From My Garden - Radish

So for those who might be reading this and who don't know me, I have a fairly sizable garden. At the house this year, I have eight tomato plants (Black Krim, Black Pearl, Better Boy, "Mr. Stripey," two variety of red cherry tomatoes, Bush Boy and a mystery tomato (which is to say I forgot to label it, so I have no idea what it is)), sweet and hot peppers, two pea plants and a green bean plant. I also have a 20'x30' plot at a community garden where I have radishes, in addition to more tomatoes and peppers, squash and other assorted things.

This is the first year I've planted radish. It's not something I eat a whole lot of but it's good for you. It's also super easy to grow from seeds and ready quickly. From seeding to picking my first six foot row it took about 35-40 days. I can drop in new seeds and have a new batch ready every five to six weeks and radish is fine in cool weather and does okay in hot weather.

So now I have a stack of radish and beyond slicing them for salads, I don't have a lot of stuff to do with them, so I invented a dip. I'm using Cherry Bomb II Hybrid radishes in the recipes below but you can use pretty much any mild to average radish.

Spicy Garlic Radish Dip:

Serve this spicy dip alongside some cool, creamy guacamole with some finger sized vegetables or unsalted kettle chips. Keep in mind that in the spirit of this blog, the ingrediants below serves two.

What You'll Need (food):
Garlic, one clove - minced (preferably in food processor)
Radish , two - minced (preferably in a food processor)
Cream Cheese, half an 8oz package/stick, softened
Cayenne Pepper, ground, 1/4 teaspoon
Red Pepper Flakes (optional, to taste, if you're double-tough and like things hot, like me)
Salt, dash (to taste)

What You'll Need (cooking)
A food processor or a lot of time for mincing garlic and radish

Add the radish and garlic to your food processor and mince. Add softened cream cheese, cayenne pepper and salt and give it another whirl around the food processor until mixed. Serve chilled. Easy, right?

Green Beans with Radish and Almond

When I was growing up, my mom fed my sister and I a lot of green beans. Just plain old green beans. Boring! Use this recipe for green beans that suck less.

What You'll Need (food):
Green Beans, half pound (fresh...always, fresh. Mr. Lee will be unhappy with things that are not fresh. Sorry, inside joke from Korea).
Green onion, two stalks, chopped
Radish (two), sliced thin
Slivered almond, two tablespoons
Butter, 1 tablespoon
Soy Sauce, 1/2 tablespoon
Bacon!  three slices, crumbled (optional, but awesome!)*
Salt, dash (to taste)

What You'll Need (cooking):
Medium Sauce Pan
Skillet
(if adding bacon you'll also need guile and deception. A dog will also be handy. See below.)

In a medium sauce pan, cover green beans with water and heat to boiling, cooking uncovered for 8-ish minutes. Drain green beans. Heat skillet to medium. Add green beans, butter and soy sauce to skillet for 3-4 minutes and stir to coat. Remove from heat. Place green beans in a bowl or serving plate. Add sliced radish, chopped green onion and slivered almond, plus a dash of salt to taste.

Optional - Bacon that sh*t up!

In a skillet (preferably the same one you're going to use for green beans) cook three slices of bacon. After cooking, drain the bacon and set aside on paper towels.  Eat one slice while Melissa is not in the kitchen. If questioned, claim you gave it to the dog. Crumble the other two slices and add along with radish, chopped green onion and slivered almond.