December 1, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Daikon Radishes

 

Cooking With This Week's Box

Purple or Red Daikon Radish: 

Photo from www.cafedelites.com

Hachimitsu-Daikon (Honey with Daikon) (See Below)

Daikon Radish Pancakes (See Below)

Italian Garlic:  

Easy Honey Garlic Chicken 

Carrot Garlic Mashed Potatoes 

Red & Yellow Onions:  

Simple Caramelized Onion White Pizza 

Easy, Healthy Baked Blooming Onions 

Japanese Sweet Potatoes and/or Covington Sweet Potatoes:  

Frozen Baked Sweet Potato 

Sweet Potato & Black Sesame Pound Cake 

Baked Sweet Potato Chips

Red Beets:  

Photo from www.thishealthytable.com

Red Velvet Beet Nutella 

Smooth & Velvety Beet & Ginger Soup 

Rustic Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Galette 

Orange Carrots:  

Hungarian Carrot Stew

Moroccan Spiced Carrot Chickpea Stew 

Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes

Sunchokes: 

Smashed Sunchokes with Thyme Butter 

Crispy Roasted Sunchokes 

Adirondack Red Potatoes:  

Sour Cream and Onion Melting Potatoes 

Slow Cooker Potato Soup 

Heart of Gold Squash:  

Stuffed Squash with Apple, Cranberry and Sausage Stuffing 

Chocolate Acorn (Heart of Gold) Squash Baked Custard 

Butternut Squash:  

Healthy Butternut Squash Casserole with Sweet Potatoes & Rice 

Butternut Squash Pie with Graham Cracker Toffee Crust 

Apple & Turnip Quiche

Green Savoy Cabbage:  

Fettuccini with Caramelized Cabbage, Beans & Goat Cheese 

Savoy Cabbage & Sunchoke Pizza 

OR 

Sweet Scarlet Turnips:  

Apple & Turnip Quiche 

Cornish Pasties (Meat Hand Pies) 

Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping 

We’re rolling into the home stretch with just one more box remaining after this week.  Winter has definitely set in, and this week’s box is a heavy one, packed with hearty root vegetables and an assortment of other goodies we tucked away for the last month of deliveries.  As you unpack this week’s box and the final box of the season, pay attention to how you are storing each item. While these final two boxes are packed full, don’t feel like you have to eat everything over the course of two weeks.  With proper storage, you can store most vegetables well into January, and thus delay your return to the grocery store produce department.

This week’s featured vegetable is the humble daikon radish. One of the reasons I like this vegetable is for its flash factor. During the winter it’s nice to include vibrant colors to liven up mealtime and this week’s purple or red daikon can do just that!  Check out this week’s vegetable feature article which includes a short list of additional recipe ideas in addition to the two featured recipes.  The first feature recipe is for Daikon Radish Pancakes (see below). This is a simple recipe with just a few ingredients that yields a pancake that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Use this as an accompaniment to a hearty meal of roasted meats or stew or eat these as part of a light dinner or snack. The second feature recipe is actually more of a home remedy than a culinary recipe.  The recipe is for Hachimitsu-Daikon (Honey with Daikon) (see below). I am not very familiar with Japanese culture and cuisine but found it interesting to come across this recipe for daikon infused honey which is something Japanese households use as a cough syrup and to treat the sniffles.  The recipes I reviewed suggest storing this in the refrigerator for no more than a week, so you may want to just make this recipe as needed. This is a great example of how food truly can become our medicine when we take advantage of its innate nutrients and properties to support our bodies!

Garlic and onions are also important foods to incorporate into your diet regularly as they are also packed with antioxidants and immune boosting compounds. This week I selected several simple recipes including Easy Honey Garlic Chicken and Carrot Garlic Mashed Potatoes along with Simple Caramelized Onion White Pizza and Easy, Healthy Baked Blooming Onions. 

This week’s box has not one but two varieties of winter squash that are very different. Butternut squash is the one variety most are familiar with and it can be used widely in many different applications.  This week I included one savory and one sweet suggestion. Starting with savory, check out this recipe for Healthy Butternut Squash Casserole with Sweet Potatoes & Rice. With both butternut squash and sweet potatoes, this dish definitely qualifies as “hearty winter fare.”  Counter the savory with sweet and look to this recipe for Butternut Squash Pie with Graham Cracker Toffee Crust!  Heart of Gold squash may be used in any recipe calling for acorn, carnival, festival, or sweet dumpling squash. In keeping with the balance of one savory and one sweet recipe, consider these selections for Stuffed Squash with Apple, Cranberry and Sausage Stuffing and Chocolate Acorn (Heart of Gold) Squash Baked Custard.  

I hope you enjoy the experience of winter cooking, complete with pots of slow-simmering stews, soups and braises. As we walk through the cold of winter, my hope is that these hearty meals will nourish not only your body, but your soul as well. Have a great week and remember that next week we will be delivering meat shares and End of Season special offer orders only.  Mark your calendars so you don’t miss our final delivery of the season on December 15/16/17.  

See you soon!

Chef Andrea  

Vegetable Feature: Daikon Radishes

by Andrea Yoder

Daikon radishes are classified as a winter storage radish and are an important part of many traditional cultures throughout Asian. Daikon radishes, along with beauty heart and black Spanish radishes, are an important winter food both because they are available over an extended period, but also because they are high in nutrients including vitamin C which can help keep us strong and healthy throughout the cold winter. Radishes are actually one of the oldest cultivated food crops and there are literally thousands of different varieties.  In this country, most daikon is the traditional large, white variety. While we do grow that type of daikon, in recent years we have also grown smaller varieties of purple and red daikon. We prefer these brightly colored varieties for several reasons. First, their striking colors help to liven up winter meals and are a gorgeous addition to raw winter vegetable salads, stir-fries, etc. The other main reason we prefer these varieties is their small stature which is a more manageable size for most households to use. 

Daikon radishes can be used in a variety of ways, both raw and cooked. In Chinese and Japanese culture daikon radish is often pickled, another tactic to help preserve this food. Pickled daikon radishes are often served as a condiment with a variety of dishes. Daikon radish may also be used in salads and other fresh condiments, often paired with other vegetables, and dressed with a light sauce or vinaigrette. Daikon radishes are also used in stir-fries and braised dishes and soups. In some areas of China, daikon is used in braised stews and soups, such as what would be equivalent to our beef stew. Whereas we would use potatoes, they often use chunks of daikon radish. Of course, remember daikon has a lot of nutritive value, so adding it to hearty broths and stews is a great way to fortify the soup.  Daikon radishes are also traditionally used in Korean kim chi, which is once again an important food to eat both for nourishment and health throughout the winter.

Store daikon radish in the refrigerator, loosely wrapped in plastic to keep it from dehydrating. It will store for at least 4-6 weeks if not longer. 

If you aren’t sure how you’d like to use this week’s daikon radish, here are a few recipe ideas to consider in addition to our two featured recipes.  Enjoy!

Daikon Cakes 

Pan Fried Daikon Radish Bun 

Purple Radish Salad 

Stir-Fried Daikon Radish Cake 

Daikon Chicken Soup 

Ginger and Scallion Noodles with Pork and Pickled Daikon 

Soy Pickled Daikon Radish 

Daikon Radish Pancakes

Yield:  2 servings

1 cup daikon radish, grated and squeezed dry

½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup room temperature water

2 Tbsp black sesame seeds

 1 pinch white pepper

½ tsp salt, for drawing out moisture

1 scallion, chopped (optional)

Dipping Sauce:

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp wasabi

1. Prepare the Daikon Radish. Start by peeling the radish, then finely grate it with a grater or finely chop it with a knife. Add the salt, mix well to combine, and let stand for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, take handfuls of the grated daikon and squeeze out as much liquid as possible; transfer the squeezed daikon into another bowl
2. Prepare the Batter. Add the all-purpose flour in two batches, stirring in between additions. Follow that with room temperature water and mix well until a batter forms.
3. Fry the Pancakes. In a non-stick pan, heat up a touch of oil on medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, spoon the batter on and shape them into round disks. Sprinkle some black sesame seeds on the uncooked side of each pancake, and when the bottom becomes golden-brown, carefully flip them and fry until both sides are golden-brown. Remove them from the pan and let drain on a paper towel. 
4. Prepare the sauce. Make the sauce by simply mixing soy sauce and wasabi.

Note:  The flatter the pancakes, the crispier they will get! Adjust the thickness to your liking.

Recipe sourced from www.chejorge.com.

Hachimitsu-Daikon (Honey with Daikon-aka Japanese Cough Syrup

Photo from benitobrowbar.com

To prepare this at home, simply chop about a handful of daikon and put it into a glass container, then cover the chopped daikon evenly with honey and put the lid on. Leave the honey-daikon mixture at room temperature for approximately three to four hours.  The prepared syrup can be taken 2-3 times a day either straight or by adding a tablespoon to a cup of hot water to make a soothing tea. The mixture will last for about a week when stored in the fridge. 

Recipe sourced from www.benitobrowbar.com.