It’s been a great first year for Gastography and I am happy to announce that we are moving. I finally got off my butt and registered my very own blog domain.

The fun will continue here.

New RSS feed address

Thank you for your continued support!

Living it up on New Years Eve with a Harry Potter marathon and lap companion (Dar) who currently feels fireball hot.

Salsa Party!

Sunset

Black Spanish Radishes through the Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic

Playing with my new Christmas toy, the Lensbaby Sweet 35 Optic.

At my desk among holiday card envelopes and other flotsam

My DH took this one of the tree

He's such an unwilling model. I had to bribe him with early dinner right after this, the 10th shot I'd taken of him.

More desk flotsam

Week 5 share from the Little River Market Garden CSA

With the new year, I vow to take less crappy pictures of my veggie shares. This is just sad.

CSA Share 5

5 bananas
1 lemon
1 black sapote
1 head Napa cabbage
3 black Spanish radishes
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch baby mustard greens
1 yucca

What I Made With My Share

I made a baked pasta casserole type dish with the cabbage, which was pretty great.

I made an inedible tart with the mustard greens. Just… yuck. The crust was decent; the greens, not so much.

Grits & greens – Collard greens with roasted tomato, buttermilk grits and bacon.

The Best Thing I Made This Week

Instead of boring you with another grits & greens recipe featuring tomatoes and bacon, I will instead dig into the archives for this week’s recipe and share something I made with the watermelon radish from last week.

Roasted Sesame Radish Soba with Kale

Up Next Week

Next week, we’re taking a CSA vegetable break. No veggie share this Saturday, so I will have to be creative on my own. I see a lot of grains and veggies in my future in a futile attempt to balance out our ‘retro midwestern appetizer night’ on Christmas Eve, and obscene amount of beef (and Yorkshire pudding) on Christmas day. Cleansing grains & veggies in preparation for one last indulgence night (dumplings on New Years Eve) before the reforms of January roll around.

I have the Spanish radishes and yucca leftover to play with.

New To Me Veggies

Spanish Radishes

I’d seen these radishes but had never cooked with them. Apparently these are popular among food bloggers and CSAs, the top page of Google results brought up blog after blog. From what I’ve gathered (and was told by my CSA grower), black radish works just like regular radish, but is spicy and zippy.

Yucca

I’ve had this in Cuban restaurants, but have never cooked with it. Yucca root is actually named Cassava and isn’t related to the Yucca plant. It is a woody South American shrub prized in tropical and subtropical regions for its starchy tuberous root. According to Wikipedia, dried cassava is used to make tapioca. Apparently, Yucca must be cooked in order to get rid of its toxic cyanogenic glucosides. (Again according to Wiki) Improper preparation can leave enough cyanide to cause “acute cyanide intoxication and goiters, and has been linked to ataxia or partial paralysis.” Well, then. I guess I’ll be cooking mine. Yucca can be used as a potato substitute, served as tapioca, fufu, a flour, or a syrupy juice. You can also turn it into a liquor.

This dish started with the question, what can I do with these CSA radishes other than serve them raw or pickled? I’d made simple roast English breakfast radishes before, and knew they turned sweet with heat. I’m happy to report that this dish turned out great – the radishes were sweet, almost turnip-y and the greens worked well with the sauce and carrot. All in all a satisfying, healthy weeknight dish.

Apparently the dish was so good I forgot to take a picture of it. These are watermelon radishes.

Roasted Sesame Radish Soba with Kale

3 watermelon radishes
1 bunch kale
2 small carrots
1 c. vegetable stock
1/2 palm sesame seeds
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. honey
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. soy
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 servings soba

Preheat the oven to 425 F. While your oven is preheating, chop the radishes into roughly 1 inch chunks. De-stem the kale and slice it into ribbons. Slice the carrots into thin rounds.

Put the radishes into the oven on a cookie sheet. Bake 25-30 mins. or until they reach your desired softness. I left mine a little al dente, and they tasted just fine.

While your radishes are cooking, add the vegetable stock and kale to a large pan and cook approximately 10 minutes until the liquid has evaporated and the kale is soft. Add the carrot halfway through the cooking time (this will give you crisp carrots – for softer carrots, add at the beginning with the kale).

While all this is working, toast your sesame seeds in a dry pan over high heat until they just begin to brown and smell nutty. Set aside and make your radish dressing.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine 1 Tbsp. honey with 1 Tbsp. soy. When the radishes are done, pull the sheet from the oven and pour the radish sauce over. Add the shallots, toss to combine, and put back in the oven for 3-5 minutes. Watch carefully so the mixture does not burn.

Cook the soba according to package directions, about 3 minutes, and drain.

When the radishes are done, add the sesame seeds and toss to coat.

Add the noodles to the pan with the kale and carrots, along with the miring, 1 tsp. honey, 1 tsp. soy, and chili garlic sauce. Toss to combine.

Serve topped with the roasted sesame radishes.

Serves 2

Delightfully retro appetizers: my Mothers Worlds Best Cheese Ball (it is), Swedish meatballs (much more edible than I remembered), and crab dip (mental note: Hidden Valley Ranch is no substitute for whatever Maries Creamy Ranch is).

Why are simple broiled green beans so good? The holiday meal was great as usual: rare standing rib roast with deeply caramelized crust, perfectly balanced celeriac mashed potatoes, passable Yorkshire puddings; but the dish I couldnt get enough of (yet again) was simple broiled French green beans with shallots, garlic a Pecorino Romano/Parmesan blend.