

For the grain:
1 c. grain of your choice
2 c. water

For the curry:
4 Tbsp Massaman curry paste
1 can lite coconut milk
1 c. plain almond milk
3 Tbsp tamarind paste
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 lb. cauliflower
6 medium-sized Japanese turnips
1 red bell pepper
1 small bunch bok choy
1 4 oz can sliced bamboo shoots
Cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Directions:
First, we will make the curry sauce. Place all ingredients in a blender, and mix until emulsified. Taste for balance- massaman should be spicy, sweet, and tangy all at the same time, due to the combination of ingredients. If you taste more of one ingredient (such as tamarind), increase a bit of the others.

Next, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and set 2 cups of water to boil. When ready, place squash face down in a small baking dish in the oven. Add your grain to the water and let simmer as well. Both will cook for about 35 - 40 minutes.

While the squash and grain are cooking, prepare your vegetables, cutting all into small-medium sized pieces. Place cauliflower and Japanese turnips into a large pan with water, and simmer until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, return to pan, and add remaining vegetables and curry sauce. Place on medium heat and simmer for another 15 minutes, or until bok choy stems are juicy and tender. As each item (grain, squash, curry) finishes cooking, remove from heat.

To serve, spoon curry into a wide shallow bowl, and place acorn squash half in the center. Place your grain in the center of the acorn squash and sprinkle chopped cilantro over the entire dish. Enjoy!

Vegan Mofo!

Greetings and Salutations! I inadvertently took the summer off from writing, which I do regret. Between vacations and birthday parties, piano lessons starting up again and more work getting thrown in, August and September were hectic, to say the least. But! I am back! And with a vengance. In order to kick-start good habits and jump into the swing of things, I have decided to take place in the third edition of VeganMoFo, a month long participatory event in which bloggers from across the globe (!) will be writing about veganism and vegan food every day. The goal is to great a huge network of vegan blogs all over, and to turn others who may not be familiar with veganism or awesome vegan food, into vegan food dabblers (if not lovers). To get into the spirit of things some of the NYC-based bloggers met up tonite for dinner at Lan Cafe and dessert at Stogo. Unfortunately I was only able to get to Stogo, and at the tail end of things at that, but who can turn down vegan ice cream, even when it's all of 55-60 degrees outside? Not me, says me. On the way to Stogo, my roommate Rachael and I made up advertisement songs for Stogo using old go-go themed 60s' songs such as 'Go Go Gorilla' (Stogo Gorilla) and 'Going to a Go-Go' (Going to a Stogo). Ha ha ha. And if that weren't enough, my ice cream high (a mix of salted caramel pecan and fudge brownie) has allowed me to decide that starting off Vegan MoFo with a picture of my vegan refrigerator is a beautiful way to begin. Here it is below:
Vegan Refrigerator is quite decorated, mainly with cards and pictures of things my friends or I have been involved in. The postcards on the bottom are from my friend Charles' label Killer Diller Records (which is the home of fine music), and luxuriamusic.com is a fine internet radio station playing you garage, tropicalia, power pop, etc etc. Of course, we have the pig woof flier to remind you that pigs are friends, not food. Vegan Refrigerator will be providing fresh vegetables and other sundries for me to write about over the next month, so stay tuned!