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A Radish Rant
July 6, 2007 |
The food blogging world has a host of syndicates promoting absurd veggies.
The cabbage cartel. The eggplant evangelists. Most insiduous of all is the Mooli (Radish) Mafia.
Umm, jackFRUIT is not a veggie.
I dislike radishes, especially their putrid and pungent odour.
I reflexively suspend my breath when I encounter them raw or cooked. Jai shares my noble sentiments.
Before we started blogging, if I encountered a radish recipe online, I simply hit Alt-left and moved on. Blogging does strange things to you.
It makes you cook things in Alphabetical Order.
It makes you cook with things you normally add to the compost heap.
It makes you see visions and hear voices not apparent to others.
It gives you nightmares.
First it was Maa Anita Devi dressed LIKE THIS, threatening to impale me with a daikon.
Then it was Musical swaying her hips to Mooli ke peeche kya hai (it’s LOUD!!! turn down the volume before clicking) joined by radish rappers Asha and Gini.
When the cacophony reached a crescendo, I was diagnosed with advanced BlogPolar Disorder. The only cure lies in confronting the daikon demons head on.
I bought Easter Egg radish seeds, ‘cos atleast this variety looks pretty. The seeds would yield tiny jewel-like radishes in three colours, and they would mature in just 28 days, the packet said.
Jai was a bit puzzled, ‘cos our garden real estate is too limited to grow things both of us don’t like. Soon, however, he began to visualise grand cosmic underpinnings to this seemingly senseless endeavour - a sure symptom of BlogPolar Disorder.
In early April, I scattered about 25 seeds next to the raspberry bush. After 28 days, NOTHING.
A little leaf here and there, but not enough growth to yield a radish.
So I shook the rest of the packet (I estimated there were about 30 more seeds) in another area of the garden in the second week of May. Then suddenly, the weather turned warm, and the dormant seeds from the first batch started sprouting. Along with the seeds from the second batch.
And those were not 30 seeds in the second patch. More like 125. In three weeks, we had a radish forest.
By the fourth week, they were peeping out of the ground. Then, we went on vacation for 10 days. When we returned, we pulled them out - all 150 of them in the two patches.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t recall planting beets. 30% of them looked like beets. I love beets, and was hoping I had made a mistake.
No, they were gigantic purple radishes. Like this one to the left of the apple.
A few red ones were really tiny - as big as raisins.
They varied so much in size because we had not spaced them. We simply threw them on the ground and covered them with a thin layer of soil. They need to be spaced around 3 inches apart and atleast half inch deep. The ones closest to the fatsos were really tiny.
Purple, red and white radishes.
What does one do with 150 radishes?
That, plus What the Mooli Mafia Won’t Tell You in Part 2.
- Bee
GARDENING, mooli, Radish, Radish Greens, vegetarian recipes
Gorgeous, they are !!! Try celery radish fried rice :> :>
- Myths
Hahaha..BlogPolar Disorder..:-)..wonder what else will the Mooli Mafia do to you !!! Well, they have inundated your garden and minds with Moolis..what next…waiting for Part 2…:-)
What does one do with 150 radishes:
send them to me
Jokes apart, make those chips like you make for turnips. or make this old fashioned Punju style stir fry along with turnips:
Mooli and Gonglu cut lengthwise into thick strips, rubbed with some lemon juice and pepper and rested for 20-30 mins.-stir fried in mustard oil (minimal) with salt, red chillies, amchoor etc, till the water dries. and then enjoy!
or make khatti mooli/tschok mujj Kashmiri style.
or dry mooli strips, they change taste, you might like it then. we dry mooli leaves too. Dumela has a typical Punju mooli leaf recipe.
or make khatte lachhe for accompanying any street style snack (shredded mooli, green chillies, chopped mooli leaves, salt-splashed with tamarind extract/pulp.)
btw, mooli ke peeche was funny ;)now khabardaar meri mooli ko kuchh kaha
Looking forward to your mooliyana
btw, you can enjoy the mooli beans/fruit (mongri/moongre) too-they are less smelly. i haven’t even grown red mooli, so am not sure how big they are going to be. but even small ones are fine, i love their sabzi and chutney. if you got pics. do post them……plz…..its a request. ah! and mooli flowers are sooooooooooo pretty na!
excellent ones…great bounty of moolis…nice
Srivalli
http://www.cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com
What an interesting post Bee, love to see those tiny ones. Viji
Lovely pix, amusing write-up - now waiting for the fabulous recipe(s)
Like Musical suggests, you can let some go to seed, and try making a subzi or chutney with the green seed pods…but they do have all the taste and fragrance
of mooli. The seed pods for these red radishes may be smaller. or not.
But your purple radishes are beauties - they may yet make converts out of the two of you. Such is the power of your own produce.
You didn’t throw the leaves into the compost bin now, did ya?
I just love the way you write , you have a wonderful blog it is one of my favorites.u cracked me up with the mooli mafia, eagerly waiting the recipes as i too hate moolis.
Thank you
YO! YO!! What’s up radish homie?!:D
Welcome to da club. Planted 150 ?! Whatever is the matter wid you? Send them 50 of them to me girlie!:))
Enjoy,will be back for dishes.Little red ones make fab salad,no smell at all.
Use the greens - they’ll shrink to next-to-nothingness anyway. Pickle the rest and send them off to Coffee’s MBP! Bottle the ‘perfume’ and send it off to the radishophiles. Nice presentation.
You can make muthiyas with the leaves……. I am posting a muthiya recipe soon and you can substitute the mooli leaves in it.
(Provided the leaves are not in the bin already!!! )
Bee - love the post! radishes look great.
Had me laughing all the way. I have radishes that are flowering but nothing under the soil. And the radish hater gets all the radishes. Figures!
salad with s/p
“Lovely” Post and “refreshing” too!
Shn
How do u manage to grow all those amazing things you grow inur garden??? Anything I plant is quickly devoured by squirrels or birds
Great looking moolis….wbetter than a lotta moolah
You can send me some….I’ll make some makki di roti, mooli parathas and salad!! Chop up those greens and add them to the chapatti dough - moolis are not to be wasted
Enjoyed reading your post!
Apart from sending me some, perhaps pickle them? smother them in a masala and make an achar?
The pics on this blog are always so cool.
So, what you have planned for tomorrow
I’m flouting all kinds of blog etiquette but what with the drooling and distraction couldn’t figure out where to ask Musical this question:
[Musical says]
“Mooli and Gonglu cut lengthwise into thick strips, rubbed with some lemon juice and pepper and rested for 20-30 mins.-stir fried in mustard oil (minimal) with salt, red chillies, amchoor etc, till the water dries. and then enjoy!”
Would you please, please blog about the dishes in which Punjus use mustard oil and where they don’t? After all these years, I finally figured out that it is mustard oil that gives ordinary (spinach)saag-wala dishes that very Delhi-UP-Punju taste. I hoard sharp mustard oil for Bengali dishes, and rather than squander on it every vegetable that winks at me, I’d like to use some in dishes which get their Punjab-da-puttar taste because of mustard oil.
Aapka humbbal servant etc.
Khaoo
dear khaoo, your request will be despatched to musical by e-mail. - b.
they look so lovely.. So did you cook the radish greens ?? Can these radish be pickled ??
[...] A Radish Rant [...]
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