Radishing Rice

One of my absolute favourite ways to eat this fuchsia root vegetable is raw, sliced in half and then dipped in equal mix of salt and red chilli powder. The radish delivers a crisp and crunchy burst of peppery mist, enhanced further by the salty-chilli flavours.

Another one of my favourite radish recipe is a South Asian curry known as Mooli Methi Salan (Radish Fenugreek Curry). Mooli Methi curry is traditionally made with fresh with fresh fenugreek.  Fenugreek is an acquired taste, I really like it and am actually growing some in the garden.  Its really hard to describe the flavour of fenugreek, its pungent and has bitter undertones.  Anyway, I would have made this spicy curry dish, but I wanted something a little lighter, yet comforting and ended up making a savoury rice.  In place of the fresh fenugreek I’ve used dried fenugreek also known as kasoori; kesuri methi.  You can find dried fenugreek, (as well as cassia bark and black cardamon) at most South Asian grocers, and even in some of the larger supermarkets, but if you can't find any you can substitute it with another green leaf, though the flavour won't be the same.

This savoury Radish and Fenugreek rice dish turned out to be quite flavourful.  I had under estimated the heat of the fresh green chilli finding the seeds a little intense, so you may want to use only one, rather than two as well as remove the fiery seeds.

When my mother cooked savoury Pilau rice dish, she would just *throw in all the whole spices into the pot to infuse the rice.  It was quite normal for us to be pushing the cassia bark to the side of the plate; or picking out the cloves and peppercorns, so the appearance of these inedible whole spices don’t bother me.  However, I understand not everyone is like me and may find them unsightly, even off putting.  So with the exception of the coriander and cumin seeds, you may wish to tie the spices in a muslin cloth whilst cooking.

Radish and Fenugreek Rice

Serves 2 - 3
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or butter)
I medium onion, finely sliced
Optional: Cassia bark*
Optional: Black Cardamon*
1 ½ teaspoon mixture of cloves, cumin, coriander and black peppercorns*
1 -2 green chillies, sliced
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
185g or1 cup of Basmati rice, washed and drained
450ml or 2 cups water
Optional: 2 – 3 tablespoons dried fenugreek leaves
250g radishes, whole or chopped in half if you wish

Method
Heat oil in a pan with a tight fitting lid. Add the onion and all the spices and cook until the the onion is meltingly soft. Stir in the rice and the fenugreek leaves, dry fry for a couple of minutes, before pouring in the water. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and add in the radishes, do not stir in as they will overcook.

Put the lid on and cook on low heat for 25 – 30 minutes. Stir rice and radishes well, before serving. 

If you wish, serve with natural yogurt or soured cream.

Asparagus and Radish Pasta Salad

Ah the British asparagus season has begun in earnest and we've enjoyed a couple of bundles so far. 

Although I've cooked with asparagus many times, for some reason it still doesn't inspire me much in the kitchen.  It does get me to use our asparagus steaming pot, though I wonder why I bother with it when the asparagus falls out from the sides of the metal basket.  I do think the best way to enjoy asparagus is steamed and simply drizzled in some flavoured oil or served with a thick sauce such as hollandaise.

This reminds me that the most and only expensive meal I've ever had was for my belated honeymoon in Paris.  For starter, we had White Asparagus that served with an excellent zesty sauce. Was it worth every euro? Well let's say I'll never forget it.

Well no fat fancy white asparagus here, only the long traditional spear headed green ones.  I made a simple Asparagus pasta salad, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and then drizzled with equal quantity of good olive oil and white wine vinegar.  It looked a little insipid, so I minced some flat leaf parsley and added some raw blushing peppery radishes to it.  And because I wanted to show my husband that I do love and appreciate him at this trying time in our lives, I cut some of the radishes into heart shapes.   He just smiled, knowing deep down they were there for me too.

This is my entry for this month's No Croutons Required (NCR) which encourages bloggers to create either a vegetarian soup or salad incorporating a specified ingredient, in this case its Asparagus. NCR is alternately hosted between the Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen, who is this months host.

I hope you enjoy the simplicity of this seasonal Asparagus and Radish Pasta salad. 

White Chocolate Banoffee Roulade

Well there were no Banoffee Waffles for breakfast this morning, but there was a slice of Banoffee Roulade made from white chocolate to be enjoyed later in the day.

This is one ridiculously sweet roulade.  It will be greatly appreciated by those who have a sweet tooth,  and even those who like to indulge in sweet treats now and again.

Regardless of all the delicious, yet sickly sweet flavours (white chocolate, double cream and Banoffee Curd), this was indeed a very light roulade.  My only qualms: the cake had a very slight 'eggy' taste to it (but not too much to put you off it); and the breaking up of the cake upon rolling, but do not despair...

There is a footnote at the bottom of the original Chocolate Roulade recipe stating that this roulade is very moist and inclined to break, but this does not matter. Just stick together with the cream when rolling it up; also the sifted icing sugar will do wonders for its appearance. Therefore, as this was my first time making roulade of any sort - I took great liberty with the icing sugar letting it rain down like snow.

I am submitting this 'White Chocolate Banoffee Roulade' to Chele who is hosting this months We Should Cocoa Challenge.  The challenge this month is to create either a Swiss Roll or a Roulade made from chocolate or cocoa.  Having never made either a roulade or Swiss roll before, I welcomed this challenge.  It had also given me excuse to use up that bar of white chocolate that's been sitting there for months, as well as some of the Banoffee Curd I've made recently.  We Should Cocoa is alternately hosted by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog or Chele of Chocolate Teapot.    

White Chocolate Banoffee Roulade
Serves 6
Ingredients
200g good white chocolate, chopped into small pieces
85ml water
2 medium eggs
140g caster sugar
For the filling
120ml - 160ml double cream
About half jar of Banoffee Curd to cover the cake
For the Banoffee Curd recipe, please follow here.
To dust
Icing sugar
Method
Take a large roasting tin and cut of a piece of non stick parchment paper to fit the base and sides of the pan. Heat the oven to gas mark 6.
Put the chocolate and water into a heavy based saucepan and melt over low heat. Remove from the heat when smooth.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks and all but 1 tablespoon of the caster sugar until pale and mousse-like. Fold in the cooled melted chocolate.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff in the remaining caster sugar, with a large metal spoon, stir in a small amount thoroughly into the chocolate mixture to loosen it. Fold in the remaining whites gently. Spread the mixture evenly into the tin. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until the top is slightly brown and firm to the touch.
Slide the cake and parchment out of the roasting tin and on to a wire rack and allow it to cool. Then generously dust a piece of baking paper with icing sugar large enough to cover the cake. Using the wire rack to hold the cake, quickly flip the cake on to the coated paper. Carefully peel away the baking parchment.
First generously spread the Banoffee Curd evenly over the cake. Then whip the cream and spread it evenly over the banoffee.

Roll up like a Swiss roll from one of the short sides, peeling away the parchment parchment paper as you go. Carefully transfer the roll to a serving dish, seam side down and sift with icing sugar to cover those cracks. Adapted from Leiths Baking Bible recipe for Chocolate Roulade.

For the Banoffee Curd recipe, please follow here.