My idea of what comfort food is seems to change as often as the weather! In fact, it changes day to day, hour to hour, even minute to minute.
I'm sitting here on a cold rainy evening with my belly full and satisfied. For my dinner, since there was only a small amount of leftover cooked rice and a little uncooked rice pasta left in the bag, I decided to make two dishes: radish with rice and pasta with radish. I used white daikon radish, which probably isn't one of your typical vegetable choices, but I like it because of its sharp bitterness and cool watery insides.
I first found out about raw daikon radish in George Ohsawa's Zen Macrobiotics, where it's recommended for obesity and I was surprised to find that our grocery store stocked it. When I first bit into a piece of it, it tasted like a milder version of the little round red radishes I was familiar with, which we had all the time in our family's green salads when I was growing up.
But daikon radish is no little thing! I've bought pieces of it at the store that were over a foot long and about three inches in diameter. I've even heard that it grows wild all over in places on the east coast and threatens to overcome the native plants there because it is so hardy and resilient. It's delicious cooked in stir-fries or grated raw like carrots in salads. It's also popular in Japan as pickles, and known to be high in vitamin C.
Dish #1 — Radish with Rice:
I heated a teaspoon of sesame oil (Spectrum Naturals organic, unrefined sesame seed oil) in a medium-size frying pan, spread a layer of grated daikon radish (about 3 handfuls) on top, sprinkled a little sea salt over it, and added my leftover short-grain brown rice on top of that. Then I covered the pan with a lid and lowered the flame, allowing the radish to brown on the bottom and the rice to steam on the top.
Every time I cook this dish, it's always a little different. Sometimes the radish is even a little burned around the edges and it tastes delicious! In those cases, I'll turn off the heat, and allow it to cool down with the lid still on, so that anything stuck to the bottom of the pan becomes loosened and easy to serve.
Dish #2 — Pasta with Radish:
I placed about a cup of water (filtered well water) in a small sauce pan, added the pasta (about a half cup of Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Penne Pasta) and a small amount of unrefined sea salt (The Grain & Salt Society) and brought it to a low boil. I cooked it for about 11 minutes, stirring frequently so the pasta wouldn't stick to the bottom, until the water was thick and creamy. Then I turned off the heat and took a few spoonfuls of the fried grated radish from the other pan and mixed it in with the pasta.
It was delicious! The pasta reminded me of my childhood favorite Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (which I always requested for my birthday) and the daikon radish in both dishes was slightly salty and crispy-brown on the edges, providing interest, flavor, and texture to the dishes.
Simple, uncomplicated dishes, with only a few ingredients, that were tasty, warm, and filling. Perfect for a cold rainy evening!
